Lexi Sun attacks for the USA while playing against Germany/FIVB photo
The volleyball world has been hearing about Lexi Sun for quite some time.
Consider that she did not __play her junior year in high school for Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach, Calif., because of USA commitments.
But when she returned in 2016 for her senior season, the 6-foot-3 outside hitter helped the team go 32-8, win a CIF San Diego Section title and a berth in the state’s first Open Division semifinals.
The recipient of a horde of local, state and national accolades, Sun is the overwhelming choice as the 2016 Lucky Dog Volleyball/VolleyballMag.com girls’ high school player of the year.
“She’s the smartest player I’ve coached,” first-year Santa Fe Christian coach Amanda Miles said. “She far exceeded my expectations as a leader and a teammate. We qualified for the CIF semifinals because of the person she is, the leader she is and the work ethic she has. Lexi has the ability to take over a match. She’s one of those players you remember in your coaching career.”
While Sun’s statistics certainly are impressive (630 kills, .431 hitting percentage, 288 digs), Miles was more impressed with Sun as a person.
“It’s her character,” she said. “Her teammates absolutely love her. She gave pregame talks and spends time with her teammates off the court. Everybody trusted her and believed in her. She understands what it takes for a team to be successful.”
After playing for the USA, Lexi Sun took her junior season of high school volleyball off/NORCECA photo
Santa Fe junior defensive specialist-libero Camryn Tastad also had high praise for Sun, who is going to __play at Texas. “She’s the best teammate I’ve ever had,” Tastad said. “She pushes everybody to be better and sets a high level of intensity when she steps on the court. When she’s ready to go, the team follows suit. She was a third coach out there.
“Lexi gave us pregame speeches and got us fired up and ready to go. She was at practice early and stayed after. She always was willing to put the effort in. Lexi is never satisfied. She keeps working. It’s never good enough. She keeps pushing herself to be better and she always had a big smile on her face doing it. She’s a bright and happy kid.”
At first, Sun wasn’t exactly a willing participant in the sport.
“I played soccer when I was younger,” she said. “My parents forced me to play volleyball. I was so mad. I was literally crying and telling them I don’t want to do this. They just wanted me to try it.”
It didn’t take long for Sun to reverse course.
“I fell in love with the sport,” she said. “I was tall and could jump pretty well.”
Sun, who has been at Santa Fe since kindergarten, is a longtime member of the Coast volleyball club and gives major credit to the organization, run by Ozhan Bahrambeygui, for her development.
“I’ve had a lot of support and love from my coaches at Coast as well as from my family,” she said. “My dad has inspired me and encouraged me to work so much harder and to get better. My friends also have supported me and encouraged me to be my best.”
Sun also had high praise for Miles and assistant coach Drew Burdette (who also coaches in the Coast club program).
“They turned the program around this year and got us all on the same page and molded us into the team we became,” she said. “I think it would shock people just how much we accomplished this season. I had incredible coaches and teammates. It was so fun this season.”
Sun said taking her junior off was necessary given her hectic schedule the summer prior.
“With the youth national team we went to Peru and played. I took time off to recover and rest my body,” she said. “It was a good decision, but it also was a good decision to play my senior year.”
Sun has taken all the accolades and attention she’s received in stride.
“I just have to remember to stay humble,” she said. “My parents created a platform for me. You have to work hard for everything you are given even though people say all these things. That gives me more incentive to work hard and get better. Anything that is given to me gives me more drive to get better.”
Sun still gushes about Santa Fe Christian’s postseason run.
“We won a CIF section title and made the semifinals of state,” she said. “That was above and beyond what was expected of us. We are a really small Christian school. We had the opportunity to play some really good teams this year. It was a team effort. Without every single player on the team we wouldn’t have had any success.”
And Sun, who sports a 3.8 grade-point average at Santa Fe, downplayed her role as a superstar on the team.
“I played the role the best I could,” she said. “It’s a team sport and I played my role on the team, the one I was given, the best I could.”
Miles noted Sun helped come up with the team’s motto this season of “stay humble, hustle hard.”
“It would be easy for a player of her caliber that has played at the highest levels to take plays off and not put in the effort all the time,” she said. “That’s not Lexi. She loves the game and is a relaxed, smiley and passionate player. She’s received a lot of hype and recognition and she stays pretty humble. Lexi is extraordinary.”
Tastad has zero doubt Sun will be successful at the next level.
“For sure,” she said. “Lexi will have a huge impact on Texas as a freshman because of her skill level and her work ethic.”
If you had to make a list of most storied girls’ high school volleyball programs in the country, Chicago-based Mother McAuley most certainly would be near the top of the list.
Entering 2016, the Mighty Macs, based on the city’s south side, had won 14 state titles and earned a state trophy seven other times.
That state title count now sits at 15 after McAuley team fought through a tremendously challenging schedule that ended with a three-set win over Minooka in the Class 4A state finals on the campus of Illinois State University.
For its accomplishments, Mother McAuley is the 2016 Lucky Dog Volleyball/VolleyballMag.com national girls high school team of the year.
The tough schedule weighed on the mind of 12th-year head coach Jen DeJarld, who played at McAuley, was an assistant under legendary Mighty Macs coach Nancy Pedersen and also had two daughters (Jane, now at Boston College, and Ryann, now at Notre Dame) go through the program.
“The big question was playing the tough schedule we do every year,” said DeJarld, who played collegiately at Iowa. “We __play a pretty grueling schedule for a reason and to come away with one loss is pretty impressive. To go pretty much unscathed is not a goal, but it made the season special.”
McAuley went 4-1 at the Louisville Invitational, where its only loss of the season was to St. Joseph’s Academy of St. Louis. The Mighty Macs won a local tournament at Rich East High School, where they beat perennial power Wheaton St. Francis and then beat perennial national power Louisville Assumption twice within three days, the second of which occurred in the Mother McAuley ASICS Challenge tournament. The Mighty Macs won that prestigious tournament with victories over out-of-state foes Wahlert (Dubuque, Iowa), Assumption, Berkeley Prep (Tampa, Fla.) and Henry Clay (Lexington, Ken.).
Two days later, McAuley (40-1) beat St. Francis again and then won the west-suburban Autumnfest tournament in mid-October.
The Mighty Macs’ path to Redbird Arena and the state finals was no cakewalk, either. McAuley had to beat nationally ranked Geneva in three sets in a Class 4A supersectional in order to punch its state semifinals ticket.
“Our girls were relentless and competitive,” said DeJarld, who has a 420-67 career mark in 12 seasons at the helm (all 12 seasons of 30 or more wins and three of 40 or more). “I may have underestimated their competitiveness and drive this season.”
McAuley was powered offensively by Lucky Dog Volleyball/VolleyballMag.com All-American first-team selection Charley Niego (498 kills, 473 digs) and senior outside-right side Katie O’Connell, who had 334 kills and 434 digs. Senior libero Emma Reilly had 537 digs and DeJarld hit paydirt with sophomore setter Nancy Kane (985 assists, 270 digs, 46 blocks). Reilly and O’Connell were the team captains.
“Going into the season we had a void at the setter position,” DeJarld said. “We were hoping Nancy would be able to fill that. Being a sophomore, that’s a huge leadership role. We __play in front of 2,000 people frequently. She handled the position well and she handled the pressure well. She took off and improved every day. She was able to lead a team and direct seniors and juniors. She ran the court well and was a huge part of this success.”
Charley Niego of Mother McAuley
Niego said the team had to overcome doubts from the outside.
“At the beginning of the season we weren’t expected to be as good as we were because we lost a lot of talent,” she said. “We realized how good we were when we started beating the out-of-state teams. We had a lot of fight in us.”
McAuley was 5-1 this season in three-set matches, which included the three-set win over Minooka in the 4A final.
“We were down in a lot of third sets and never gave up,” Niego said. “We were mentally strong. We played a lot of good competition and teams from out of our state and we showed we could play against top competition.”
O’Connell said the team “was special from the very beginning.
“Everybody bought in and trusted each other. We bonded very well. We knew we lost some big seniors we relied on a lot. We knew we would have to step up and if we did that we knew we could accomplish big things. We pushed each other to get better. We played in a lot of big matches and got down by some big deficits. We never thought we would lose. We kept coming back.”
The storied history of the program is something that DeJarld never forgets.
“We try to keep the tradition going,” she said.
“This program has been an important part of my life. I was on two state title teams (1984 and 1985) and came back in 1995 and we were No. 1 in the nation. You never know if something like that is going to come along again. Now we’ve won 15 state titles. Keeping the tradition going is very important to me. Our staff has a lot of former players on it.
“It gets tougher and tougher every year because the teams we play and the players we go against keep getting stronger. It’s a big deal to be part of a program like this. I’m proud and honored to be coaching in it.”
Renee Saunders of Skutt HS in Omaha is the Lucky Dog/VBM national coach of the year
Renee Saunders is about as homegrown Omaha, Nebraska, as they come.
Saunders was a basketball and volleyball standout at Omaha Marian and played club for River City Juniors. She was named the Female Athlete of the Year by both the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald.
She went on to __play both sports at the University of Nebraska and was a member of coach Terry Pettit’s 1995 national-championship team.
Renee Saunders was on the 1995 Nebraska NCAA championship team
“Terry Pettit was a phenomenal coach,” Saunders said. “I was one of the lucky ones to have been able to learn from him.”
Saunders coached at Omaha South before moving on to her current post as the head coach at Skutt Catholic in Omaha, where she has established a powerhouse program that has won the last two Class B state titles, including this year’s as Skutt went 44-0 in matches and 105-6 in sets.
Accordingly, Saunders is the Lucky Dog Volleyball/2016 VolleyballMag.com national girls high school coach of the year. Skutt was “a phenomenal all-around well-balanced team,” Saunders said.
“These girls were the real deal. As a team we hit .351. We were well-balanced and we had a deep roster. We had great setting, great hitting, defense and serving. We did a lot of things really solid and that made us hard to beat.”
Saunders, who is 204-44 in six years at Skutt and has appeared in the last three state title matches, pointed out this year’s senior class (which had several four-year varsity players) lost a combined 17 matches during that span, nine of which came during their freshman season.
“It was a really good class that had a lot of talent,” Saunders said. “They __play club together or against each other and played in middle school together. They grew up together. They made each other better. They bought into my vision for the program 100 percent. They set their goals high and were willing to work hard to get to where they wanted to be.
“My vision for the program when I took over was to make it the best in the state. We achieved that and now it is to maintain that same standard year after year. I have high expectations for myself, my coaches and my players. These kids were willing to do whatever it took to achieve their goals.”
Skutt was powered by the senior duo of outside hitter Brooke Heyne and setter Allison Schomers, both of whom earned Super State recognition (the highest honor in Nebraska high school volleyball).
But Heyne and Schomers both are quick to point out Skutt wouldn’t be where it is today without the leadership of Saunders.
“She has an endless love for volleyball,” said Schomers, who is headed to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “Her love spreads to the team. She knows what it takes to get championships and she passes that knowledge on to us really well. She probably played the biggest role this season. She puts the lineups together, coaches us in practice and keeps us calm. Saunders is the rock behind this team. She gets us going and she knows what we need. She brings such an energy.”
Heyne, headed to Kansas State, agreed.
“She deserves a lot of credit,” she said. “This year and last year we grew so much over the course of the year and that started in summer workouts and practices. She has built the volleyball program at Skutt into a great one. She brought in a sand court so we can practice in the summer in the sand. She’s made people very aware of volleyball at our school.”
Heyne added that Saunders’ success as a high school, club and college player makes a difference with the Skutt players.
“She was in our position before,” she said. “She knows about the next level and knows what it’s all about. She can relate to you one-on-one.”
Saunders stressed her bottom-line goal at Skutt is to make sure each player has a memorable experience.
“What makes Skutt special is we make memories for our students and players,” Saunders said. “This year we added video boards to the gym so the girls got to see their pictures up on the board for a truly interactive experience. Last year and this year we made hype videos for the girls before tournaments. This past summer we went to Colorado State for a team camp. Everything we do here is to make the experience great for our kids. This is a special place to work and a special thing to be part of.
“My whole philosophy of this program is built around the concept that we work hard to achieve our goals, but the game itself is fun to play. My players smile when they play. It is not a job or chore. They love what they do and I love what I do.”
USA coach John Speraw celebrates his team's Rio Olympics quarterfinal victory over Poland/FIVB photo
There really is no down time for John Speraw.
From the UCLA men to the Olympics and, now, back to the NCAA men’s season.
Speraw was in Columbus, Ohio, both as a presenter at the AVCA Convention and also to spread the word about a new venture in which he’s involved that hopes to boost men’s volleyball in America.
After the Olympics, he said, “I got the opportunity to go to Montana for a couple of weeks to tune out and really it was the first time in my career that I needed it. The Olympic experience, it’s hard to explain, but it’s the most emotionally engaging, challenging, stressful, pressure-induced, exhilarating I’ve ever had in sport.”
The USA men won the bronze medal in Rio, pretty unlikely after getting swept by Canada and losing to Italy to open the tournament before beating Brazil, France and Mexico to get out of pool play. Then the USA beat Poland in the quarterfinals before losing to Italy in five in the semifinals. Speraw’s team capped the Olympics by beating Russia in five to win the bronze medal.
“I’ve just never seen anything like it, from watching the my players played to how our opponents played. Everybody gives literally everything they have every time on the court. And of course our journey was so challenging in that we went down 0-2 and had to come back and beat Brazil and France just to stay in the tournament. It took a ton of emotional resolve from all of us and I had to shoulder my part of that.
“So, yeah, I needed a break when it was all over.”
John Speraw and USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal enjoy a victory in Rio/FIVB photo
But when that break was over, the it was time to debrief after the Olympics and get back to UCLA.
“There were a lot of lessons that were learned from the Olympic Games, which was good. It was such a unique experience,” he said. It’s the only tournament where we __play every other day in that kind of environment.”
Speraw and his staff documented it all, and not just the Rio Games.
“It turned into a quad review,” Speraw said, “and then there’s the strategic plan we need to put into place for the next four years. That ended up coming into __play this fall. I got those two weeks off but then I got back to recruiting at UCLA and I got back to organizing for the next quad for the USA.”
He laughed.
“Like everybody else in America I work 50 weeks a year and get a couple of weeks off.”
The men’s college season gets under way in earnest next week and the Bruins were picked to finish second in both the AVCA national preseason poll (behind Ohio State) and in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (behind BYU). BYU is No. 3 in the AVCA.
Last year, UCLA lost to Ohio State in the NCAA semifinals. The Buckeyes then went on to upset top-ranked BYU in the title match. The Burins open play at Loyola in Chicago on January 3.
The MPSF poll, Speraw said, “is pretty accurate.
“BYU was a better team than we were last year. They beat us three times and they’re returning most of their starting lineup. We’re returning all of our starting lineup, but they’re still physically a remarkable team and they’re going to be better. All those guys were in the USA gym this summer. I think BYU is a really special team.
“And Long Beach. We were able to beat Long Beach last year, but every match was really close and they were incredibly young and talented and they return everybody, too.
“So I think you’ll see all those teams beating each other up and I think the level of volleyball could be even better at the top end this year.
“I think a team like Hawai’i is going to be better and a team like Stanford could surprise and Irvine’s not going to have the issues they had last year and they’re going to be better and will be back in the mix. Pepperdine had two freshmen outside hitters that are going to get better and that team will be better. SC’s going to be better. I just think everybody’s going to be a little better.”
UCLA should be better, too. The Bruins boast one of the great young players in explosive sophomore setter/hitter Micah Ma’a, who also spent time in the USA gym.
“He’s a special volleyball talent and he’s an even better person,” Speraw said. “He provides a lot of leadership for our team. We get a lot of leadership from our team. (Senior setter) Hagan Smith can do it, (senior middle) Mitch Stahl provides a ton of it.
“We’ve had to mature a lot the way we play the game. We had some injuries in the fall and couldn’t practice the way I hoped, but I think we can be better than we were last year. And we have some freshmen talent that’s going to help us.”
The Bruins will count on 6-foot-10 junior middle Oliver Martin and also some potentially impact freshmen.
“But we have a kid Daenan Gyimah (a 6-8 middle) from Canada who’s really going to be a special player for us,” Speraw said. “Whether it’s his freshman year, I don’t know. He’s touching over 12 feet and had a really great fall. I think he’s going to be really impressive for us down the road.”
But even with the start of the UCLA season, there’s still energy devoted to the Olympic team with an eye on Tokyo 2020. Speraw said he, his staff and his players have given a great deal of thought on how to manage the next four years, including who trains how and who plays what and where.
He referred to “volume management” especially for older players like right side Matt Anderson “to make sure we’re peaking in Tokyo.”
Going into 2016, “Everybody knew things were changing. And when things are changing and you’re looking at the world of elite volleyball, the margins are so thin. The level is so good and if you slip a little bit, it’s hard to win. And I think there was a lot of uncertainty if we would win. And certainly some uncertainty if we would qualify for the Olympic Games.
“So for us to have the quad we had, where we won a World League, won a World Cup, medaled at the Olympics, with a group of young guys, it was an exceptional quad in my mind.”
Longtime veteran Reid Priddy has said he will retire from indoor, and middle David Lee has hinted he might call it quits, but Speraw said he’s not sure Lee won’t be back.
“Now we go into this quad with an almost entire different feeling. Because now instead of uncertainty you know you’ve invested this time in a young group of guys and you’re optimistic it could have some payoff.
“That being said, that very thought process could get you into trouble and we have to make sure that we know that we have a lot of room to improve. We’ve got to stay as focused and as disciplined in our training in this next quad. But mostly I’m excited because I love coaching the guys.”
Which Speraw credited for the comeback in Rio.
“They were great character guys and that’s what it all came down to.”
Speraw also is involved with a partner, Wade Garard, with www.motormvb.com, which is in its infancy but will be an organization devoted to the growth of men’s and boys volleyball. We’ll have more on that later this year.
The sophomore adds this distinction to her First Team All-SSAC accolade that she earned in November.
After becoming the first Wolf Pack volleyball player to be named First Team All-SSAC since 2012 in November, Loyola University New Orleans standout middle blocker Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) added to her postseason accolades on Thursday afternoon by being named Second Team All-State by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA).
The Slidell native had a breakout year in her second season with the maroon and gold; leading the squad and ranking seventh in the league with 381 kills while sitting sixth in the conference with a .302 hitting percentage. Her 96 total blocks and 0.7 blocks per set were eighth most in the SSAC and her 2.9 kills per set were good enough for ninth in the league.
Nationally, Hartmann ended the 2016 campaign with the 48th best hitting percentage in the NAIA and the fifth highest mark in Loyola volleyball history.
In 38 matches, Hartmann notched double-digit kills 21 times, highlighted by a 20-kill performance against Middle Georgia State on September 18. She collected six blocks in a match twice this season and recorded at least one block in all but two contests throughout the year.
Hartmann becomes the second Wolf Pack volleyball player to earn Second Team All-State Honors by the LSWA in the past three seasons, joining Eva Allen who earned the honor in 2014 to go along with two career all-state honorable mention nods.
Loyola ended the 2016 season at 15-23 overall with an 8-12 mark in the SSAC. The Wolf Pack qualified for the SSAC Volleyball Championships for the third-straight time under the direction of Head Coach Angela Franke, where they went 1-2 at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex in Montgomery, Ala.
Corinne Atchison coaching the TAV 13s at USA Volleyball nationals last summer in Indianapolis/Scott Alan Giambalvo photo
There were some really good stories before then, but we decided since we launched the new VolleyballMag.com website on August 1, we’d start there.
So what were the most-read VBM stories from August 1 to now?
Well, since Ed Chan and I bought the old Volleyball magazine and converted it to a daily online publication, we’re on track for more than a million page views in the first year. In those first five months we’ve covered everything from the Olympics to the NCAA women’s season to tons of beach volleyball, with many great features in between. And not all came from the VBM staff and, interestingly, the single-most well-read piece came from a contributor.
Dan Apol watches as Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera celebrate their World Series of Beach Volleyball 2015 bronze-medal/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
No. 5 — Beach official Dan Apol
Sadly, Dan died in November. Ed’s feature on Dan before he went to Rio to officiate beach volleyball was extremely well read in August, but then viewed even more after Dan died. The original story is intact, but we topped it with information about and reaction to Dan’s death.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield talks with All-American setter Lauren Carlini during their loss to Stanford in the NCAA regional final/Wisconsin photo
No. 4 — Kelly Sheffield’s NCAA semifinals analysis
Wisconsin, as it turned out, was the only team to __play all four of the teams that advanced to the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.
So the Monday after the final four was decided, which included his own Wisconsin team losing at home in five to eventual-champion Stanford, Sheffield graciously and candidly broke down the field and the two match-ups.
Valparaiso libero/setter Morganne Longoria bump sets for the Crusaders
No 3 — Valpo libero/setter Morganne Longoria
When both setters got hurt, Valparaiso coach Carin Avery had to do something. So she called on senior libero Morganne Longoria to take over as setter — without giving up the libero jersey!
And it worked.
In his story for VBM, Aaron Leavitt profiled Longoria and the new-look Crusaders, who prospered in the unorthodox scheme. What’s more, Longoria had such a good season she made the VBM All-American third team.
Kelsey Humphreys of Stanford serves earlier this season against Washington State/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
No. 2 — Kelsey Humphreys adjusts for the greater Stanford good
And it paid off in a big way, especially on the last point of the NCAA season, as the senior perfectly bump set an out-of-system ball for the championship-point kill.
The Humphreys story has had almost 12,000 page views and was shared not only in the volleyball community, but the sports world in general because of the message. Humphreys, a senior who waiting three years to finally set, was taken out of that role in mid-season, relegated to being a server and defensive specialist.
But Stanford went on a roll after the change, all the way to the NCAA Division I Championship, where the Cardinal beat Minnesota and Stanford and Humphreys was outstanding in her role.
Humphreys admitted at first the change was hard to take and it took everything she had to bounce back, but realized she had to do what was best for the team. And after Stanford won it all, she said with excitement, “It is so worth it!”
Corinne Atchison coaching last summer/Scott Alan Giambalvo photo
No. 1 — Club coach Corinne Atchison deals with concussions
Dallas club coach Corinne Atchison had no idea that writing about her story for VBM would change her life. But a piece that has been viewed more than 15,000 times will do that, especially regarding such an important issue.
Atchison deals with concussion symptoms brought about by being hit by volleyballs. She’s doing great now, but her life was turned upside down in a terrible way after being hit in the head.
“Getting the story out there just made people more aware,” Atchison said. “And I didn’t realize how many people also had issues like it. It opened my eyes to see so many people going through the same ordeal I did. There’s more and more concern for the kids every day now. I just opened up discussion and I wasn’t expecting that.”
She’s been able to turn a negative into a positive and we caught up Tuesday, not long after she was invited to present at the AVCA Convention after the AVCA saw her story in September. Her talk “had a mix of college and club coaches and it was kind of cool because I did my talk and toward the last 15, 20 minutes it kind of turned into a roundtable discussion.
“We talked about helping USA Volleyball making it mandatory to do baseline testing and there are a lot of people on board with it. I really had no idea.”
Atchison coaches for the renowned TAV and once again will have the TAV 13s Black. She’s coached three teams to club national championships in the past four years, including the USA Volleyball 13s open last summer.
“I’m feeling a lot better. I still go through all my therapies and day by day I’m getting and stronger. Everybody around me notices little things here and there, so I’m moving in the right direction.
“A year ago I was a complete different person. I think maybe talking about it has helped me, too, just getting it out there and not holding everything in so much. It’s been nice to get the monkey off my back a little bit.”
And the volleyball world is better off because she shared her story.
Tom Black coaching LMU this past September against San Diego/LMU photo
Two major coaching openings were filled recently when Georgia hired Tom Black away from Loyola Marymount and Arizona State stayed in house and promoted assistant coach Sanja Tomasevic.
That leaves Division I openings that include LMU, Manhattan, Virginia Tech, Delaware, Indiana State, Stetson, Stony Brook, Montana, Middle Tennessee and Texas-Arlington.
Georgia gets in Black a successful coach who served as one of Karch Kiraly’s assistants the past Olympiad with the USA women’s national team.
In seven seasons at LMU, Black had a 127-86 overall record and got LMU to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including the round of 16 in 2015.
He replaced Lizzie Stemke, whose program had some tough times of late. Georgia was 13-18 this season, 1-17 in the Southeastern Conference, which followed an 0-18 SEC mark in 2015.
Georgia’s news release had this from Kiraly:
“A huge congratulations to Tom and to the University of Georgia women’s volleyball program. Tom has played a pivotal role in the development and success of our USA Women’s Team since he joined our staff in 2013, especially through his program-wide focus on learning and growth. We’ll miss him, and we wish him great luck!”
ASU coach Sanja Tomasevic
Tomasevic, a former star at Washington when the Huskies won the 2005 NCAA title, has been at ASU since she was hired by former head coach Stevie Mussie. Mussie went 12-20, 5-15 in the Pac-12, in her only season with the Sun Devils when the school abruptly fired her immediately after the season ended.
On November 27, ASU released this statement from athletic director Ray Anderson: “Sun Devil Volleyball Coach Stevie Mussie is no longer with the program. We will launch a national search immediately for her successor. SanjaTomasevic will act as interim head indoor volleyball coach with Brad Keenan continuing to serve as head beach volleyball coach.”
Tomasevic was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for ASU’s indoor program in 2016.
“Sanja is the right choice at the right time to lead our indoor volleyball program to sustainable success,” Anderson said. “I am confident she will build a culture of excellence and integrity, and provide an environment in which our student athletes will truly thrive.”
Manhattan’s Mark Jones resigned after eight seasons.
Stetson’s opening was created when the school decided to separate the indoor and beach programs. Coach Kristina Hernandez is going strictly beach.
Montana’s Brian Doyon resigned after two seasons.
Delaware fired head coach Bonnie Kenny and assistant Cindy Gregory in the middle of their 15th season in October and put Brian Toron and Dana Griskowitz in charge.
Virginia Tech’s Chris Riley left after 11 seasons.
Stony Brook fired Coley Pawlikowski after four seasons.
Indiana State fired Traci Dahl-Skinner after nine seasons.
Middle Tennessee had an early season change when Dan Ahiers resigned in September of his first season and the school and made Jeff Huebner interim head coach.
And at Texas-Arlington, a replacement has yet to be found for the only coach the program has ever had after Diane Seymour resigned after 30 years.
In Division II, Northern Michigan hired Rashinda Reed. Most recently, she had been an assistant at UAB.
Stanford coach John Dunning last May: "There are enough pieces there if we mature enough to be quite good."
Stanford won the 2016 NCAA championship as the Cardinal caught fire at midseason and got better and better, especially as it won all six matches in the NCAA Tournament, knocking off, in order, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 2 Minnesota and No. 4 Texas in the title match.
There was no doubt entering the season that Stanford could be pretty good, but it was still an unlikely choice to win it all.
Last May, we sat down with coach John Dunning in his Stanford office and did a three-part video interview. It came right in the middle of the Cardinal’s spring practice.
The first segment was a look back at 2015, a season that ended with Stanford being upset by Loyola Marymount in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal had a lot of promise for 2015, but senior All-American middle blocker Inky Ajanaku was lost for the season when she blew out her knee the previous summer while playing internationally for the USA.
The second segment was all about Ajanaku, who was returning after recovering from ACL surgery. Her story, of course is well-documented and last week she was named the VolleyballMag.com national player of the year.
And the third was about what 2016 might hold. Now that Stanford has won it all, it’s really interesting to listen to what Dunning had to say three months before the season began.
This is the segment that looks ahead to the 2016 season:
This is the segment of Dunning talking about 2015:
Creighton's Kirsten Bernthal Booth is the VBM national coach of the year
When Kirsten Bernthal Booth took over the Creighton women’s program 14 years ago, she had one major goal in mind — get her team to the NCAA Tournament. She was a long way from becoming the 2016 VolleyballMag.com national coach of the year.
Creighton finally got there in 2010 and since then the Bluejays have made it a habit of going to the big dance, with NCAA appearances in six of the last seven seasons, punctuated by this year’s run to the regional final where it lost to Texas.
But Bernthal Booth, who took over a program that went 3-22 the year before she arrived in Omaha, Neb.,admits she was a bit uneasy about her team’s prospects after a rocky non-conference start to the 2016 season.
“We were 0-3 in fifth sets during non-con and we lost two of those three very badly,” she recalled. “We seemed passive and scared. I remember telling the staff at that point I didn’t know how good we were going to be if we couldn’t handle the pressure and __play when it counts.”
Bernthal Booth’s charges became quick studies in the art of winning, going on a run that included Big East Conference regular-season and tournament titles for a third year in a row, as well as a 3-1 run in the NCAAs, with all three victories coming in five.
Creighton beat Northern Iowa and then fifth-seeded Kansas and No. 12 Michigan before getting swept by Texas. Creighton finished No. 9 in the final AVCA coaches poll, the program’s highest ever.
“It was fun seeing them learn how to win,” said Bernthal Booth, 291-153 after a 29-7 mark this season.
“During non-con, I felt like we didn’t know how to win. We got on that run in the Big East and we figured things out. We figured out how to __play with our backs against the wall. We had a great group here that was committed since we started strength and conditioning back in January.”
But ask Creighton players their opinion of Bernthal Booth as a coach and Xs and Os rank far down the list.
“She’s authentic on and off the court,” senior middle blocker Lauren Smith says. “She’s a real role model that I looked up to. Being able to build the type of close relationships she has with her players is rare in Division I volleyball. I’m beyond grateful for the work she’s put in and how willing she is to go the extra mile for the players. For her it’s about you and your life and how you leave here a better person. She’s exemplary in all facets of her life.”
Creighton sophomore outside-right side Jaali Winters was sold on Bernthal Booth since her recruiting process began in her hometown of Ankeny, Iowa.
“It’s so easy to see how authentic and genuine she is,” Winters said. “The way she talks to us, I wish every girl could hear that. She’s so inspiring and so empowering. She cares about us more as people than players.”
Winters is a particular fan of Bernthal Booth’s lunch-and-learn sessions during the preseason where the coach brings in female guest speakers to talk to the team.
“One lady from the Air Force, for lack of better words, was a bad-ass,” Winters said. “She had been through some crazy life-and-death situations and came out on top every time. It was great to hear her life experiences. Those lunch-and-learns allowed us to learn from strong women.”
Smith said because of Bernthal Booth and Creighton, “I couldn’t ask for a better place to finish growing up,” she said.
Bernthal Booth, who was was a state-champion high-school tennis player growing up in Lincoln, Neb., was a standout setter at Truman State in Missouri.
She says the secret ingredients to the sustained success she’s had at Creighton include being able to pitch many superlatives about the university to recruits as well as having good continuity on her coaching staff. Assistant Angie Oxley Behrens has been with Bernthal Booth since the beginning in Omaha.
“I would send my kids to Creighton. I believe in the experience,” Bernthal Booth said. “I’ve also had a great staff all the way through. Angie has been great. What we’ve been able to do is build a culture with great players and a great strength.
“The one thing Angie and I have been most proud of is we’ve been able to continue to take steps each year. We’re not a one-hit wonder. Our goal has been to keep building on the foundation and have the players enjoy the experience here. We’re building young women and we’re building relationships. It’s process-driven. I treat them as I would want my daughters to be treated.”
Inky Ajanaku of Stanford attacks against Minnesota in the NCAA semifinals/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Winning the national championship did not make Inky Ajanaku the VolleyballMag.com player of the year for the second time.
But it didn’t hurt.
And certainly her performance in Stanford’s six NCAA Tournament victories, including Saturday’s four-set win over Texas in the national-championship match, cemented the award for the senior from Tulsa, Okla., whose senior season became an inspiration for the college volleyball world.
Like Ajanaku, Texas freshman Micaya White had to watch from the sidelines in 2015, having to wait an extra year to get on the court. But when she did join the Longhorns in earnest, she had an incredible season and is the VolleyballMag.com national freshman of the year.
Just three days after winning it all and back in Tulsa, Ajanaku was already hitting the gym and planning her future. She’s finished with school, having earned both her undergraduate degree from Stanford in human biology and her master’s in biology.
“I feel like I still have a lot of work to do with my knee and my body and figuring out a great way to continue on my career,” Ajanaku said. “I’m really proud of the progress but I know this is not the end result and I have a vision of what I want the vision to be and it’s keeping me pretty focused.”
That might be scary to future opponents when you consider that the 6-foot-3 high-jumping middle blocker hit .407 this season. Ajanaku had 360 kills, 89 in the NCAA Tournament alone. She also had 192 blocks — 16 solo — averaging 1.54 per set.
Most likely Inky — whose father is from Nigeria and whose full name is Oyinkansola OluSeun Ajanaku — will __play professionally, but only with a team that “knows my situation.
“I want to go to a team that’s understanding and willing to work with me and that could be a really good step with me. If not, I could stay in America and still train.” She said that she’s consulted with USA women’s Olympic coach Karch Kiraly.
Certainly Ajanaku will be in the mix to __play with the national team with an eye on the 2020 Olympics. It was in the summer of 2015 when competing internationally for the USA that she blew out her knee.
It made for an exhaustive physical, mental and emotional rehab, about which Ajanaku openly discussed, especially the past few weeks in NCAA tourney news conferences.
When she arrived at The Farm in 2013, she was part of a class that included three other four-year starters in Madi Bugg, Jordan Burgess and Brittany Howard.
“I showed up and was thinking, ‘Wow. I’m incredibly unqualified to be here. I don’t know who I duped to let me into this university.’ But don’t give away the gifts that are given to you in the world even if they were addressed to the wrong person. I was really excited to be there, but I didn’t think I was going to play freshman year.”
She played. Ajanaku made the Pac-12 all-freshman team and was an AVCA honorable-mention All-American after averaging 2.42 kills and 1.23 blocks per set. It was the tip of the iceberg.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” she admitted. “I was athletic. I could put a ball down in good circumstances but I had a hard time in compromising ones. But that year did teach me a lot and the coaches’ confidence in me helped to have confidence in myself and helped propel me into the learning process of volleyball. It made me mature faster than I probably would have on my own.”
As a sophomore she was a first-team AVCA All-American (only third team for VBM) after hitting .438 and averaging 2.42 kills and 1.38 blocks.
She was the 2014 VBM national player of the year and AVCA first-teamer again after a season in which she hit .428 and averaged 3.48 kills and 1.14 blocks.
But everything changed the next summer.
“To be honest: I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life and incredibly privileged with the stuff and the opportunities that I’ve been given,” Ajanaku said. “That makes it easy for you to be confident.
“And when I tore my ACL I wasn’t confident that I was going to get back on the court, I wasn’t confident that I was going to be the player I used to be. I wasn’t confident that I wasn’t going to hurt myself going back out there.
“When I was faced with that amount of adversity where I had never really been challenged before I really had to figure out ways to grow my confidence. It felt like it had been stepped on and it was something I aways relied on. I knew I was an athletic player and knew I could be a really great teammate, but I thought that the thing that made me more successful than others was my mindset. It was my confidence and when I didn’t have that I didn’t know what kind of player I was.
“I knew from the beginning of preseason I had to get that back.”
It was a process, of course. Stanford was upset in its first match of the season, but Ajanaku had 11 kills, hit .429 and had eight blocks against San Diego. But she was up and down, sometimes putting up great numbers, but struggling at times and her slumps seemed to mirror the team’s. At one point Stanford was 10-5 overall, 4-3 in the Pac-12, before finishing 27-7, 15-5.
“But I couldn’t find that confidence halfway through the season,” Ajanaku admitted.
“I was shaken. I didn’t know how to play, I was second-guessing everything I did. I had never played like that before.”
She understands this much: “It helped me grow a lot and I feel like it helped me face other adversities I might face in life.”
None of that was lost on her Cardinal teammates.
“She’s one of the strongest individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with and knowing,” said Stanford’s Kelsey Humphreys, the team’s only other senior. “And all the struggle that she’s talking about, you would never know by the way she walkedin the gym or the way she interacted with any of our teammates.”
Stanford eventually caught fire as coach John Dunning made some lineup changes in a season filled with well-documented twists and turns, mostly caused by injuries. And after upsetting second-seeded Minnesota in the national semifinals, the sixth-seeded Cardinal knocked off Texas 25-21, 25-19, 18-25, 25-21.
Before the match, Ajanaku said she told the team that it had to play great volleyball and that win or lose that would be enough.
“She let us believe in ourselves,” Humphreys said. “She’s an amazing leader, and I think that’s part of the growth she had in her year off.”
As her teammates went wild, Ajanaku had to ponder the moment.
“It’s a cliche, but it’s really surreal,” Ajanaku said. “We had match point a couple of times and I was focused on the game that once we won I didn’t run onto the court because I was still in game mode: Next point, next point! Even though I knew we had won. I was extremely excited but I wasn’t extremely emotional because I was still in that mode and it takes me a while to come down from it.”
It took a while, but soon she felt it.
“After we got back to the hotel and we had the trophy and John gave us a little speech, I realized that this was everything I had been working for these past five years and it’s finally here. And all I could think about was how we didn’t play great volleyball in the third set and how I would change some things.”
She laughed heartily.
“But I realized how I’d wanted this championship for so long and now that I have it I realize that’s a real success if I play well and play a game I’m proud of.”
And with that, Ajanaku said she had to get to the gym.
In the NCAA championship match, she had 10 blocks, hit .419 with 16 kills in 31 swings, but one of her three errors?
“I thought I’d be relaxed after I won and say that’s it, ‘I’m never playing volleyball again,’ but all I want to do is get back on the court because I remember that my last hit was out of bounds and I want to make sure my arm is up fast enough so my next hit is in bounds.”
She laughed again.
“I’m having a little case study on myself. It’s interesting how I reacted to it.”
Texas freshman Micaya White
In a year where NCAA volleyball seemed at times dominated by freshmen, White stood out.
The 6-foot-1 outside hitter led Texas with 462 kills — 80 in the NCAA Tournament —averaged 4.02 kills per set, hit .274, had a team-best 24 aces, had 77 blocks — 11 solo — and 252 digs.
But the highly touted player from Dallas and the daughter of former NBA standout Randy White arrived in Austin already injured. She had a stress fracture in her left tibia.
“I guess I had it for about eight months before college,” she recalled. “I went to a couple of doctors and they didn’t see anything.”
She said the doctors she visited told her not to be concerned, “so I didn’t worry about it. And I got to college and doctor said, ‘I don’t know how you’ve been playing. Because you’re basically playing on a broken leg.”
So this high-flying player with a whip of an arm and a vicious jump serve today has a rod and two screws in her leg.
But a year off made her a better player.
“It helped me so much because I got to watch and learn so much more about my game. I got to watch other players like (former USC star) Samantha Bricio, who’s one of my all-time favorite outside hitters growing up. Getting to watch her season and just comparing and learning was a really big advantage. A lot of kids coming out of high school don’t get that advantage.
“At the time I didn’t enjoy it, Jerritt and I had a couple of words my true freshman year, but I take it as the biggest blessing.”
White finally got to start practicing with the Longhorns late in the 2015 season and then had all of the 2016 spring season.
“It was rough at first,” she admitted, “getting used to playing with metal in your leg.
“But, yeah, it was kind of like unleashing an animal. I couldn’t get out of the gym. I’ve continually wanted to work with Erik (Sullivan, UT assistant coach) or Jerritt or our strength coach. I just wanted to be better than I was coming in.”
White had 14 kills in the season opener at Oregon, but in the next match, against Nebraska, she was awful, with three kills in 21 swings and a -.143 hitting percentage. As an aside, when Texas knocked off Nebraska in the NCAA semifinals, she had seven kills, hit .269, and had eight digs and five blocks.
“When we first started practicing (in August) I could feel that our team was going to be really good,” White said. “Just because of how hard everyone wanted to work and how excited everyone was. Usually some are in it and some are out of it, but everyone was driven and I knew we’d have a lot of fight in us.”
Texas never had a losing streak as it finished 27-5. The Longhorns, by all accounts, had a fantastic season. But White was none too happy after losing the NCAA title match, although she had 17 kills, 11 digs and six blocks. She was also not happy that Texas finished second to Kansas in the Big 12 and said that next year she thinks the Longhorns will be even more driven to win it all.
Like Ajanaku, she hit the gym this week as well, getting in some volleyball time with her old club, TAV.
“I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I always set a high standard for myself and think I can do better,” White said. “I feel I’m blessed to receive the awards I did, but this is a team sport and we’re not winning the Big 12 and the national championship, I could have done more.
“So that’s what I’ve been thinking about the past couple of days since I’ve been home. So we do win the Big 12 and we win the national championship next year.”
USC's Kelly Claes (left) and Sara Hughes (right) won the 2016 Pac-12 pairs title, but the NCAA currently does not offer a pairs championship. /Ed Chan, VBshots.com
The NCAA decides individual titles in other individual/team sports, like tennis, gymnastics and golf. But when it launched beach, the individuals were left out.
By all accounts, however, the inaugural NCAA Beach Championship last May in Gulf Shores, Ala., was a smashing success. Perfect weather, great matches, decent crowds and great hospitality from the host city on the Alabama Gulf Coast.
But many in the volleyball world were disappointed that there was not a pairs competition, as there were at the AVCA championships the previous years before the event was converted to an NCAA title event, or even at the Pac-12 Championship.
The issue is complex on an NCAA administration level, a college administration level, and the player level. VBM’s Lee Feinswog interviewed NCAA Beach chair Marilyn Moniz-Kaho’ohanohano during the event in Gulf Shores. Her answer was most diplomatic.
“It’s on our strategic plan, we’re planning on bring it back and making it a part of this championships,” said Moniz-Kaho’ohanohano, the senior women’s administrator and assistant athletic director at Hawai’i. “It’s a long tradition and history that pairs are an important part of beach volleyball. It’s not been abandoned, it’s on the docket.”
Timetable: “We don’t know, because funding is the issue. Very shortly.” To see the full interview:
It’s not likely individual pairs whose teams didn’t qualify for the NCAA Beach tournament will be included in 2017, but we visited with five beach volleyball coaches, the NCAA beach chair, and a former player and offer the following:
Pepperdine head beach coach Nina Matthies, chats with Waves Victoria Adelhelm and Jazmine Orozco/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Nina Matthies (head coach/Pepperdine):
“It went through a championship committee, which is not a volleyball committee, or beach volleyball committee, an NCAA championship committee that decides all championships for all sports, and when the original paperwork from five years ago when we started all this came through, that first proposal was only for a team championship. It’s a team sport. It’s not a pairs sport. It’s not easy to pick up a championship. There are a lot of emerging sports that never get there. They’re still on the back burner. When the championship committee reviewed the proposal, it was a proposal looking to finance eight teams to go to a national championship. In the past we all paid ourselves to go to the AVCA championship, although the AVCA helped with hotels and things. Each institution sponsored themselves.
“The NCAA is putting in quite a bit of money, effort, and staff. We needed to get in the door. Now that we’re in the door, we’ll see how this year and next year goes, we have time to put in the ground work and keep building. I’m a team championship gal, and I have been from the beginning; the athletes can __play pairs all summer, they can __play USA/AVP/FIVB, etc.
“I think the collegiate sport that we’re creating is so unique, that is the essence of what collegiate beach volleyball is, so I’m not opposed to a pair championship, but I want the team championship to flourish.”
Jeff Hall led Hawai’i’s Rainbow Wahines to a Big West title in 2016/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Jeff Hall (head coach/Hawaii):
“I’m super disappointed in the choice by the NCAA; I’m super disappointed in the Big West, and the administration that decided to go against the best wishes of the coaches. The back story there, is that the coaches voted, in a conference call, to have a pairs championship in the Big West, to try and mimic the Pac-12, to show the NCAA that this is an important part of beach volleyball at the championship level, and it is the root of beach volleyball. Quite frankly, we don’t need the pairs; we’re going to be a nationally recognized program. What the pairs program does for other programs that aren’t as deep as us is give their student athletes a championship experience. Post season experience, which all administrations like to see. For example, Grand Canyon’s No. 1 pair is really special. They’re very, very good, but they don’t have an opportunity to showcase it.
“Programs that are trying to grow are going to be left behind and maybe get dropped in the future because they are not worthy of having post season experience. That’s how you’re measured often as a coach or as a program, and when you’re cutting out the pairs, you’re cutting out the opportunity. It’s fun to see other schools, smaller schools, schools that don’t have the budget, giving them the opportunity. To lose that is kind of sad.”
FSU head coach Brooke Niles lays out for a dig at NVL Seattle 2015/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Brooke Niles (head coach/Florida State):
“Collegiate sports are mostly team sports; and I think for this to grow into more programs, to continue the growth we’ve had, we need to make it a team sport. You’re not going to have a college start a sport to garner an individual award or championship. I do think there’s room for it, if we can go after the tennis model, where there’s a pairs season in the fall, and a team season in the spring, it will add to the NCAA experience. Right now beach volleyball has the fewest competitions. The team competition is really exciting because right now anyone can win it.”
Beth Van Fleet, head coach for Georgia State, shown here in AVP competition at Santa Barbara in 2009/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Beth Van Fleet (head coach/Georgia State):
“I think that is was a good strategic move for the NCAA in their first year. I understand why they made that decision, I know it was a hard decision to make, and I expect that they will re-introduce the pairs competition, hopefully within the next year or two. It’s a very valuable piece, I think there are so many incredible pairs around the country that don’t get to compete at the national level because they don’t have the depth in their roster. And speaking from experience, our first year we had Lane Carico here, and luckily,the AVCA had the pairs competition, and she was able to compete at the national level with her partner Katie Madewell, and they ended up taking third place in the country, and they wouldn’t have been there if it was only a team competition.
“I think that a lot of schools and conferences are having discussions about how to introduce pairs competition in fall play, and also within the conferences. It’s great that the coaches see the need for the pairs play, and that we are doing our best to make sure that there are opportunities for the pairs. I think it makes sense. You have to look at it from so many angles. You have to look at it from the administrative side and see what the administrative costs are if you’re basically running a season in the fall and a season in the spring, and how much of a deterrent it would be for new schools to add beach.
“We don’t want it to be an expensive sport to add, because right now that’s one of the more attractive elements of this game from the administration point of view. As a school that already has beach, I would love to see pairs in the fall, because it gives the athletes something to work for. We practice from August through February to play for eight weeks. Which is hard. It’s hard to stay motivated, and stay focused, to create those competitive advantages . It would benefit the student athlete experience by adding something in the fall that is financially viable for institutions.
Lane Carico would have been denied the opportunity to participate in postseason play at Georgia State but for the AVCA pairs competition, where she finished third in 2013.
Lane Carico (AVP star and former college beach standout):
“The NCAA pairs competition at the championships is a huge opportunity for individuals to get out in the sand in a situation where it’s just them and their teammate. They have to find a way to win and to battle it out and be mentally tough, not having the support of all their other teammates and college-mates competing along side them. Any chance there is to get more girls out on the sand in a diverse group, the better, and the better to grow the sport.
Arizona beach volleyball head coach Steve Walker advises Madison and McKenna Witt at the 2016 Pac-12 championships, which included a pairs championship.
Steve Walker (head coach, Arizona):
“We’re disappointed that there isn’t a pairs competition. It’s a high level brand of volleyball; if you look at the semifinals last year, three of the four teams participating in the pairs, Grand Canyon, Loyola Marymount, and Arizona, weren’t in the team competition. I see where the NCAA is coming from, it is a team competition. It is more fulfilling to bring the whole group. ”
On splitting the beach volleyball season into two seasons:
“You’ll miss out on the multi-sport athletes, the indoor athletes that cross over won’t have an opportunity to compete for a national championship.”
Stetson beach volleyball coach Kristina Hernandez sees both pros and cons to adding a pairs championship/Stetson Athletics
Kristina Hernandez (head coach/Stetson):
“There’s pros and cons to not having a pairs competition. The pros are, you have to focus more on your whole team; you have to be good one to five if you want to win a national championship. We all want the pairs to come back, it’s more teams competing at the end of the year, and it gives those schools that maybe just have a strong number one seed, the opportunity to continue their season especially when a lot of teams have number one pairs with great records, and them being able to battle it out and play at that high level, I don’t think it’s bad for the sport. It’s always drawn big crowds and a lot of excitement.”
UCLA coach Stein Metzger is shown here in AVP competition in 2008/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Stein Metzger (head coach/UCLA):
“I have to say that I’m really warming up to the team competition; it’s become very enjoyable for me, and this is somebody that came from the pro circuit, where it’s all about you and your partner and there wasn’t any team competition ever, so it took some time to get used to, but I’m really enjoying the team competition. That being said, I think there’s a real missed opportunity; it’s a shame for teams that aren’t able to make it to the pairs competition.
“If we see the same teams getting into the team competition year after year, it will be another reason why it will be unfortunate not to have a pairs competition. Those other teams are going to need an opportunity to break in, and typically when you’re building a program, it’s hard to find ten players at a high level and to have some sort of depth. To be able to chip away and get two or four good players, and break through at the pairs level, is great. And that’s where we’ve been. We’ve never made it to the team competition, we’ve only made it in the pairs until this year. There are a lot of schools out there that don’t have the depth to even knock on the door of the team competition. It would be great if we could find a way to get the pairs competition back in and make it work. I think it would encourage the growth of the sport.”
It’s not as simple as it seems
Factors include: – The logistics of extending a championships from three to a minimum of six days – Can beach volleyball adopt a model like tennis with dual seasons? – How might a dual season affect crossover athletes? – Some coaches believe that a pairs competition promotes parity in program development – Can the NCAA justify the additional expense of supporting what is essentially a second championship? – Will having a second competition and/or season increase college administration costs to the point that it could hinder the sport? In the end, most volleyball people would like to see the pairs added, but cost and TV coverage will enter greatly into the discussion. VBM, of course, favors having the individual pairs.
Although many disagree on the particulars of these and other factors, all agree that having a pairs competition is an exciting way to showcase the athletic talents of today’s players. Let’s hope that the pairs competition gets reinstated, and reinstated soon.
Stanford celebrates its four-set NCAA-title victory over Texas/Ed Chan VBshots.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 66-year-old coach just had to take a moment.
Barely a minute after the volleyball gods had — of all people — senior Kelsey Humphreys bump set an out-of-system ball to freshman Kathryn Plummer, who in turn bounced it off the Texas block and out of bounds, John Dunning simply needed a quick second or two to himself.
So as his kids — and really, when you’re 66 and four of your starters are freshmen, they’re truly kids — celebrated winning the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship with a 25-21, 25-19, 18-25, 25-21 victory, Dunning bent over and rested his hands on his knees, staring down at the floor.
“You know, it’s overwhelming. You put so much into this and this is just a group that’s just fun to be with. I love being around them and at that point it was kind of like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is actually real.’It’s overwhelming,” Dunning said as Saturday night turned into Sunday morning.
“So I took a deep breath and was separate from people for a second so that I didn’t fall on the fall on the floor and cry or throw up or something. It just was overwhelming.”
This was Dunning’s 16th year at Stanford. He’d won two NCAA titles in his previous job, at Pacific, and then took Stanford to the 2001 and 2004 NCAA championships. And while most every season the Cardinal are in the national-championship discussion, it had been a long 12 years that including losing in the final match in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
And it’s doubtful that when he won in 2004 Dunning took out his cell phone and snapped a picture of one of his players as he did of Inky Ajanaku during their post-match news conference. Here’s a snapshot of what the senior middle did on Saturday night: 16 kills in 31 swings for a .419 hitting percentage, eight blocks — one solo — and a trophy of her own for being the MVP of the tournament.
Stanford’s Inky Ajanaku is tournament MVP. /Ed Chan, VBshots.com
“Man, I’m excited. I’ve been wanting this for a really long time and it wasn’t exactly the way I thought it was going to be and, you know what, that’s life,” said Ajanaku, who missed all of last season recovering from a knee injury. “Life throws a lot of things at you.And it throws a lot of opportunities and a lot of obstacles at you.”
The way she overcame them was remarkable.
Sixth-seeded Stanford, which was down 0-2 at Wisconsin in the regional final before beating the Badgers a week ago, knocked off second-seeded Minnesota on Thursday in the semifinals.
Against Wisconsin, Ajanaku had 20 kills and 11 blocks. Against Minnesota, she had 15 kills and nine blocks.
“We showed two nights ago that we were good enough to beat good teams.And we showed it in Wisconsin in a very, very difficult setting,” Dunning said. “And so I would guess that it’s reasonable for us to think we really had a good chance to win. But you don’t know how people are going to react when you get to the race, to the finals. And it’s like you go through the prelims in the Olympics and you get to the race and you don’t know how people are going to react.”
That’s the thing with first-year players.
“And I thought our freshmen were going to react great. They’re goofier than unbelievable, and they were exactly that way before the game. All they do is sing and dance. And I think they are going to get tired, that we should train more, because they’re going to use it all up before the game starts because they’re dancing so much. But you kind of roll with some stuff.But that’s the way we are.”
Stanford finished the season 27-7 as it won for the 10th time in a row. More importantly, it was the school’s seventh NCAA title, tying it for the all-time lead with Penn State.
Plummer, the 6-foot-6 right side who was converted to an outside hitter at midseason, had 18 kills, hit .325, had nine digs and was perfect on 29 serve-receive chances. She had 15 kills against Minnesota.
Another 6-6 freshman, middle Audriana Fitzmorris, had 10 kills, hit .375, and went on a serving run to start the fourth set that completely took Texas out of it as Stanford built a 6-0 lead from which the Longhorns never recovered.
Junior Merete Lutz, the 6-8 right side, had seven kills and four blocks. Freshman libero Morgan Hentz had 27 digs and freshman setter Jenna Gray had 51 assists, three kills, three blocks and three digs.
Cat McCoy of Texas chases down a ball off hitter coverage while Chloe Collins trails/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Fourth-seeded Texas, which beat top-seeded Nebraska in the semifinals, ended its season 27-5 and lost in the NCAA final match for the second straight year. Texas, which won its first NCAA title in 1988, won the 2012 title, in 2013 and 2014 lost in the semifinals and last year lost to Nebraska. “Yeah, I think they played extremely well,” 16th-year Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “Hentz played phenomenal. I think their middles really hurt us which was kind of a common theme throughout the season when we ran up against good middles. But I thought Hentz was a big difference maker. And I thought Kathryn Plummer played very well tonight.”
Freshman outside hitter Micaya White continued her outstanding __play and led the Longhorns with 17 kills, 11 digs and six blocks. Junior right side Ebony Nwanebu added 16 kills. Sophomore Yaazie Bedart-Ghani had 11 kills and hit .455 and was switched from middle to outside in the third set when senior outside Paulina Prieto Cerame struggled terribly. She had two kills in 26 swings and hit -.231 on what was likely the worst match of her career.
Freshman middle Morgan Johnson had seven kills and five blocks, capping off a season in which she was thrust into the lineup when Texas lost All-American senior middle Chiaka Ogbogu when she was declared academically ineligible just before the season began.
“Things always change and that’s the responsibility. So this is the group we had and that’s the way they grew and they developed. I couldn’t be more proud of what we did this year and the fight that we had,” Elliott said.
“I mean, late October I don’t think anybody would have picked us to be in the finals and we found a way to make that happen.”
They would have said the same thing about Stanford until Dunning made a mid-match decision to go to a 5-1 with Gray and use Humphreys as a defensive specialist for Lutz, who he moved to the right side. Humphreys, waiting in the wings for three years, finally got to set but then lost the job. It was excruciating for Dunning to have to do it and extremely tough for Humphreys to handle.
Which is why it was so appropriate that she got the set on the match-winning kill. The truth is, neither she nor Stanford might have won this title had Ajanaku not gotten hurt and missed last season.
“I have to say that you would never wish that injury on anyone. But I’m so happy to be able to share this with Inky right now and be with her our senior year,” said Humphreys, who had eight digs and five assists in the match. “And she’s one of the strongest individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with and knowing. And all the struggle that she’s talking about, you would never know by the way she walked in the gym or the way she interacted with any of our teammates.
“And she let us believe in ourselves. She’s an amazing leader, and I think that’s part of the growth she had in her year off. And I am just so humbled to be able to __play with her, and so honored to just share this with her.”
And for Humphreys, was it all worth it?
“It is so worth it!” she exclaimed.
Humphreys is the daughter of Stanford legend Wendy Rush, who made it to four final fours in her career but never won a title.
“When we won two days ago she said bring one home for the family,” Humphreys said. “ … to be able to share the Stanford experience with her is something I can’t put into words. And I’m really happy to be able to put the Rush name on that trophy.
Attendance at the 2016 NCAA final was second only to 2015 in Omaha/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
The crowd of 17,345 in Nationwide Arena — second for a title match only to last year in Omaha — was treated to two teams playing all out all match.
Texas jumped to an early lead in the first set when Dunning called time down 9-5.
“We did not react very well at the start of the first set. We were way down. Then they calmed down.”
Did they ever.
“And as soon as we did that and came back in the first set, I thought, OK, we’re here, let’s just see what Texas has and if we can match it. Because our reaction was good. We were strong enough to handle the situation, or oblivious enough to handle it, whichever it is.”
Stanford, as it normally does, responded well to the time out and pulled into an 10-10 tie. It stayed close and the score was 20-20 when Stanford closed it out, getting two Ajanaku kills and three blocks in the final five points.
In the second, Stanford trailed 18-16 before going on a 7-0 run that continued into a 9-1 finish to the set that saw Plummer and Fitzmorris get three kills apiece.
Texas owned the third set, but couldn’t keep any of that momentum going. After Stanford got out 6-0, the Longhorns pulled to 7-3, but soon trailed 12-4.
Dunning used a timeout when Texas got to 19-14. The Longhorns got a kill from Bedart-Ghani and Plummer hit long to make it 24-21, before Plummer ended it. The serve sent Hentz sprawling to her right but Humphreys was ready.
”We had like three points lead on them or something like that,” Plummer said. “But we were just focused on the next point. Texas brought out a great service — if you rattle Morgan, you know it’s a good one.
“And then Kelsey had a great set.”
Plummer had to compose herself.
“I don’t know, but it was just an awesome way to end it because it was kind of — this is going to sound weird — but how our season has gone and to end it that way instead of like the smashing kill is kind of just, like, relevant to how we should finish that match.”
Goofy or not, they’re mature on the court and when you add them in with seniors like Ajanaku and Humphreys and juniors like Lutz, it’s quite a mix.
“And that’s what teams that end up winning or have a chance to win the championship, that’s what it usually is, is a really cool mixture of different ages,” Dunning said.
He laughed.
“It’s crazy. And fun.”
***
Next week, VolleyballMag.com will announce its All-American teams and the player, coach and freshman of the year.
NCAA men’s previews begin next week, too.
And if you want to plan ahead, the 2017 NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship is December 14-16 in Kansas City. Mo. Barbecue and volleyball for all.
