Date: Fri 13-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Volleyball-Preview

Full Text:

Volleyball Preview - 1996

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

Potential.

It's a word that has been thrown around a lot the past few years when there

was talk of the Newtown High School volleyball team, but each year that word

lost a little bit of its meaning until it became a word that didn't really

mean anything at all because it never quite correlated itself into any

significant accomplishments.

Co-captain Leigh Hoppmeyer said, " We kept hearing about how much potential we

had and then we would go out on the court and break down. I'm sick of hearing

the word potential, " while co-captain Kristin Denninger added, " It's time to

start acting on it. "

Helping them in that regard will be new coach Nell Lynch, a teacher at the

Newtown Middle School and a proven winner on the volleyball floor. She played

four years for Amity High School in Woodbridge, with Amity winning a CIAC

state championship three of those years, and then spent four years on a full

scholarship playing volleyball for the Division I University of Connecticut.

After graduating, coach Lynch spent four years as the assistant/junior varsity

coach at Amity High, helping lead the team to two CIAC state championships.

And now she is here, taking over the reigns for Russ Weiss, who has stepped

aside the coach the junior varsity team.

" I think the girls are great, " said coach Lynch. " Not only are they good

kids, really nice kids with a lot of energy, but they are good athletes. They

have a desire to play and they can be very, very good. If they are pushed in

the right direction, they will be very good, and that's what I'm hoping to do

for them. "

The Lady Nighthawks (then the Lady Indians) finished 9-10 a year ago, but

there still remains the bad aftertaste of four or five losses that should

never have occurred.

" It's hard to look back and see all the potential we had and know we could

have done better than that, " said Denninger, " but I don't want that to

hinder what we are trying to do this year. "

And what the Lady Nighthawks will be trying to do this year is win a

South-West Conference championship. Noticeable drop offs in the talent level

at rival schools fuels part of that idea, but so does their pre-season

performance and the way the Lady Nighthawks beat Amity and Darien a week ago

in pre-season tournament action.

Amity and Darien, by the way, were the CIAC Class L and Class M state

champions a year ago. And that, coupled with the thought of their win over a

Massachusetts team which was 25-0 a year ago, is the reason for the very high

expectations. " This year we're expecting to be winners, " said Hoppmeyer. "

We know what's out there and we know the competition and we know that we're

better than most of the teams we're going to be playing. We have already said

we want to win the SWCs. That's our goal, so it's a little different in

practice when that is what we're looking at. "

And it's what other teams might be forced to look at . . . in the reverse. The

Lady Nighthawks return five-sixths of their starting unit, with Denninger and

Hoppmeyer providing the foundation for a very strong cast that includes Jenn

Corkum, Carrie Phillip, Delphine Tuot and newcomer Dee Conley, a transfer

student from Ohio.

On the bench, the depth chart will have the names Kristin Kowalchuk, Alicia

Caldwell, Jessica Hoffman, Sylvie Ellen, Jennifer Swiatowicz, and Michele

DeLuca. " I think we are more focussed, " said Denninger. " Nell is trying to

tell us we don't know how to lose anymore. We have to win. I think we're

starting to get the mentality that we can win and when we don't, it's going to

hurt us. "

But it doesn't look like the Lady Nighthawks will be nursing a lot of wounds.

Many played in the Junior Olympics, a higher level of competition than high

school, which gives them the added time to become accustomed to the new

rotational schemes instituted last year. Hoppmeyer has the added experience -

the added thrill - of having spent some time in San Jose, California, with the

first Connecticut team to qualify for the Junior Nationals.

The potential - darn, there's that word again - is there.

" If we work as hard as we can, " said Denninger, " then there's not a doubt

that we can do it. "

Schedule

All home matches (including junior varsity) will begin at 3:30 pm unless

otherwise noted.

SEPT 11, at New Fairfield; 12, at Joel Barlow; 16, NOTRE DAME; 20, at New

Milford; 24, KOLBE-CATHEDRAL; 26, at Nonnewaug; 28, at Jonathan Law, 10 am;

30, at Pomperaug, 5 pm.

OCT 2, LAURALTON HALL; 4, FORAN; 7, BETHEL; 9, at Bunnell, 5:30 pm; 11, at

Weston; 14, DANBURY, 15, at Masuk; 17, BROOKFIELD, 21, STRATFORD.