OU Volleyball Team Begins Regular Season Friday in California

Aug. 30, 1999

Sooners Open 1999 Season at Cal Poly Tournament in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The University of Oklahoma volleyball team begins its 1999 campaign at the Cal Poly Tournament, Sept. 3-4, in San Luis, Obispo, Calif. Its first match of the two-day tournament will be versus San Francisco at Mott Gym at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 3. Saturday's action features OU against Wichita State and Cal Poly at 1 and 9 p.m., respectively.

The Sooners, who finished with a 10-22 record and a 4-16 mark in the Big 12 last year, return four of six starters and welcome sophomores Chantae Weathers and Danielle Cornelius-Bookout back to the court. Weathers and Cornelius-Bookout were both Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 selections as high school seniors and are expected to be starters this season.

Looking at the Opponents
San Francisco: This will also be the Dons' first regular-season match of the 1999 season. Last year, San Francisco finished with a 1-29 overall record and experienced a winless 0-14 performance in the West Coast Conference. The Dons, who only have one senior on the team, return eight letterwinners, including five starters. The top returning player is senior Casie Lomax. The 6-0 outside hitter averaged 2.86 kills and 1.97 digs per game last year. For more information on San Francisco, please visit its website at: www.usfdons.com.

Wichita State: The Shockers will face the Sooners in consecutive tournaments early this season. Besides the match at 1 p.m. this Saturday, Wichita State will battle OU in the Sooner Invitational at noon Saturday, Sept . 11, in the OU Field House. The Shockers will begin their season at this weekend's tournament against host Cal Poly. The Shockers return four starters from last year's 17-17 team. They finished in fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference with an 11-7 record. WSU's top returning player is junior Jan Meloy, who last year compiled 474 kills and 363 digs on her way to being named to the All-Valley second team. For more information, please visit WSU's website at: www.twsu.edu.

Cal Poly: The host school of the tournament, Cal Poly will play Wichita State and San Francisco before facing OU. Last season, the Mustangs finished with an 18-9 overall record and an 8-8 Big West West Conference record (fourth place). Cal Poly returns eight letterwinners, including three starters, and is led by middle blocker and All-Big West first-teamer Kari DeSoto. The 6-3 senior led Cal Poly in nearly every offensive category, including kills (343), attack percentage (.355) and blocks (132). For more information on the Mustangs, visit their athletic website: www.calpoly.edu/athletic.

The Series:
OU owns a 2-0 edge over San Francisco, but the two schools have not met since Sept. 19, 1987, when the Sooners defeated the Dons, 3-1. OU and WSU split their two matches last year. The Shockers won the first match in Wichita, 3-1, and the Sooners took the second meeting, 3-0, in Norman. OU is 18-3 all-time against the Shockers. This will be the first-ever meeting between Oklahoma and Cal Poly.

Sooners Open Home Schedule in Sooner Invitational on Labor Day Weekend
After traveling to California this weekend for the Cal Poly Tournnament, OU will host its own tournament, the Sooner Invitational, on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 10-11. Three other schools, Arkansas Little-Rock, Wichita State and Wyoming, will join the Sooners for the tournament on Labor Day weekend at the OU Field House in Norman.

Oklahoma will open the tournament at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, against Arkansas Little-Rock. The Sooners' second and third matches of the tournament will be held prior to OU's opening home football game (scheduled for 6:30 p.m.) on Saturday, Sept. 11. The Sooners will face Wichita State at noon and Wyoming at 5 p.m.

Pabst Signs Solid 1999 Recruiting Class
On April 16, 1999, Head Coach Miles Pabst announced the signing of four recruits to national letters of intent, as well as the addition of a top transfer. The newcomers consist of four middle blockers and one setter. Two of the student-athletes hail from Oklahoma.

Pabst, who is entering his 22nd season with the Sooner program, welcomes Oklahoma natives Patrice Corbin (Tulsa) and Elizabeth Newman (Tulsa), plus highly recruited LaKeisha Broom (Birmingham, Ala.), Johnetta Hayes (Houston, Texas) and Cathy Cook (University of Portland/Irvine, Calif.). "This is one of the best recruiting classes that we've had in terms of experience and potential to play right away," Pabst said.

OU Celebrating 25 Years of Volleyball
The University of Oklahoma volleyball program is celebrating its silver anniversary this season. In its 25 years of existence, OU has become a solid and competitive program, mostly under the direction of Head Coach Miles Pabst. He replaced Amy Dahl, who coached at OU between 1974-77.

In 1978, Pabst inherited a struggling program and in his first season, the Sooners finished with a school record 50 victories (50-24). In his 21 years of service at OU, Pabst has compiled a 428-367-1 overall record. He has led the Sooners to three NCAA appearances, including a trip to the NCAA regional playoffs in 1988. OU's last appearance in the NCAA Tournament was in 1997. The Sooners defeated Houston, 3-0, in the opening round before losing to eventual national champion Stanford in the second round.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Volleyball Team Begins Regular Season Friday in California

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors