A year after getting his feet wet during his first year as a
head coach of a Division I volleyball program, Jozsef Forman has higher
expectations for a team that returns the bulk of their line-up.
Forman looks to the setter to set the tone and he has an experienced
floor general in senior Jaci Bayley. The product of Irvine, Calif.
ranks third in UNO school history with 3,110 assists during her career. Last
season, Bayley strung together a pair of back to back 50 assist performances on
two occasions while averaging 9.34 assists per set on the season.
Bayley will be backed up by another Californian, Cassidy
Asebroek. The 5-9 sophomore recorded 10 or more assists in 10 matches. A high
of 32 assists occurred at Arkansas
State for Asebroek who
had a streak of five consecutive matches with 10 or more assists to open up
conference play.
When Bayley is not keeping opponents guessing when attacking
on her own, the setter has a few offensive weapons to pass the ball to led by
returning outside hitters Dobrilla Kovacevic and Lindsey Loyd.
Kovacevic, a 5-10 senior, was hampered by an ankle injury
early in the 2007 season. She recovered to finish third on the team in kills
with 325 while averaging 3.49 kills a set. The native of Serbia led the
team in double-doubles with nine, increasing her career total to 22.
Following a summer appearance with the USA/BiP development
team in the 2008 Global Challenge in Pula,
Croatia, the
5-11 Loyd will look to build on a season in which she totaled 377 kills while
averaging 3.19 kills a set. The Houston,
Texas native led the Privateers
with 22 matches in which she reached double-figures in kills.
Joining the two heavy hitters are two other outside hitters
including a returning senior in Lauren Loeffelholz. Another talented player joins the outside attack as freshman Maria Szivos makes her Privateer debut this year.
Szivos, standing at 6-2, brings international experience
having led her Godollo club team to the Hungarian junior national championships
in 2007 after representing the Hungarian junior national team in the 2005
European Juniors.
In the middle, Forman returns a pair of Texans in 5-11
starter Kaley Hubbard and 6-1 reserve Heather Ford. Hubbard, a native of
Sweeney emerged as a starter and had six blocks in the defining home win
against Western Kentucky while Ford, from Houston,
ranked fourth on the team in blocks.
Bolstering the middle in place of departed senior Emily
Kelly is 6-3 freshman Edina Dobi and 6-2 junior Kimberly Watson. Dobi was a
member of the Hungarian junior national team at the U18 championships in 2004
while Watson transfers to the Lakefront from Howard University
in the MEAC, where she averaged 1.11 blocks per contest.
Defensively, Forman has a returning starter Nicky Valenti, a
sophomore libero that comes to the Lakefront from Cabrini HS in New Orleans
The 5-5 Valenti went a long way towards establishing herself
as one of the top libero in school history last year as a freshman. Her 531
digs rank as the top performance by a freshman in the UNO record book, a mark
that puts her third all time in digs in an individual season.
Valenti also ranked third in digs per set. Her mark of 4.46
digs each frame were also the top mark for a UNO freshman, besting the 3.23 of
Jamie Ragas in 1992.
With only nine contests at home this season, Coach Forman
will need his squad to show their mettle on the road as they work to live up to
the expectations set forth for them as they make their ascent of the SBC
mountain.
