Tigers Earns Fourth Trip to NCAA Tournament

December 8, 1998

The Clemson volleyball team (22-11, 10-6 ACC) earned its fourth trip in the last six seasons to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers defeated Fairfield 3-0 (15-9, 15-9, 15-5) at Penn State in the first round of the tournament, handing the Stags only their second loss of the season.

Clemson held a 17-6 blocking advantage in the match, led by Stephanie Schulz and Cindy Stern who recorded nine and eight blocks, respectively. Stern led the team with 13 kills, and Alison Coday added 11 kills. Skye Frost had 16 digs in the match.

Second-ranked Penn State (32-0) defeated Clemson 3-0 (15-2, 15-11, 15-5) in the tournament’s second round. Freshman Jodi Steffes led the Tigers, hitting .538 with 14 kills, no errors and 26 attempts. She also recorded team-highs of 11 digs and three block assists.

Tigers at the ACC Tournament ACC defending champion Clemson entered the ACC Tournament at Maryland as the number four seed. The Tigers defeated Georgia Tech 3-2 (15-12, 5-15, 16-14, 12-15, 15-13) to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.

Senior Stephanie Schulz hit .382 for the match, with 15 kills, two errors and 34 attacks. Alison Coday had 28 kills, eight errors and 77 total attempts, for a .260 hitting percentage. Seven Tigers had double-figures in digs, including Skye Frost, who led the team with 30 digs. All six Clemson starters recorded double-doubles in the match. Top-seeded North Carolina defeated Clemson 3-1 in the semi-finals, ending the Tigers’ bid for a second-straight ACC Championship. The Tigers took the first game 15-11, before dropping the next three 12-15, 5-15, 5-15. Freshman Jodi Steffes hit .310, with 12 kills, three errors and 29 attempts. She also led the team with 19 digs.

Clemson Players Earn ACC Honors Two Tigers earned all-ACC second team honors, juniors Alison Coday and Cindy Stern. Coday led Clemson with 415 kills during the regular season, including 245 versus ACC competition. She hit .290 and averaged 4.15 kills per game, ranking third in the conference. Coday was also named to the ACC all-Tournament team.

Stern ranked fourth in the league with 1.31 blocks per game, for a total of 152 blocks during the regular season. She averaged 1.35 blocks per game against ACC foes. Stern hit .265 for the regular season, with 396 kills.

Freshman Jodi Steffes was selected to the all-rookie team and was chosen ACC Rookie-of-the-Year. Steffes hit .203 for the regular season, with 226 kills. She also had 22 service aces. Against ACC competition, Steffes hit .240, with 164 kills. She recorded 205 of her 299 digs against ACC teams. Steffes is Clemson’s third Rookie-of-the-Year in the past six years.

ACC Notes Junior Alison Coday was named ACC Player-of-the-Week and Jodi Steffes was chosen co-Rookie-of-the-Week for the week of Nov. 9-15…Senior Stephanie Schulz was named co-Player-of-the-Week for the week of October 12-19 and Player-of-the-Week for October 20-26…Entering the tournament, Clemson led the ACC with 3.25 blocks per game and ranked second with 17.98 digs per game…Senior middle hitter Stephanie Schulz led the ACC with 1.60 blocks per game and ranked eighth with a .280 attack percentage…Junior Cindy Stern ranked fourth with 1.31 blocks per game…Junior Skye Frost led the ACC with 0.44 service aces per game and was third with 3.91 digs per game…Junior Alison Coday was ninth with a .278 hitting percentage and ranked third with 4.27 kills per game.

Hoover Breaks Coaching Record Head coach Jolene Jordan Hoover broke the Clemson volleyball career coaching record on Nov. 7 versus Virginia, picking up her 139th win at the helm of the Tiger program. Hoover has a 143-60 record over her six seasons at Clemson and is 236-91 in her nine years as a head coach. Hoover’s .725 winning percentage entering the season placed her 17th nationally among Division I head coaches. She ranks third among ACC coaches with 60 league wins. Only one other active ACC coach, Maryland’s Janice Kruger, ranks ahead with 80 wins.

Current Tigers Among Career Leaders With 10 block assists at Duke, senior Stephanie Schulz broke the Clemson career block assists record. She finishes her career as the Tigers’ all-time leader with 432 block assists. Schulz recorded seven kills at Georgia Tech to become the eighth player in Clemson history to reach the 1,000 career kill mark. She has 1,100 career kills, ranking seventh on Clemson’s all-time list.

Junior Cindy Stern is third on Clemson’s all-time list with 1,213 kills. She passed the 1,000 career kill plateau earlier this season at Maryland. Stern ranks third on the career block assists list with 364 block assists and is in fifth place on the career block solos list with 120 block solos.

Junior Alison Coday ranks sixth on Clemson’s career leaders list with 1,163 kills. She became the tenth player in Tiger history to tally 1,000 career kills Nov. 2 at Florida State.

Home, Sweet Home The Tigers were 12-2 in Jervey Gym this season. In the 14 matches, 11,051 fans have come out to watch Clemson, an average of 789 fans per contest. The Tigers currently rank 26th nationally in home attendance. Clemson was 13-2 at home last season. During the 15 home matches, a total of 10,502 fans gathered to watch the Tigers, giving Clemson the 28th-best home attendance figure among all NCAA schools.