Vets,freshmen rebuild season

The Lady Flames Volleyball

Team learned a toughlesson: the team-building process is often frustrating and difficult— especially when tryingtobuilda Division-Ivolleyball program with inexperienced players

Competing inseven tournaments,theLady Flamesbattled several Division I teams — the University of Virginia, James Madison University, Virginia Tech, Radford University— as it fought to achieve a 16-26record on thetough road to Division-I status.

Unpredictability characterized the team's performance throughout the season because of that combination of experience and inexperience.

The team spent much ofthe season working on coordination The task was a difficult one because of the unusually largenumber ofnew players including freshmen KarriLeBlanc, Kathy Guetterman, Beth Berland,Julie Sitler, Tammy Rapp and Chrissie Belden.

Easingtheadjustment period were seniors Carrie Shattuck, Katherine Kornachuck and Lisa Yovan,who added depth with theirexperience

First-time Head Coach Roy Yarborough, who has coached college athletics for seven years, ledthe team while assistantsJeffJack and Patty Lunn motivated and sharpened skills

SotheLady Flamesdidn't win a lot of volleyball games in 1985. But they got to exchange spikes with the best, c and they learned. §

Against the UniversityofVirginiaat home (left), the Lady Flames lost— but not without afight. In otheraction,Kathy Guetterman and Patty Close (lower left) and Katherine Kornachuck (lower middle) leap to block shots KariLeBlanc (lowerright) hits