Date: Fri 08-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Volleyball-Preview-1995

Full Text:

Volleyball Preview 1995

How do you replace someone like Alison Bernstein?

That's the most imposing question Newtown High School volleyball coach Russ

Weiss had to deal with when discussion the prospects for his team during the

1995 season.

How do you replace someone who played the game with reckless abandon, who

played with exhaustive energy, who threw her body around the gym as if the

floor were cushioned, who seemed to dig every ball of the floor and blocked

every hitter who tried to spike one over her head?

Good question.

" Well, " said coach Weiss, " I have Leah (Hoppemeyer, who transferred from

Illinois late last season). She's a good setter. She doesn't have the

quickness that Ali had, but she has the skills and she has the attitude. She

also has the ability, so I'm not going to be hurting too much there. "

Having senior co-captain Erica Hanson - who has the ability to dig, set, and

hit - back on the court will be a comfort.

But if coach Weiss can get beyond the loss of Ali B, then he has to deal with

the thoughts of replacing a pair of front-line hitters and blockers like Lysha

Lockwood and Alison Stephenson.

And the only way he can console himself there is with the thought that he

didn't lost his junior co-captain Kristin Denninger, who, with another summer

of work to her credit, should be one of the best blockers and more fearsome

spikers in the new South-West Conference.

To help make his Lady Indians competitive in the SWC, coach Weiss will have to

mix in with the front-line ability of Denninger, the setting skills of

Hoppemeyer and the all-around capability of Hanson, a smattering of varsity

experience in the persons of Delphine Tuot, Jocelyn Wilcynski, and Rochelle

Auriemme. The rest of the varsity players are relatively untested but there

are some, like Sylvie Ellen and sophomore Amanda Lockwood, the sister of

departed spiker Lysha Lockwood, who show some fine promise.

" No question, " coach Weiss agreed. " We'll have what you call a young team.

The main thing will be the overall experience. That's where I'm hurting - the

experience these guys would have playing together as a team. "

The Lady Indians finished with an exceptional 12-4 record a year ago

(including a thrilling win over Joel Barlow), but suffered shocking losses in

the Western Connecticut Conference semi-finals (a sweep at the hands of the

Lady Falcons of Barlow) and the first round of the CIAC Class L tournament (a

lethargic loss to the lowest seed in Class L, Danbury), and coach Weiss will

have to try and banish the memory of that disappointment with a smaller,

younger, and less experienced team in a new conference.

" It's going to be interesting, " coach Weiss admitted. " My main goal would

be to make .500. I don't know how this new league is going to turn out. We

only play each team one time and if we lose to them, and they're in our

division, it's going to hurt. "

And it will hurt bad enough having to go up against teams like Lauralton Hall

and Foran, two of the stronger volleyball programs from the now defunct CCIAC

conference.