As anticipated, TCU (4-30) stuggled in its 1st year of Volleyball. The TCU roster was comprised of eight freshmen and one sophomore
TCU freshman middle blocker Jill Pape ranked No. 8 in the nation averaging 5.28 kills- per-game with 639 kills this season. She also led the WAC the entire season with a 4.72 kills-per- game average and 369 kills. Pape was instrumental in the VolleyFrogs first WAC victory against SMU with 35 kills. She holds the two highest single-match kill totals in the WAC this season with 37 kills vs. SMU on 9/7 and 33 kills vs. SW Louisiana on 9/14.
Freshman setter Annie Gant, who passed the 1000-assist mark during the Nov 13th match vs. SMU finished the season 10th in the WAC with 1143 assists and a 9.45 assrst-per-game average
Sophomore outside hitter Shannon Cooper was 1lth in the WAC with 372 digs and a 3.07 dig-per-game avg.
Keynoting THE VOLLEYFROGS
Kill Leaders
Jill Pape 639
Erin Findley 236
Shannon Cooper 177
Single-Match High Kills:
Jill Pape 37 vs. SMU
Dig Leaders:
Shannon Cooper 372
Annie Gant 274
Jill Pape 240
Assist Leader:
Annie Gant 1143
Block Leaders
Jessica Rangel 84
Jill Pape 68
Sandy Troudt -About the 1996 Season-
"This team was composed of eight freshman and one sophomore, not one player had intercollegiate experience prior to this season. This team did not ever get used to losing and felt each loss wholeheartedly, and yet came back and fought again in each match. This team at any time could have folded, "bagged," or given up on the season, the coaching staff, or themselves, yet they did not."
Some positives looking back on this year
· Two victories at the TCU Invitational
· 1st WAC road victory vs. SMU
· Jill leading the WAC the entire season
and finishing #8 in the nation with a 5.28
kills-per-game average
· Annie leading the VolleyFrogs in assists,
finishing 10th in the WAC with a 9.45 assist-per-game average, and leading the
team to a .135 team attack percentage.
· The VolleyFrogs finishing 9th in the WAC
with a 13.89 digs-per-game average
"The VolleyFrogs were playing their best
volleyball of the season in a five-game loss
(12-15 in the fifth game) to Rice at TCU on
November 22."
"This group of players established a work ethic that is necessary for the foundation that we intend to build our program on.
"All of the nine players virtually finished the season without missing any action due to injury or illness."
"Numerous individuals spoke to me about the amount of emotion and heart this team played with throughout the entire season. It is difficult to determine if a team has heart or not when you are a part of the program. But I do know that this group of athletes gave everything they had for the program, the team, and for each other. Time will tell if we can really call this effort "heart" or not"