FAMU volleyball dropped its season opener to Florida State yesterday after being swept in three sets (25-13, 25-15, 25-16). FAMU extended its all-time winning streak to 20-0.
The Lady Rattlers were dominated in all categories, including kills 28, 27 to their 40 total to 36 in assists and zero to seven in team blocks.
FAMU will face Stetson today at 10:00 a.m. in Day Two of the FSU Invitational.
I heard that the girls didn't even have uniforms...the bottoms that they were using was their own...Also I know that we had a prep really friday night but you mean to tell me our sorry cheerleaders couldn't split their group up and send half of them over to FSU...a five minute drive and no cheerleaders. Just sorry.
ReplyDeleteunacceptable
ReplyDeleteIn light of recent events, this loss was to be expected. Either we will come into our own again in the middle of the season or we can count on our glory days for the next year. All in all, we have an excellent coach and amazing recruiter. I do believe that we need to recruit more domestic students so that the NCAA thing won't happen again. We also just lost our best player last week because she got homesick. Other than that, our strongest players were from overseas. They didn't look like the team we know because that wasn't our team. I'm guessing that the uniform problem came about because we didn't solidify our team up until a couple of days ago.
ReplyDeleteFAMU volleyball coach going for 100th straight MEAC win
By St. Clair Murraine
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
All of the great expectations that volleyball coach Tony Trifonov had for the coming season took a spike when two of his overseas recruits couldn’t gain admission to FAMU.
Instead of sulking, Trifonov has done a little shuffling with his undermanned team. With any luck, he might still have a team good enough to get him to the 100-win plateau in the MEAC.
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“Whatever happens, happens,” said Trifonov, who needs one more MEAC victory to extend his consecutive win streak in the league and reach the milestone. “I’m not worried too much about the streak.”
One of the more pressing matters Trifonov has to address is molding 5-foot-5 Susan Egoavil into a setter. She was moved from libero on the back row to the front-court position after Zaira Monzo decided not to struggle with homesickness and left FAMU.
Egoavil has proven defensive skills that earned her a spot on the 2007 All-MEAC pre-season first team. But she now has to find ways to be effective in spite of her lack of heighth.
She welcomes the challenge, though.
“I just try to work hard and do what coach tells me,” Egoavil said. “I work hard each practice and try to do well.”
Without the players Trifonov had expected from Serbia and Peru, he tried recruiting through open tryouts. He didn’t get a single reply to fliers that were posted around campus.
The mix of five returning players and three walk-ons means that the Lady Rattlers will have to restore the chemistry that took the team to its seventh straight MEAC championship last year.
Egoavil thinks it’s possible to build a formidable team. The players are motivated to give their coach his milestone win and keep the MEAC streak going.
“It was a little hard because we didn’t know if new girls were going to come here,” she said. “But we are going to do well because we don’t have a choice.”
The volleyball team has won consistently for a number of years. I know volleyball is not a revenue sport, but the University really should put more money into the team. This team deserves better...
ReplyDeleteHow can you call Trifonov an amazing recruiter? The guy recruits solely from eastern europe countries using videos for christ sakes !
ReplyDeleteAnd from those videos he recruits great players! I am not equipped to perform the what-if analysis, but the international recruitment was working in our best interest, especially since the volleyball coach lacks the resources that our other sports receive for their recruiting efforts. Again, our best players had not set foot on American soil until they came to Tallahassee. Why do you think it took this long for FSU to compete with us? They didn't want to get their asses whipped! That tactic worked well because it allowed FAMU to counter the domestic talent that the larger schools normally receive by luring international players that otherwise would not have a chance to play in the US. However, this year's top recruits didn't qualify-that is why I also stated that he needs to recruit more domestic students-not because they are better, but so that we don't run into more of the same problems with the NCAA. I also agree with 10:25- the Athletic Department should put more money into our volleyball program.
ReplyDeleteTrifanov lost his assistant coach to budget cuts this year as well.
ReplyDeleteThe top recruits this year qualified as far as the NCAA is concerned, they are eligible. They did not get admitted to FAMU this year for a first time since Trifinov is at FAMU. And they were from South America, not Eastern Europe.
ReplyDeleteCoach had to go get the top talent from outside the country to be able to compete and beat Miami, Georgia, LSU, Nebraska, Maryland, North Carolina, etc. Besides, very few african-americans play the sport at that level. Combine that with complete lack of recruiting budget, the guy had not done that bad at all.
ReplyDeleteCoach T is one of the best coaches and the country and FAMU was really lucky to have him. This might be his last season though, any school will be happy to have him. Too bad, it's FAMU's lost.
ReplyDeleteOops, my bad. In the country
ReplyDeleteOnly if WE settle for that. Say it now so I don't get all crunk. I could be focused on OBAMA..!
ReplyDelete