ROCHESTER -- The Ridgewater Lady Warriors will be on familiar ground but with a new coach and little room for error when the NJCAA Division III National Women's Volleyball Championship gets underway today.
Joe Sussenguth's Lady Warriors (31-4), seeded No. 3, will play No. 6 Monroe (N.Y.) Community College at 11 a.m. today in the first of three matches in Pool B play. Ridgewater will play No. 7 Catawaba Valley (N.C.) at 2 p.m. and No. 2 Brookhaven (Texas) College at 6:30.
Each match is three 30-point games. Two teams from each pool will advance to Saturday's semifinal round at the Regional Sports Center. The national title match is at 4 p.m.
Brookhaven beat the Willmar team 3-1 for last year's championship.
Central Lakes College of Brainerd, who placed third in 2005, is the No. 1 seed. No. 4 Harper (Ill.) College also is back and will also be playing in Pool A with No. 5 Edison (Ohio) CC and No. 6 Suffolk County (N.Y.) CC.
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Other than Central Lakes, which tipped Ridgewater in a close match for the MCCC first-place trophy, Sussenguth is unfamiliar with field.
"If you meet the right coaches you might get some video to look at," said the first-year college coach, who was chosen to replace his stepmother, Val Swanson, at the helm. "Val told me little tidbits and we'll be seeing some of the same teams as a year ago, so you have some basic information to work with."
The Lady Warriors' strength has been execution.
"We have the ability to play a complete game," said Sussenguth, former coach at Minneota High School. "We're not a dominating offense, but we can find holes in the opponent's defense. A key on defense will be if Jackie (Noyes) and Hilary (Groothuis) can get their hands on balls; whether they block it or not, they can slow things down for a back row to react."
Sussenguth said his transition from high school was smoothed by the second-year players he inherited from Swanson, who compiled over 700 wins in 26 seasons at the college.
"The sophomores couldn't have been any better," said Sussenguth. "There was good chemistry on the team and they made it (his first year) a lot of fun."
One big difference, though, is in college he works alone; there is no assistant coach, so he must lead all the drills and during matches there are no second opinions on the bench.
Ashley Olson, Kayla Powers and Melissa Sterkel, libero Brittany Haas and setter/hitters Amy Ballard and Laura Suter all played on last year's team that finished second in Division III and with a 33-10 record.
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The Lady Warriors have got big contributions from Ashley Hennen and Noyes, both harvested from Sussenguth's 2005-06 Minneota team finished second in Class A.
The roster will be at 10 players for the nationals, including libero Jenna Olson of Willmar. Krystle Prodoehl, a valued 6-foot freshman reserve who can give the starting blockers a break, rolled her ankle in practice on Tuesday and will not be able to play.
The national tournament is a week later this year but that worked out well for the new coach. He was able to scout the state volleyball tournament and also watch the team he had coached until this season win a state title for first-year coach Heidi Peterson.
"That was awesome," said Sussenguth. "I was so happy for them. I'd known those seniors since they were eighth graders."
