They're a Hit
Women's volleyball team rising.
By Paul Perillo
T hree years ago, Northeastern's women's
volleyball team was among the worst in the America East conference. Today,
they may just be the best.
How did they make this transformation so quickly? Let's start with coach
Mary Kaminski. Before coming to Northeastern prior to the 1997 season,
Kaminski racked up more than 250 wins and four NCAA tournament appearances
in thirteen seasons as head coach of the women's squad at Michigan Technological
University.
Kaminski brought with her an attitude that's beginning to become part
of the Huskies' fabric. Her simple motto is borrowed from Dwight Eisenhower:
"We will accept nothing less than full victory."
But it took more than words to go from fourteen to twenty-eight wins
in two years. "Adding quality depth to our program is what's making
us better," says Kaminski.
"We've been trying to raise the bar a bit as we've gone along,
to challenge the girls to become better than they thought they could be.
I've told them all that they're capable of reaching heights that they never
dreamed of."
The Huskies finished third in America East last season, qualifying for
the conference tournament for the first time. Their 2810 record wasn't
quite good enough to win the championship, but Kaminski developed some
players who were among the league's best.
One of those is Lisa Nolan, who captured America East Player of the
Year honors last year by being the premier setter in the conference. Having
a top-notch setter rather than one who is merely good is like the difference
between having Drew Bledsoe as your quarterback rather than Scott Zolak.
Your chances of winning improve drastically as the skill of the player
in the game's most important position rises.
"Lisa is an outstanding athlete," says Kaminski. "She
is gifted beyond description. Mentally she's learned the game very well
and she's done a great job and really developed. She's clearly the key
to our team. If we can be successful enough as a team, I think it's possible
that she could be an All-America candidate."
"I'm really excited about the season coming up," says Nolan.
"We've been training all summer and are excited about the new recruits
coming in. All I really want is to win the conference and go to the NCAAs,
something that was right at our fingertips last year. If the individual
honors come, that's great. But it would mean much more to me for the team
to win."
Nolan is not the only outstanding player Kaminski has to call on. Kristin
Deatherage joined Nolan on the postseason award list last year, garnering
the America East Rookie of the Year award.
Deatherage came to N.U. from California, an area that Kaminski frequents
when recruiting. On the West Coast, volleyball is queen among women's sports.
Most of the top players there look to go to the more prominent volleyball
schools such as Stanford, UCLA, and Texas, but Kaminski tries to find some
diamonds in the rough.
"I was actually recruiting Kristin for Michigan Tech when I first
came into contact with her," says Kaminski. "She's a great athlete
who is capable of handling a variety of roles. She's also a physical therapy
student who is doing extremely well academically."
The improvements made by the team during Kaminski's tenure are extraordinary.
Two years ago, the program was ranked somewhere between 225 and 250 in
the Division I rankings, out of approximately 300 teams. Last year, Northeastern
finished the season at number 142 and was 18th in the country in attacking
percentage (the number of kills and errors divided by attempts). The team
expects those numbers to rise even higher this season.
"It's been a very rewarding experience to see all of this effort
pay off," says Nolan. "We're all really concentrating on the
season and have been working hard over the summer. Ever since we lost in
the conference tournament last November, winning it this year is all we
have in mind."
Kaminski has several other quality players to call on as well. Adrianna
DiGregorio, Jasmine Cumberbatch, Suzana Stojakovic, Elizabeth Waclawik,
and Carrie Powell all have their roles and execute them effectively. Kaminski
refers to her team as a "budding force."
"We're building a program and we're believing in it," she
says. "We took our lumps that first year playing in some highly competitive
tournaments. But we licked our wounds and didn't get frustrated. Our goal
is to win the conference championship. Last year, we qualified for it for
the first time . . . This year we need to not only go to the tourney, but
we can host it if we get the top seed. We want to win it and get to the
NCAAs." With the direction the program is headed, who can doubt them?
Taking Aim at Eagles
The students from Boston College will surely be
yelling at those from Northeastern. The schools' bands will be trying to
outdo each other throughout the game. At some point, the Northeastern followers
will likely gather in a chant that goes something like this: "Go N.U.,
beat BC, they [fill in blank here]!"
What's so strange about that, you say? It happens
at the Beanpot every year.
True, but when was the last time this happened
at a football game between N.U. and Boston College?
It was more than sixty years ago, but it will
happen again on October 2 at BC's Alumni Stadium. The game has been the
talk around Huntington Avenue all summer, with some people already calling
it the biggest football game for the Huskies since . . . well, forever.
Because Boston College is the only Division I-A
football team in New England, playing the Eagles gives Northeastern a chance
to step up a notch in competition while generating as much publicity for
a football game as the Huskies have ever had.
N.U. coach Barry Gallup says that the game came
about quicker than he anticipated, because Southern Methodist University
(SMU) last year canceled a game scheduled with the Eagles.
"We've been trying to get a I-A game for
a couple of years," explains Gallup, who enters his ninth season at
the helm. "I've known [BC athletics director] Gene DeFilippo for a
long time and I called him. I talked with him and [athletics director]
Ian [McCaw] about it and we planned to play in about three or four years,
but with SMU dropping them, it gave them an opening."
Playing Boston College
would appear to be a natural rivalry, as the teams tangle in most other
sports. The players and students know each other in many cases. The meeting
has been sold out for months as part of BC's Parents' Weekend, and Northeastern
has built its ticket sales this season around the game.
"Everybody is really excited," says
Gallup. "A game like this creates interest with alumni, faculty, students
. . . everybody. It also gives our kids a chance to see how they stack
up against the best competition. Ninety percent of our players wanted to
go to I-A schools but either weren't recruited or for whatever reason ended
up in I-AA. This is the biggest regular-season game in school history."
Two former players with more than a passing interest
in the game are Jim Murphy and Scott Mutryn. The former quarterbacks for
N.U. and BC, respectively, were both in training camp with the New England
Patriots before being cut in late August.
"It's a natural," says Murphy, who graduated
in 1998 after leading the Huskies to an 8-3 record in 1997. "The game
will draw tremendous attention in Boston. I'm looking forward to it and
hope that Scott pays me my money when it's over."
Mutryn agrees with Murphy about the impact of
the game, but of course has a different view of the possible outcome. "I'm
giving him fourteen points," says Mutryn with a laugh. "We'll
see what happens, but I'll never hear the end of it from him if we don't
win the game."
Although BC is favored, Northeastern has hope.
Many teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference play each year against a I-A opponent.
Villanova, Richmond, and James Madison all lost close games last year,
while William and Mary beat Temple midway through the season.
The game comes at a perfect time for the Huskies,
Gallup believes. "Every high school we go into to recruit, they're
talking about this game. I feel it will be a measuring stick for the program."
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