Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Salukis begin 2015 season with opening of camp on Monday
08/10/2015 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Saluki volleyball team officially began the 2015 season on Monday with the start of a two-week camp at Davies Gym. The team reported to campus on Sunday, and met at 9 a.m. on Monday for the first practice.
"I think there's a sense of excitement to get back and get in the swing of things," head coach Justin Ingram said. "We had some new things that we added right away in the first practice that we'll continue to build on during the course of the week, and then later we'll get some more technical work in, so we're excited to get this thing started."
Roster Breakdown
This year's team returns several key players from last season, with only two new additions to the squad and 13 veterans. The team consists of one freshman, eight sophomores, five juniors and one senior, Taylor Pippen. Pippen is the first player in two years to have played four consecutive years at SIU.
"Our team is really close, so once we got back this summer we were really excited to see each other and excited to play again," Pippen said. "Our chemistry is a lot better than last year just because we've played together for a year. I think this year is going to be great just because we have that team chemistry."
Returning Players
All of the Salukis' setters and attackers are returning from last year, including All-Conference selection, senior Taylor Pippen, Second Team All-Conference selection junior Meg Viggars and MVC All-Freshman selection, sophomore Andrea Estrada. The team also returns junior Hannah Kaminsky, the 2013 MVC Freshman of the Year, along with several sophomores, such as Abby Barrow, Alex Rosignol and Nellie Fredriksson, who contributed to 770 total kills by last year's freshman class, the third most by a freshman class in Saluki history since being part of the MVC.
"We have a lot of people returning with this year's team, so the excitement is certainly there to do some special things for the program," Ingram said. "The expectations go up each and every year, so it's good to have some continuity."
New Faces
The Salukis welcome two additions to the team this year with freshman Tara Routliffe of Caledon, Ontario, and junior Mariana Pilon of Sao Paulo, Brazil. With the loss of recently graduated Alex Rivera, Routliffe and Pilon will be important contributors to SIU's defensive schemes as liberos. Both stand at 5 feet, 10 inches, giving them an advantage with longer arm spans for more defensive balls and balls for reception.
Focuses at Camp
Speed and efficient use of athleticism are the team's main focuses heading into camp. At Day One of practice, Ingram emphasized the team's high level of athletic performance and ran several drills to increase speed, efficiency and serve-receive skills.
"We're fast, we can jump high, we can attack at a very high level," Ingram said. "As the camp is progressing we certainly want to increase our efficiencies with how many times we're able to play fast and increase our ability to set to three people, meaning the left, the middle and the right side within that same tempo."
Overarching Goal
Although the focus of camp is to perfect the basics to incorporate those skills into high-level matches, the team is very aware of a larger goal: winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
"I don't think it's too far out of the spectrum to be one of the top teams and have a chance to win the MVC title," Ingram said. "We have to talk about that and figure out what the pathway is to get there. The belief is certainly the biggest thing that's going to help motivate us each and every day at practice."
Looking Forward
The Salukis are set to play two scrimmages at the conclusion of each week of camp. The first will be Saturday, Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. in Davies Gym, while the second will be the following Saturday, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. in the SIU Arena. SIU's first regular season match is set for Friday, Aug. 28 as the Salukis take on Delaware at the UCF/Holiday Inn Express Invitational in Orlando, Fla. Match time is 9 a.m.
