Florida A&M University volleyball team prepared to start season

Rattlers Coach Tony Trifonov

Tallahassee, FL - The use of social networks has changed a lot of routines.

Coaching is no exception, at least that's the feeling of Tony Trifonov who suggested that his Florida A&M volleyball players might have paid a little too much attention to what they saw on the Internet heading into the postseason last year.

All over Facebook and Twitter much was being made of the Rattlers' chances of winning their 10th MEAC championship in 12 seasons. What was being written on the social sites might have influenced the performance of his players, said Trifonov, adding that the Internet has added a new wrinkle for coaches and how they address the psyche of their athletes.

His players didn't get on track and were eliminated in the semifinals of the conference championship tournament, a first since 1998.

Injuries and a case of the flu...

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FAMU coaches adapting to cuts

Florida A&M's Volleyball Coach Tony Trifonov has dominated the MEAC with nine consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Volleyball Championships. He has one of the smallest recruiting budgets in all of NCAA Division I, but the Lady Rattlers annually participate in the NCAA Tournament against teams with budgets at least one-hundred times greater.


While the two revenue-generating sports — football and basketball — have been able to weather the financial storm hovering over Florida A&M and stay in the recruiting hunt with their mid-major counterparts, coaches of Olympic sports have been finding ways to keep their programs competitive. From bowling to swimming, navigating the recruiting landscape could be a little bit of a landmine without enough full scholarships. But somehow bowling, tennis, softball and volleyball have done well enough to make it to the postseason in the face of cuts over the past three years.

Even men's and women's track have been able to get a handful of athletes into the NCAA regionals this past season, despite finishing in the bottom half of the standings at their conference meet. With that kind of success, there's a renewed emphasis to give more to non-revenue sports, said interim athletic director Mike Smith. "It ignites us to continue to look for ways to get them resources to enhance their recruiting effort to get the kind of athletes that we need," Smith said. "We are putting our efforts to give our coaches an opportunity to get out and recruit. They're doing a good job in looking at student-athletes that will bring success to the program.

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FAMU's successful volleyball program faces uncertain future

Getting FAMU’s volleyball team into the NCAA tournament was one of coach Tony Trifonov’s goals, but not the way he did it with a short-handed roster. Trifonov had hoped to achieve even more along the way to reaching the national tournament a week ago. He had big plans before he found out that some of the players he was banking on wouldn’t be admitted.“We were thinking that we were going to have a top-25 team and be in a position to host a regional again like we did in 2004,” he said. “The MEAC shouldn’t have been a contention for us.

“Of course we were going to play the games, but we would have been heavy, heavy favorites. At it turned out, that wasn’t the case.” Five days after FAMU was eliminated from the NCAA tournament, Trifonov is facing a future of uncertainty. He isn’t sure if Barry transfer Samara Ferraz will regain one more year of eligibility for the time she sat out to have a son. If she doesn’t there is no telling whether he’ll find a replacement who would have the same immediate impact as Ferraz did when she joined the team this season.

Trifonov’s program is one that doesn’t generate revenue and it’s caught in the current budget crunch at FAMU. As a result, he can’t get the kind of money it would take to recruit and reload the Rattlers for next season.

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FAMU volleyball's 98-game MEAC winning streak ends

FAMU Coach Tony Trifonov provides instructions to Maria Gomez, as the Lady Rattlers historic 98 game MEAC winning streak is ended by the Lady Bulldogs.





ORANGEBURG, S.C — The South Carolina State volleyball team did what no other team in the conference could do in 98 regular season matches over a 10-year period: they defeated the seven-time defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Lady Rattlers of Florida A&M, 3-1, (25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19), and thus ended what has been a dominant streak.

This was FAMU's first conference loss in seven seasons. The Lady Bulldogs (9-18, 2-2 MEAC) controlled the match from the first point and with each point thereafter, S.C. State's confidence increased. Despite dropping the third set, the Lady Bulldogs remained poised to close out FAMU (6-10, 3-1 MEAC). The Lady Bulldogs won in a team effort led by freshman middle blocker Shabree Roberson had a big game as she put down 14 kills with nine assists.

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Royster-Crockett continues career

Courtesy, Latasha Edwards, The FAMUAN

Student travels overseas to pursue professional dream in league

After being kicked off the Florida A&M University's volleyball team, Marrita Royster-Crocket could have wasted her talents, but instead she decided to take them overseas to Switzerland to pursue her dreams. Royster-Crockett was dismissed by the athletic department after being classified as academically ineligible last year.

"They told us we have to declare a major after August of our junior year to be academically eligible," said Royster-Crockett, a 20 year old, senior broadcast student from Tallahassee. "My transcript read pre-journalism instead of broadcast journalism. It was a technical error." That error cost Royster-Crockett both academically and athletically. She lost her scholarship because she was not allowed to practice and she was still unable to be a part of the team. She missed the whole season.

According to Alvin Hollins, assistant athletic director of media relations, the Athletic Department could not comment because the information is confidential. In October 2007, she was told her ineligibility was a mistake but she already missed half of the season. Royster-Crockett asked to be red shirted following the mix-up. A red shirt is when a player has five academic years, but skips a year of play without losing a year of eligibility.

Marrita Royster-Crockett was a sophomore Florida State University transfer student-athlete who earned First Team All-MEAC honors in her first season with the Lady Rattlers and made an appearance in the 2006 NCAA Championship at Florida. The 6-0/outside hitter averaged averaged 4.72 kills per game while hitting .270 and averaging 1.96 digs per game in her last season with the Lady Rattlers.

"They ended up giving me my red shirt and my coach stop contacting me," Royster-Crockett said. "They told me not to practice with the team and wait until next fall."

With a burning desire to continue her career on the court, Royster-Crockett turned to her mother Rita Buck-Crockett, a volleyball agent and two-time Olympian. Buck-Crockett decided to contact Techlaser in Cheseaux, a national team in Switzerland to prevent her daughter from ending her volleyball career.

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FAMU volleyball makes switch at setter

FAMU Coach Tony Trifonov will be working against formidable odds to win the MEAC crown and a NCAA berth with a team composed of only five returning players and three walk-ons.

Defensive star Egoavil tries to give Trifonov 100th MEAC win in a row

All the great expectations that volleyball coach Tony Trifonov had for the coming season took a spike when two of his overseas recruits couldn't gain admission to FAMU. Instead of sulking, Trifonov has done a little shuffling with his undermanned team. With any luck, he might still have a team good enough to get him to the 100-win plateau in the MEAC.

"Whatever happens, happens," said Trifonov, who needs one more MEAC victory to extend his consecutive win streak in the league and reach the milestone. "I'm not worried too much about the streak."

One of the more pressing matters Trifonov has to address is molding 5-foot-5 Susan Egoavil into a setter. She was moved from libero on the back row to the front-court position after Zaira Monzo decided not to struggle with homesickness and left FAMU. Egoavil has proven defensive skills that earned her a spot on the 2007 All-MEAC preseason first team. But she now has to find ways to be effective despite her lack of height.

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MEAC volleyball kicks off

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The 2008 MEAC volleyball season will kick off Labor Day weekend with a flurry of nonconference games. The defending champions Florida A&M, will begin its season at the Florida State Invitational against Bowling Green and Stetson.

UMES will start at the Virginia Tech Hokie Invite at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30. They will face Virginia Tech, Coastal Carolina and Winston-Salem State. Conference play will begin Oct. 3 when the northern and southern teams will face each other.

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FAMU volleyball coach eyes 100th straight league win

Excerpt from article:

Five players will return to go with three recruits and Barry State transfer Samara Ferraz. That will give him nine to get through the season in which he will be looking for his 100th consecutive MEAC victory. That’s right — 100 in a row.

With the exception of Ferraz, Trifonov recruited the three other players sight-unseen. Two are from Peru and one from Serbia. Each of the players was evaluated based on their performance as witnessed on video, said Trifonov, who is going into his 11th season. In all those years, he’s made only a handful of recruiting trips.

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Lady Rattlers takes easy win over Norfolk State

Photo: Coach Tony Trifonov provides instructions to volleyball team at last week game.

by FAMU Sports Information

FAMU goes to 2-0 in MEAC in win over Norfolk State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida A&M Volleyball team picked up their second Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference win of the season in a 3-0 romp of Norfolk State, Thursday evening at the Gaither Athletic Center in Tallahassee.

FAMU (4-5, 2-0 MEAC) made easy work of the Spartans winning game one, 30-12, and putting them away in games two and three winning 30-19.

Iva Lakic finished with a game high 13 kills, to lead the Lady Rattlers, while Jovana Blazeski added 10. Zaira Manzo led FAMU in assists with 34 and Blazeski finished with 14 digs.

NSU (4-12, 1-1 MEAC) was paced by Chantel Cherry with eight kills and 12 digs, followed by Heather Quinn with six. Solange Honore led the team in assist with 18.

The Lady Rattlers extended their Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference win streak to 93 matches.

The Lady Rattlers will travel to the Triad region this weekend, visiting Greensboro, N.C. on Saturday, Oct 6 taking North Carolina A&T and then will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C. on Sunday, Oct 7 taking on Winston-Salem State.

FAMU good enough for victory

By Heath A. Smith, DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

When it comes to conference play Florida A&M women's volleyball coach Tony Trifonov is not just looking for his team to win. With 91 consecutive MEAC victories heading into Wednesday's game against rival Bethune-Cookman, winning is not always good enough.

The Rattlers cruised to a 30-24, 30-14, 30-18 victory in their conference-opener, improving to 3-5 on the season. The game was aired on ESPNU in front of a crowd of almost 600 people at Gaither Gymnasium.

“We didn't play as well as I wanted them to play, but not many of my teams have played up to my expectations,” Trifonov said. “We played good enough to win. The kids were probably a little bit nervous about being on TV.”

The Rattlers just had too much offensive firepower for the Bethune-Cookman (2-6, 0-1). The duo of freshman Jovana Blazeski and senior Iva Lakic, both from Serbia, combined for 32 total kills.

Bethune-Cookman had 34 total kills. FAMU had 50 total kills and just 14 errors compared to 22 for Bethune-Cookman.

“We committed a lot of unforced errors,” Trifonov said. “We'll work on that and get better. We need to be a little bit more aggressive offensively. We don't have that killer instinct. We're not hitting the ball as hard.”

FAMU, behind four kills from Lakic, won the first game 30-24 but never really pulled away from the Wildcats.

Photo: FAMU's Jovana Blazeski earns one of her 15 kills in the Rattlers' sweep over Bethune-Cookman.

FAMU won the second game in more convincing fashion 30-14. Blazeski, who is playing with a torn ACL in her left knee, dominated that game with eight kills and just one error. Blazeski isn't expected to have surgery to repair the ACL until December.

“Her mobility is not all there,” Trifonov said. “She is playing with a lot of guts.” As if playing with a blown knee wasn't tough enough, Blazeski also took ball to the face in the second game.

“Volleyball can be physical, especially when someone hits you in the head,” said Lakic, interpreting for Blazeski. “She got hit in the head, but she is powerful and can survive” Lakic topped the freshman in the third and final games with nine kills, leading FAMU to 30-18 win.

“I didn't think that I played very good in this game,” Lakic said. “I saw that I had 17 kills and that was good. Coach wants us to get our percentages better individually and as a team."