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CSU Setter The Link To On-Court Success
The Coloradoan Feature Story
Nov. 29, 2000
By Renee Carlson FORT COLLINS, Colo. - A quick, Canadian humor, natural athletic ability and ceaseless intensity are what Allie Peckham is all about. Those traits and more have made her a standout setter and the starter for the No. 6-ranked volleyball team in the nation. She leads the Colorado State University Rams as they begin the NCAA Tournament this week. CSU (30-4) was chosen as one of 16 schools nation-wide to host matches. The Rams take on Radford (28-6) at 8 p.m. Friday at Moby Arena, following the 6 p.m. match between the University of Colorado (16-11) and Georgia Tech (25-7). Peckham, a 5-foot-10 junior, knows how to compete. She thrives on the intensity and enjoys the challenge of the setter's position. Peckham directs the team with the flair of a quarterback, which seems to put her relationship to CSU football quarterback Matt Newton in perspective. The couple shares a passion for competition, for intensity and love of sport. "She's got a high-pressure position on her team, same as I do," said Newton, who has his team playing in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 29. "So she likes to talk to me about it, and I do the same with her." They also get their aggressions out on the golf course. They play often in the summer, and Peckham often wins. "Maybe four out of five times," Newton admitted. "I don't like to lose to her, but she's worse, so sometimes I let her win." Really? "Yeah, sometimes." Peckham does hate to lose, a trait she inherited/learned from her parents. Her dad and mom coached her in volleyball all the way through high school. She has good athletic genes - her maternal grandfather was an Olympian and her parents are athletically well-rounded - and stood out in several sports (basketball, soccer, golf, track). Her teammates like her for her congeniality. When she first arrived at CSU, fresh from London, Ontario, Canada, her accent and witty humor made her a hit. "She's got a great sense of humor and she's very popular with the players," CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. "Because of that, she's a very important part of this team's chemistry." Her teammates consider her a workout maniac, along with senior Krista Swartzendruber. The two always are leading the way during sprints and conditioning drills, and often do extra workouts just because they like to. That mentality came out in a humorous light during Monday's practice, when Hilbert, who also is intense but enjoys joking around with his players, didn't like what Peckham was doing during a drill. She was taking a pass that she should have let a teammate take, so Peckham could then set the ball. "If you do that again, Allie, you're going to have to do 30 crunches," Hilbert said. Then, realizing the irony of the situation, "which I know you enjoy doing. So maybe you'll have to eat fried chicken or something." Peckham also is one of the toughest on the team when it comes to pain. She has dislocated her left shoulder enough times that it can go out at any moment, causing immense pain, but when that happens, she puts it back in and often continues to play - a la Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. She will have surgery on it Dec. 20 when she returns home for the Christmas break. Her shoulder - and a sprained right ankle during last weekend's match against Arizona - haven't kept her from improving this year. She was named the top setter in the Mountain West Conference and is directly responsible for the Rams' hitting percentage of .305, which is fifth-best in the nation. She often takes the heat from Hilbert when the team isn't doing what it should. That's because he sees Peckham as the link between his coaching and the Rams' on-court performance. And it's a result of her position being similar to a quarterback in football. "We've had to work on some things and I've learned to deal with it," Peckham said. "I've learned a lot from Tom. We've worked a lot on talking with one another." A setter's job is not just to set the ball. It's much more complex. She needs to know the blocking tendencies of the opposing team so she can try to catch them off guard and get prime hitting opportunities for the Rams. She is responsible for the game's tempo - whether the sets are quick and low or slow and high. She needs to make split-second decisions about who to set the ball to, based on who is hot, where the pass is coming from and what the other team is doing. It's a job Peckham enjoys. "I like being the one who can control the play," she said. "You control the game and who gets the ball." Hilbert has been impressed with her. He says he wouldn't trade her - or any of the other Rams - for any player in the country.
"I think she's a fabulous player," Hilbert said. "Her improvements this year have been unbelievable. Her ability to move the ball and make tactical decisions is great."
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