Editor’s note: With a 13-1 conference record to complement a 23-7 overall record the women of Sacramento State volleyball have earned the right to host the 2005 Big Sky Tournament, which begins Thursday night. It will be the sixth time in the last eleven years the Hornets will ‘serve’ as hosts, but the first time since 2001. In light of this The State Hornet will be providing daily content dedicated to the conference and its participants.

Check back all week for more exclusive Big Sky Tournament coverage on www.statehornet.com

The teams have arrived and the Hornets Nest was buzzing with activity on Wednesday night in preparation for the 2005 Big Sky Volleyball Tournament, which begins Thursday at 5 p.m. when No. 3 seed Eastern Washington steps onto the court with No. 6 seed Weber State.

Tournament host Sacramento State has won the last three conference tournament crowns but each team coming in has a player on its team which typifies its personality and will be looking to knock the Hornets off and take the coveted trophy and NCAA tournament bid back to its campus:

Portland State outside hitter Jessica Brodie is tired of hearing about her height.

The 5-foot-6 junior has one of the hardest swings in the Big Sky but says she is often overlooked because she is the shortest player on her team, smaller than both liberos ?” a position reserved for short but defensively gifted players ?” on the Vikings’ roster.

“I don’t think people are intimidated by me when I walk in the gym at all,” Brodie said. “I wish I were 6-foot, maybe then people would be scared of me.”

Over the past two seasons Brodie has made it hard for the conference not to notice as she was named to the Big Sky second team last year and the first team this year after averaging 4.53 kills per game and leading the conference with 0.53 aces per game.

Still at the beginning of this season, Brodie says, an event took place that typifies the prevailing attitude toward her stature. She won tournament most valuable player honors at the Prairie View Classic in Texas after pounding out 64 kills over four matches and while milling around in the airport in her warm-ups she and a group of taller Vikings struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler.

“I was standing behind our tallest players,” Brodie recounts with a storyteller’s cadence, “Then he asked me what position I am and I told him I’m an outside hitter.

“Then he said, ‘You can’t be! You’re not tall enough!'”

As the story goes one of the taller teammates informed him of the MVP award, to which he replied, “I’m just going to shut my mouth then-“

“I just think that’s really funny,” Brodie said of the incident.

The Puyallup, Wash., native said she got into volleyball in junior high school ?” when she was the same size as her peers but as she progressed through the club and high school ranks, “They got taller – and I never did,” Brodie said.

This weekend Brodie looks to cast a shadow far larger than her size would suggest as the second-seeded Vikings have eyes of claiming their first Big Sky title since 1985 after being selected to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll.

“We just have to play in our system,” Brodie said. “We have worked really hard to get where we are.”

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There may as well be a photo of Eastern Washington senior middle blocker Ashley Jensen next to the word “intensity” in the dictionary.

One would have search far and wide for a more intense player in the Big Sky and Jensen and her Eagles are hoping they can parlay that into a conference championship.

“I can’t hold it back,” said Jensen whose soft voice is in start contrast to her brash on-court persona. “I wouldn’t play a sport if I couldn’t play with emotion.”

That emotion has propelled Jensen to two all-conference selections (second-team 2004 and first-team this season) in as many years at Eastern Washington after transferring from Golden West College prior to the 2004 season.

On the court Jensen is hard to miss. In addition to the towel hanging from the back of her spandex shorts Jensen is the Eagle with a focused, determined, almost angry look is on her face. After points she bounds back to the Eagle’s huddle, arms at her sides, chest up and nodding her head in a stoic manner.

Jensen said she took up volleyball after playing two years of basketball at Bonita Vista High School in her hometown of San Diego. After graduating from high school in 2002 Jensen had two decorated seasons at Golden West before Benson inked her to be an Eagle in 2004. Since then she said, she’s bonded with all of her teammates and couldn’t have had a better time.

“Even if I had a time machine – and had a better offer I wouldn’t take it,” Jensen said. “I love this team with all my heart.”

And when asked what that team needed to do to win the conference title, the “I” word came up once again.

“We need to stay together and come out intense,” Jensen said. “We just can’t let anything get to us and play with passion.”

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The transition from the hockey rink to the volleyball court has to be as arduous as it is drastic. But Montana State junior outside hitter Kim Stonehouse has done it and is putting together quite a career in volleyball in the process.

Last year Stonehouse garnered Big Sky honorable mention accolades and this season after leading her team in kills per game at 3.46 she was named to the second-team. The progression is symbolic of Stonehouse’s maturation as a player as she has developed into a force in the Big Sky.”Kim is still young in the sport of volleyball,” said Montana State coach Miya Malauulu of Stonehouse getting her start in volleyball late in high school. “Combining her growing knowledge of the sport with her athletic ability the sky is really the limit for her.”

Stonehouse was a four sport prep star at McCoy high school in her hometown of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, also playing soccer and basketball in addition to hockey and volleyball.

The lanky 6-footer said she’s had some growing pains in the sport as balls were hit out of bounds or to the back wall of the gym but credits Malauulu and the coaching staff for crafting her into the solid player she is today.

“I came in really raw,” Stonehouse said. “But (through it all) I want to learn as much as I can I work as hard as I can.”

Stonehouse’s story is not atypical of the Bobcats roster as Malauulu said the prevailing philosophy at Montana State has been to recruit athletes and in essence turn them into good volleyball players.”A lot of players on our roster were three and four sport athletes in high school,” Malauulu said. “Whereas in California you have players that focus on volleyball all year round.”

Malauulu said that Bobcats seniors Megan Zanto and Meggie Malyurek ?” both all-conference performers this season ?” fit that description.

With all the athletic ability on the court for the Bobcats, Malauulu and Stonehouse both point out, consistency is the biggest key to this weekend’s tournament matches.

“We need to put together a consistent weekend,” Malauulu said. “If we serve well, serve receive well and block tough we’ll be able to stay in system and play well.”

Outside of Sac State and Eastern Washington the Bobcats have played the most volleyball in the Big Sky in recent years, falling to either the Hornets or Eagles in the semifinals each of the past five years ?” three of those defeats coming in five-game thrillers.

“We’re going to break through one of these years,” Malauulu said.

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Much like their resident all-around stud, the Idaho State University volleyball team has to have a short memory.

Not only were the Bengals picked last in the preseason coaches poll ?” only to claw their way to the No. 5 seed ?” they suffered a slew of injuries, the biggest of which was a broken finger to Big Sky double-double leader and lone senior Felice Yocopis.

“Playing all the way around, it’s almost like you’re unconscious,” Yocopis said of the mentality she plays with. “It’s not like you’re coming out for a rotation to dwell on (a mistake) – you always have the next point.”

Likewise the Bengals ?” already so short on personnel that they don’t have enough to scrimmage against each other at full strength ?” have had little time to sulk as they’ve had to fight through injuries or illness to arguably their two best players (Zoe Belz and Yocopis) for everything they’ve achieved this season. They posted an impressive win over Portland State on the first weekend of the season and a four-game win on the final weekend at Montana to get into the tournament.

“With all the things that have happened it’s like, ‘Wow what can hold us back now?'” said Yocopis, who leads the Big Sky in kills per game at 4.35 and is third in digs per game averaging 4.7.

Added coach Mike Welch, “This team has a lost of character and they showed that the way they got into the tournament.”

When Yocopis’ question was turned around on her the Phoenix, Ariz., native replied simply with, “Nothing can hold us back.”

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Youth certainly is “serving” Weber State University’s volleyball team this season.

The Wildcats routinely started five underclassmen this season as freshmen Chelsea Bair and Brittney Bisaillon ?” both Big Sky honorable mention selections ?” and Leah Burmeister in addition to sophomores Shelby Walford and Kolbie Murphey have all paid dividends.

The leader of that youth movement is Bair and with so many underclassmen on his roster coach Al Givens said his team couldn’t help but take on that personality.

“We knew (the freshmen) would be good,” Givens said. “But they’ve been very consistent as far as freshmen are concerned. –

“(Bair) has been the glue that’s held us together.”

Bair has played in every game for the Wildcats this season and leads the team in kills averaging 3.3 per game ?” the ninth-best mark in the Big Sky.

“I knew I could come in and contribute right away,” Bair said. “I came in really excited about that.”The young Wildcats have shown a tendency to play up and down but were spry enough to knock off Portland State and Eastern Washington in the beginning of the season and later added a victory over Montana State. However, Givens said his team has experienced growing pains lately as the Wildcats went 1-8 down the stretch.

“We came out strong, but as the season wore on it really took its toll,” Givens said. “We’re just now getting mentally over that and I’m excited about that.”

Win or lose this weekend Givens definitely has players he can count on in the future.

“They’re the future of this program,” Givens said. “We’ve made a commitment to them.”

Tournament schedule

Thursday’s quarterfinals

No. 3 Eastern Washington (11-18, 5-9) vs. No. 6 Eastern Washington (21-8, 10-4), 5 p.m.

No. 4 Montana State (13-14, 7-7) vs. No. 5 Idaho State (11-17, 5-9), 7:30 p.m.

Friday’s semifinals

No. 2 Portland State (20-8, 10-4) vs. highest remaining seed, 5 p.m.

No. 1 Sac State vs. lowest remaining seed, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday’s final

Championship match, 7 p.m.