Aug. 8, 2005
SAN DIEGO - After fielding a young, inexperienced team a year ago, the SDSU volleyball team will field a squad that features 11 freshmen on its preseason roster, the largest contingent of first-year collegiate players in Aztec history. However, several of those newcomers could see significant playing time as the group is a highly skilled and talented contingent.
The freshman class is led by setter Leah Lathrop (Desert Vista HS, Phoenix) and outside hitter Alicia Waller (Cypress HS, Cypress, Calif.). Lathrop is a two-time all-state selection from Arizona who was listed as one of the top 250 seniors in the nation by prepvolleyball.com after leading Desert Vista High School to the state final.
Waller, who opted not to play high school volleyball as a senior, played four years for Team Complete Athlete (TCA) where she developed into one of the club's top players. Her TCA team competed at the Junior Olympics each of the past four years, winning the 17 division when she was named to the all-tournament team.
Joining Lathrop at the setter position is Sarah Pon, a league MVP last year at Davis Senior High School when she led the conference in assists and aces. The addition of Lathrop and Pon will provide the Aztecs with excellent depth at setter and give the coaching staff a number of options in terms of team formation and style of play.
San Diego State has added four first-year outside hitters who will push the incumbents for playing time. That quartet includes local standout Sloan Keller along with Shannon Pugh, Brianna Bowman and Kendyl Gerstenberger.
Keller (La Costa Canyon HS) and Pugh (San Marcos HS, Santa Barbara) were both all-CIF and all-county selections for their respective teams. Bowman was an all-CIF second team honoree and was named to the all-tournament team at the 2003 state championships while Gerstenberger was an all-area player at Castro Valley HS in northern California.
SDSU has shored up the middle blocker position with the addition of a pair first-year players in Tara Chambers (Calvary Chapel HS, Las Vegas) and Lindsay Helberg (Villa Park HS, Orange, Calif.). Chambers was a first-team all-league selection as well as her team's top offensive and defensive player the past two seasons. Helberg is a former all-league honoree who was the top defensive athlete on her prep squad.
Rounding out the freshman class are defensive specialists Nicole Rathman and Michelle Ferrer. Rathman was an all-league, all-region and all-state performer in Michigan at Lahser HS in Michigan where she spent her final two prep seasons after growing up in northern California. Ferrer, meanwhile, will be in her first season of collegiate volleyball although she attended SDSU last year. She was an all-league and all-CIF player at Oxnard High (Oxnard, Calif.) as a senior in 2003.
"These freshman class is a very talented one that we expect to have an immediate impact this fall," said head coach Mark Warner. "Each of them has the potential to contribute to the program's success and their abilities will add quality depth at every position, something we didn't have a lot of a year ago. I expect one or two starters to possibly emerge from this group as we move into the season."