Get Out: LIU Brooklyn Volleyball Plays #13 Oregon at Home This Monday

LIU Brooklyn volleyball is back, though much has changed since last November, when the team captured the 2014 Northeast Conference Volleyball Championship, it’s third consecutive title and ninth overall since 2004.

Opening their home schedule this Monday, 5 p.m.at the Steinberg Wellness Center, the Blackbirds will unveil a new line-up and a new coach when they face the Ducks of Oregon, currently # 13 in the latest American Volleyball Association Coaches poll.

Ken Ko, who for the past five seasons was an associate head coach at the University of San Francisco, has replaced former head coach Kyle Robinson, who left Brooklyn to become the top assistant for the University of Oklahoma’s women’s volleyball program. The most successful coach in program history, Robinson was named the 2014 NEC Coach of the Year, his fourth consecutive coach of the year award and fifth in six years.

During Robinson’s seven-year tenure the Blackbirds went 90-10 in conference play, including a NEC record 46-straight regular season wins, the longest current conference win streak in NCAA D1 athletics.

Ko will have to continue the program’s success without two of the all-time greatest players in LIU Brooklyn history.

Lost to graduation are three-time NEC Player of the Year Annika Foit — the first woman athlete in conference history to capture three consecutive Player of the Year awards — and Vera Djuric, four-time NEC Setter of the year, the only player to ever achieve this distinction.

Robinson did not leave the talent cupboard bare for his successor: senior Adriana Viñas Joy, a three-time All-Conference first team honoree, is the first-ever player to win three straight NEC Libero of the Year awards; senior outside hitter Tamara Ignic joined Viñas Joy on the 2014 All-Conference first team; and red shirt senior middle blocker Nicole Okeke led the Blackbirds last season with 111 blocks.

Newcomers Dolores Kopren, a 5-9 setter from Serbia, Jiayi Zhang, a 6-6 outside hitter from China and Viktoria Fink, a 5-10 outside hitter from Austria are available to help the Blackbirds — picked first in the 2015 NEC Preseason Coaches poll — continue their success against Northeast Conference competition.

Monday’s match against the Ducks is the first in a series of tough non-conference matches for the Blackbirds as they seek a fourth straight NCAA berth and tenth in twelve years. On September 11 and 12 LIU will host the 10th annual Blackbird Invitational, with #14 Ohio State, #17 Arizona and Syracuse traveling to Brooklyn.

The Blackbirds will open the defense of their Northeast Conference title on the road against Central Connecticut State (September 26) and Bryant (September 27) before returning home for matches against perennial NEC tournament teams Robert Morris (October 3) and Saint Francis U. (October 4).

Long Island University Brooklyn women’s volleyball versus the University of Oregon, Monday, August 31, 5 p.m. The Steinberg Wellness Center, 161 Ashland Place (between DeKalb Avenue and Willoughby Street). Admission is free. For information contact Greg Fox, LIU Associate Director of Athletics at gfox@liu.edu

PHOTO CAPTION: LIU’s Tamara Ignic in action at the 2014 NEC Championships
PHOTO CREDIT: © Bob Dea