Lady Sharks Reload To Defend National Title
After winning the national championship last year, the Miami Dade College Lady Sharks volleyball team is well aware that they are the hunted.
“[This season] is going to be tough,” said Lady Sharks Head Volleyball Coach Origenes “Kiko” Benoit. “We have like a target on our back and people are going to be shooting at us because they want to be the number one team. But it’s a challenge that we will take on and do our best.”
The Lady Sharks won 14 games last year during the regular season before going undefeated at states and nationals on the road to their national championship win against Iowa Western Community College on November 19 in Casper, Wyoming.
That magical season will be tough to duplicate. The Lady Sharks lost a great deal of talent from last year’s team. Among the departures: Alexia N. Clepf Sousa—a Brazilian setter who averaged 4.96 assists per set and 0.17 serving aces per set; blockers Deborah Constanzo and Pamela Jaime, who averaged 0.68 and 0.53 blocks per set, respectively, and right side hitter Yamilet Velazquez who received a scholarship from Columbia College in Missouri.
Two returning sophomores who are expected to provide leadership are outside hitters Massiel Matos and Sun Wenting. Both provided key production for the Lady Sharks during the national championship game versus Iowa Western Community College.
Matos, who was named the National Championship Dorothy L. Brown Most Valuable Player, filled the stat sheet, contributing 16.5 points, 15 kills and nine digs. Wenting added 13 points and 11 kills and was named to the 2016 Division I Volleyball National All-Tournament team.
But with a horde of new players, the Lady Sharks understand they will have to stress patience.
“We have to keep our mind focused and be disciplined,” said sophomore middle blocker Paula Barbosa Louro. ”Being champions is an inspiration but it’s not everything.”
The team is counting on an infusion of talent to help them in the early part of the season. Newcomers include: Setters Thayna Mendes from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Paola Pena, the only Miami-born player, and Tiziana Baumrukova—an eighteen-year-old who played in the highest division in the Czech Republic. The team will also count on three new outside hitters: Valeria Alegrias, a Colombia native, Jovana Papaz, from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Samaret Caraballo, from the Bronx, New York. Other newcomers expected to contribute immediately are middle blockers, Maria Angelica Palacio and Fiorella Murillo, who are both from Colombia.
“Deciding who is going to start is going to be a tough decision because we have so many good players,” Benoit said. ”It’s going to be very interesting as we might have one rotation one game and a totally different rotation the next one. The bench can go in and do as well as the starters.”
