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COLLEGE VOLLEYBAll
"Of course, we'll win the national championship."
Boldly uttered by almost anyone else, those words would end up enlarged and covering locker room walls of opponents from coast to coast. Coming from coach Teri Clemens, they are less a prediction or a challenge than they are the annual preview of her Washington University volleyball squad.
She doesn't say it for effect, nor does she say it as a boast. She says it more as the surprising reaction that the question might have any other answer.
"First, the coach has to believe it," Clemens said.
She firmly, unwaveringly believes the Bears will win their fifth consecutive NCAA Division III championship, their sixth in seven seasons. She believes it despite the graduation of All-Americans Amy Albers and Anne Quenette, despite only two seniors returning and almost half a team that never had played a college match.
"The gutsy thing to do was make us No. 1 in the preseason poll, and the other coaches around the country did," Clemens said. "But they're buzzing about this being their chance. They just shouldn't be too excited about that chance."
She's just trying to be honest. That's part...