A year ago, Sue Medley greeted the end of a winless volleyball season by packing her suitcase and hitting the road to find the players who’d make up her first recruiting class at the University of Maine.

This offseason, Medley will still hit the road. She’ll still recruit. But after posting a 12-18 record in her second year as head of the Black Bear program she reclaimed from the scrap heap in the fall of ’99, Medley’s plans are vastly different this time around.

This year, she’s looking forward to spending plenty of time in the gym.

Medley’s Black Bears will enjoy some time off until after Christmas break, but then they’ll head back to the gym for the developmental piece of college volleyball’s two-part season.

“It’s a non-traditional season in the spring,” Medley said, drawing a comparison to the fall workouts Paul Kostacopoulos’ baseball Bears stage each year.

“We’ve got 50 or 60 training dates and four competitive dates [during the spring],” she said.

And in contrast to last year, Medley’s going to be able to spend this spring semester working with virtually the same squad that will take the floor in the fall: Senior Kristi Carver is the lone regular contributor lost to graduation.

Medley said her young team progressed nicely through a season during which they went 5-11 in America East play and finished sixth in the league.

“There were times during the season that I thought we could have been more successful, competitively, but for essentially a first-year program with 10 new players, I thought we performed very well.”

The Black Bears finished two spots away from qualifying for the four-team America East post-season tournament.

Among the returning Black Bears are junior hitter Leah Voss and freshman setter Cheryl Elliott, both of whom set school records and earned America East honors.

Voss made the transition from a natural middle hitter to the outside hitter position during preseason workouts because of Medleys’ concern about the Black Bears’ ball-handling – good passing is needed in order to utilize a potent middle attack. Voss flourished in that role.

Voss finished the year as the league leader in kills and digs, and was named to the All-America East first team. In a stark indication of UMaine’s team progress, Voss piled up 505 kills on the year … and last year’s Bears managed just 159 as a team.

Elliott surpassed the school assist record early in the season and never slowed. She finished with 1,121 assists and was named to the league’s’ all-rookie team. She finished fourth in America East in assists per game.

Beals native Tricia Carver improved rapidly and earned significant playing time as the year progressed, but she broke a thumb in a late-season practice and was lost for the rest of the year.

Carver, a freshman, will not need surgery and will be ready to resume training after Thanksgiving, Medley said.

Medley said that after making a big first step, the Bears still have a lot of work to do. The coach has some goals in mind.

“The next step is to continue to develop a quality program that the University of Maine can take pride in, both on and off the court,” Medley said.

Goal No. 2 is to get out there and support and promote volleyball throughout the state,” she said.

“The third goal is to win more matches next year and qualify for the conference tournament.”

Mainers run in title meets

Several Maine runners competed in national competitions over the weekend and fared well.

Corrie Pietras of the University of Maine at Farmington finished 43rd and teammate Kate McGuire took 108th in the NAIA national championship cross country meet held at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wis.

Pietras, who ran high school track and cross country at Mattanwcook Academy in Lincoln, finished the 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes, 24 seconds. Brewer grad McGuire ran 20:17. Winner Everlyne Lagat of Malone (Ohio) College toured the course in 18:01. There were 248 finishers.

Also at Wisconsin-Parkside, Evan Graves and Shawn Berry of the University of Maine-Presque Isle finished 66th and 128th, respectively, among 245 finishers in the men’s race.

Graves ran 26:41 on the 8-kilometer course while Berry ran 27:32. Winner Alexis Sharangabo of Brevard (N.C.) College ran 25:02.

Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, Bowdoin College junior finished 16th to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Division III cross country championships.

Allison ran 25:25 over the Whitworth College course in Spokane, Washington. Tim McCoskey of North Central (Ill.) won the race in 24:47.8.

Other finishers from Maine colleges: Justin Easter of Bates was 37th in 25:47; Todd Forsgren of Bowdoin finished in 38th in 25:48.

In the women’s NCAA Division III race, the Colby women finished last in a 24-team field with 580 points.

Middlebury College won the national crown with 103 points. The Panthers’ seventh runner was Michela Adrian of Portland, who ran 19:09 and finished 48th.

Colby’s finishers were: 55. Tiffany Frazar, 19:15, 116. Katie McDonald 19:52, 123. Mary Phelps 19:55, 140. Megan Hoar 20:11, 146. Sarah Getchell 20:16, 157. Rachel Meiklejohn 20:46, 160. Kate Isley 20:53.

On the women’s side, Meredith Godreau of Bowdoin finished 88th in 19:16.5. Johanna Olson of Luther (Minn.) College won the race in 17:54.4.