Aug. 22, 2001
ATLANTA – With the begining of school on Monday, the No. 25 Georgia Tech volleyball team concluded two-a-day practices and moves into the final week of preparation before the opening weekend of play at the Utah Tournament Aug. 31-Sept. 1.
“I am very pleased with the way training camp went,” said head coach Shelton Collier. “We kept a lot of momentum from our Germany trip and our freshmen reported in very good physical shape. The combination of our returning players and our incoming freshmen has been very good for our team and overall our training camp was very succesful. I think we are ahead of schedule in terms of what we needed to get accomplished.”
Coach Collier noted in particular the impact of two new players to this years’ roster in Lauren Sauer (Huntsville, Ala.) and Lynnette Moster (Liberty, Ind.) and feels that their addition will add strength to this year’s lineup.
“Lauren has been really impressive thus far,.” said Collier. “She will start for us on the right side this season, and she has done some incredible things in our training camp to make herself a real lift for our program.”
“Lynnette Moster, the MVP of the Junior National Tournament, has come in and established herself as a top player right away at the outside hitter position and I expect great things from her all season,” said Collier.
Collier also remarked on the impressive play of returning players Kyleen Bell (Rocklin, Calif.), Kele Eveland (Grand Rapids, Mich.) , Maja Pachale (Schwerin, Germany), Amanda Hess (indianapolis, Ind.) and Keight Vincent (Duluth, Ga.).
“The leadership of Kyleen, Maja and Kele has been exceptional,” said Collier. “They have really established themselves playing at a high level. Also, an added bonus thus far has been the play of Amanda and Keight. Both of them were role players last year but both of them now have established themselves as two of our best passers and defensive players and have really stepped up their play.”
The nationally-ranked Yellow Jackets will open their season against No. 14 Utah in the opening round of the Utah Tournament on Aug. 31, followed by a match up with 2001 NCAA participant Texas Tech later that evening.
“We are going to back down on our workload in practice in the upcoming week to ensure that we are prepared when we play at Utah,” said Collier. “We are going to make sure everyone has fresh legs and is ready to play well. We are very excited about our upcoming season and want to make sure that we are confident and refined when we play in this important tournament next weekend.”
