Leaving South Dakota State, Looking for Beach Gold

#2 posting 8.8.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Former Gopher Nicole Branagh is looking for gold on the beach at Beijing. This is teammate Elaine Youngs third Olympics. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press and NBC.

MORE OLYMPICS
American indoor volleyball coach Jenny Lang Ping has returned to Beijing. Here is a press conference along with the men's indoor coach.

LEAVING SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
SDSU has had two players leave (and one verbal) after coach Andrew Palileo left for Washington State. They only have one player with 45 kills returning. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

PRESEASON OUTLOOKS
The first official practices start tomorrow for colleges.
Indiana has released their preseason preview.

Iowa State is hoping to return to the NCAA tournament for the third straight time.

Rhode Island is picked to finish 4th in the Atlantic 10 West (?) division. Jillian Bekke of Cretin-Derham Hall plays for the Rams.

Ohio starts their practice at 9 am Saturday.

COACHING NEWS
Stephanie Blackburn of Ohio University '07 will be a volunteer assistant at Ohio State. OSU coach Geoff Carlston was the coach at Ohio previously. Shane Wilkinson has been named director of volleyball operations.

TELEVISION
Wisconsin will be on national television five times, four times on the Big 10 Network, once on ESPN2.

Next up: tomorrow, unless news breaks