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By Glen Willett / Staff Writer
By Glen Willett / Staff Writer
With the majority of their preseason games now complete, the Riverside City College City College women’s volleyball team (5-4) seems to be coming together just at the right time.
Heading into the 2011 season RCC was facing the daunting task of having to replace several key contributors from their 2010 squad including; middle blocker Jillian Paul (California State University, Los Angeles), outside hitter Megan Johnson (California State University, San Francisco), and setter Brittney Diffine (Shorter University/Rome, GA) who are all now continuing their volleyball careers at the university level.
After a few practices with her new team this year coach Monica Trainer had no doubt in her team’s abilities physically but said that the mental aspect of the game and the mentality that she wanted her team to take into games would still take some time to develop.
While Trainer concedes that the overall development of her team in that respect is still a work in progress, she seems nothing but confident about her team’s ability to grow together down the road.
“This is probably the deepest team that I’ve ever had here at Riverside,” Trainer said. “The outside hitter spots are already looking like they are going to be a real strength for us, and we have a first year setter (Courtney Flowers) who is still finding her way but that we have all the confidence in the world in.”
A key player returning from the 2010 team is sophomore outside hitter Robyn Miller. Miller has appeared in all 31 of the Tigers’ games and is leading the team in kills (79), has the third most digs on the team (54) and is second on the team in hitting percentage (.312) among members of the team who have played in more than eight games this year.
As freshman setter Courtney Flowers continues to develop in the middle for the Tigers she has been aided by the strong play of sophomore outside hitter Breeana Mayes. Mayes has had a very impressive all-around performance so far in 2011 for RCC.
Like Miller she has appeared in all 31 of the Tigers’ games.
She is currently leading the team in assists (123); as well as being second on the team in service aces (12), digs (65) and block assists (19).
Now that the team’s early season tournament schedule is in the rear-view mirror, the Tigers will have two home tune-up games before conference play begins.
The first of which will take place on Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. at the Huntley Gym at RCC.
