Cougars bursting with talent

By Randall Jett

Mountain State University appears to be ready for the post-Jennifer Sloan era. In fact, the Cougars volleyball squad may be overstocked with talent this season.

MSU returns six players from last year’s Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, which went 30-15 and advanced to the NAIA Region 12 tournament. Head coach Tim Berry believes his squad should be a favorite for a second straight KIAC title.

“We have a good strong foundation with our returners,” he said. “When you go from nine or 10 players to 15 — that was another one of our goals, to bring our numbers up — it’s nice to be able to reach the bench and bring somebody up that can fill in and do the job. We have depth at every position. If we get an injury, it’s not going to hurt — even if we get a couple, we’re not going to be down. We have the height and the depth and the talent on the bench to really go far this year.”

Jennifer Baltrym returns in the middle for the Cougars at middle hitter/blocker. The 6-foot-1 senior continues to provide power and intensity to the Cougars’ offense.

“Jen Baltrym is going to give us the strength in the middle,” Berry said. “She led the KIAC in kills and blocks last year.”

Senior Jesica Green will be the jack of all trades for the Cougars. She’ll play some outside hitter and set for the Cougars.

“She’s going to assume a setter’s responsibility and be a right-side hitter,” Berry said.

“We started out with her (at setter) last year and we kind of abandoned it and went from a 6-2 to a 5-1 rotation. We just didn’t have the numbers to support the 6-2 last year. This year, we have the talent to execute. We have more height and we have generally just all-around better players and we’re deep.”

Junior April Warden will move from a middle hitter spot to outside hitter this season. The former Shady Spring player has been a consistent performer for MSU.

“We feel that her ability to cut the volleyball and attack the line and block will benefit us a lot more on the outside,” Berry said.

A bonus for Berry’s squad is the return of sophomore setter Samantha Daniels. Daniels, another former Shady Spring player, had an outstanding freshman season for the Cougars. She will leave MSU in January to serve her country in the U.S. Air Force.

“This will be her last year playing,” Berry said. “She’ll go into the service in January.”

Sophomore Amber Lilly will have a little more responsibility placed on her this season. She is one of the leading candidates to replace Sloan at the libero position.

“She’s a good, strong player,” Berry said. “She’s matured a lot since last year. I think playing with Jennifer Sloan helped her a lot with being a better back row player.

Jennifer Basher provides additional firepower on the front line. The junior outside hitter appears to be fully recovered from a back injury that set her back two years ago.

“Jen is a good strong outside hitter,” Berry said. “She’ll be on the outside again this year. She brings a lot of experience. She hit real well for us last year despite some ‘little’ injuries. She’s looked real good in preseason. She’s hitting the ball well and I look for her to provide some strong numbers for us.”

Berry will be looking to Baltrym and Green to provide senior leadership and replace Sloan as the vocal leaders on the floor.

“They’re our team leaders this year,” he said. “They’ve stepped up. They realize that the number one thing that we need to reload is our back row. The leadership is going to be there this year. It’s already started.”

Replacing Sloan, who broke three NAIA national volleyball records, most digs in a season (1,434), most digs per game (9.37) and matches with 20-plus digs (37), on the court may be another matter.

Along with Lilly, junior transfer student Melissa Chapman will try to fill those shoes.

“I recruited Chapman from the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata,” Berry said. “She was a junior college all-American libero. I knew filling Sloan’s spot would be a big chore for us. I actually recruited four or five girls for the back row to work with Lilly.”

Juniors Jackelyn Bragg, Nicole Agambar and Jennifer Baker will see time in the back row rotation along with freshmen Erie Bragg and Jordan Moser.

Junior Julie McGaughram and freshmen Ashton Black and Emily Shultis will vie for front row playing time.

Black, a 6-2 middle blocker from Woodrow Wilson, has turned some heads early in workouts.

“Ashton was a little timid in the beginning,” Berry said. “Coming in, we’ve worked with her approach. We’ve gotten her hitting.

“In scrimmage, she’s really beginning to step up. She’s hitting the ball strong and actually, she’s not a bad passer. She has a good set of hands on her for a big girl. We’d like to groom her to step in when our seniors graduate.”

Berry will also have a new assistant coach, Mary McNicol, on the bench as well.

MSU opens play with an all-day scrimmage against Ohio Valley University, Southern Virginia University and either Webber International or Virginia Intermont. Matches begins Friday, Aug. 22 at 10 a.m.

The Cougars’ first home match of the regular season will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 against Bluefield College.

— E-mail:

rjett@register-herald.com