Volleyball flying blind in final preseason tournament

Adam F. Jarrold Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior middle-blocker Stephanie Venne (8) gets ready to spike the ball in last weekend's home game against Colorado State. Arizona will play against San Francisco, UNLV, and New Mexico State in this weekend's DoubleTree Invitational at McKale Center.

"We don't have as much information about these teams as we do with Pacific 10 Conference teams," said coach Dave Rubio, who has compiled a 59-14 record against unranked opponents since his arrival at Arizona. "We're looking at film on them to get an idea of what kind of problems they might present."

Arizona plays San Francisco, UNLV and New Mexico State, who are all unranked, at McKale Center this weekend during the DoubleTree Invitational. The Wildcats conclude the weekend with an exhibition match Sunday at McKale Center against the Australian National Team at 5 p.m.

"It's always fun to compete against unknown teams," senior Michelle Fanger said. "New faces bring a whole different perspective to a ball game because you see different types of players."

The Wildcats play today at noon against San Francisco and meet New Mexico State tonight at 7:30. They round out the Invitational when they play UNLV, a second-year program, tomorrow afternoon at 1:30.

Arizona has not played any of these teams since Rubio came to Arizona in 1992 and has never faced San Francisco or the Australian National Team.

"We've got three competitive teams coming in who are unknown entities," assistant coach Steve Carlat added. "We have to expect that they're going to be talented."

Setter Michaela Ebben proved how little Arizona knew about this weekend's opponents, particularly the Australian National Team.

When asked about the competition she admitted the Wildcats have little idea what to expect.

"I'd imagine they're competitive players who have been playing for a long time and guess they were a pretty experienced group," she said of the Australian team.

Actually, one of its leaders is 16-year-old Beatrice Daly, who led the team with 14 kills in a match earlier this month.

"Arizona is clearly our toughest opponent. We are a very, very young team. A lot of our players are 16, 17 and 18-year-olds but they are great ladies and terrific athletes," said Australian National Team Coach Brad Saindon, who was an assistant on the U.S. Men's National Team in 1989-90.

"We're getting ready to play in the Asian Classic so we're hoping our match against Arizona prepares us for the teams we're going to face there."

"Anytime you hear 'National Team,' you think they're great," said Fanger, who hit a career-high 16 kills against Colorado State last weekend.

Arizona's five seniors are hitting a combined .324 on the season. Fanger, Ebben and Sara Johnson each have a hitting percentage greater than .400.

"We've moved the ball around so much which is good because the other team's blockers don't know who to camp out on," Fanger said.

"I'm assuming this team is a team that will be playing in the 2000 Olympics. They'll probably be fairly large and have similar physiques to the heights of our players if not bigger," Rubio said.

The Wildcats' three Invitational opponents were a combined 18-72 last season and the Australians have yet to win a match since their tour began earlier this month.

"The big thing we need to guard against is being overconfident and looking past anybody," Rubio said. "On a veteran team with a lot of seniors, my hope is that won't happen."