The women’s volleyball team has spent the better part of the past decade experiencing a unique blend of prominence and failure, success and heartbreak.
And upon entering the job at Fairfield, new head coach Alija Pittenger knew all too well of this trend of dominating conference play in the regular season and then experiencing disappointment come November.
Pitteger was following a two-time MAAC coach of the year in C.J. Werneke, who had guided the Stags to five consecutive MAAC championship appearances,’ yet had never clinched a tournament berth.
She knew she was inheriting a team that lost an astounding eight players to either graduation or transfer, but nevertheless was still lauded with preseason awards ‘- including a rank of second in the conference in the preseason MAAC coaches’ poll.
Burdened again by expectations? Far from it.
‘We have some people with experience,’ said Pittenger. ‘We have a lot of people that know how to win and know what needs to be done.’
‘It’s not unreasonable for us to be successful,’ Pittenger added.
Rather than lamenting past shortcomings in the postseason, Pittenger enters the job with a fresh approach,’ welcoming the opportunity to coach a talented team that may be the class of the conference.
‘I haven’t really thought about it a whole lot,’ said Pittenger of the team’s past. ‘I’m more concerned with winning the matches you have in front of you. We are still a young team. We are worried about taking care of business now versus in the future.’
Despite the loss of Werneke, who only lost three conference games in his previous four seasons as head coach, Pittenger’s impressive resume shows there is little reason to expect a letdown in 2008, especially when it comes to postseason accomplishments.
Pittenger comes to Fairfield after extensive time as an assistant at Pittsburgh under head coach Chris Beerman. In that time, the Panthers reached the NCAA tournament twice and won the team’s first Big East title since 1994.
Pittenger’s postseason success, though, reaches far beyond her time behind the bench.
Cumulatively, Pittenger’s teams, either as a coach or as a player, have reached the tournament five times out of nine seasons ‘- twice as an assistant coach at Pittsburgh, and three more as a starting setter for Michigan, who reached the NCAA tournament in 1997, 1999, and 2000.
By comparison, Fairfield has only five postseason appearances beyond the MAAC tournament in the program’s history, all coming between 1997 and 2001 under coaches Todd Kress and Mitch Jacobs
Thus far, despite mixed early returns, Pittenger is overwhelmingly pleased with the team’s progress in a challenging out-of-conference schedule.
‘I think when you have a new team that hasn’t played much together, or played much in college in general, you just want to see improvements on the court,’ said Pittenger. ‘We have done a good job of improving every time (we have) played.
Given the team’s strong showings early on, the Stags likely feel more than prepared for the upcoming in-conference schedule, which begins this coming Friday night against Rider.
‘We were disappointed with some of our losses early in the season,’ said Pittenger, ‘but conference (play) is the most important part.’
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