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Bulls spotlight

By ROD GIPSON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001

Team works to stop slide in standings

TAMPA -- A few weeks ago, South Florida's volleyball squad was in the midst of a five-match winning streak. A week ago, the Bulls embarked upon perhaps their toughest weekend of competition, which left them on the losing end of two tough matches against Conference USA frontrunners Louisville and Cincinnati.

What a difference a couple of weeks can make.

One of the conference's defending division champions, the Bulls find themselves close to slipping into the lower half of the league's standings. At 9-6 overall and 3-3 in the conference, USF is in eighth place out of 16 teams. But coach Nancy Mueller remains upbeat, insisting that her team is right in the middle of the conference race despite losing three of its last five.

"It was a tough weekend and I don't know who that team was I saw on Friday night," she said. "We just weren't ready to play and it showed. I do feel better that we came out and played well against Louisville. We lost but it was still one of our best efforts of the season."

In last Friday's match, the Bearcats swept the Bulls 30-25, 30-26 and 30-23. One of the few bright spots was the play of freshman middle blocker Rachel Jobes, who had 12 kills.

Two days later, the Bulls gave a better effort but suffered a similar fate, losing 3-2 to 23rd-ranked Louisville. Outside hitter Michelle Collier bounced back from her worst match of the year with 36 kills in the 30-28, 26-30, 30-32, 30-23, 15-12 defeat. Collier's total tied Fiona Waters for fourth best in school history. "When Michelle is in a flow, she's unstoppable," Mueller said. "She really came ready to play last Sunday. And the thing is that when everyone else plays well, it makes Michelle only better."

And that is what happened against Louisville when Kelly Mathiasmeier put up 13 kills, Jolene Patton had 21 kills and the Bulls got key support from Alessandra Domingos, Jobes, Faith Tarver, Lindsay Guidish and Mary Ann Mooney.

And if anything is in the Bulls' favor, it's their remaining schedule.

Even though USF begins a four-game road trip today at Charlotte, three of the four teams are below the Bulls in the conference standings.

Saturday, USF is at East Carolina, which is followed next weekend with matches at Alabama-Birmingham and Alabama. And USF still has matches against Texas Christian, Memphis, Saint Louis and Southern Mississippi, teams all below or within striking distance of the Bulls.

So that leaves a month for the Bulls, still one of the better teams in the league, to jockey for position in the Conference USA Tournament, which begins Nov. 15 in Houston.

"We've looked at last weekend as a huge reality check for us," said Mueller, who led the Bulls to a 28-6 mark and a NCAA Tournament berth a year ago. "We can't take any team lightly in this league."

Mueller also said the Bulls have regrouped and realize the way they have to play the rest of the season.

"Here's a scary thought," she said. "If you look at the numbers from the Cincinnati and Louisville games, there are some good performances in there, just not at the same time.

"Once we get everyone on the same page, we can be tough to beat."

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