D3 Volleyball and Underdog Talk

  • JUCO Offseason Coaching Moves

    The offseason coaching carousel has been wilder than usual this offseason: First, Florida SW State coach Thais moved to NCAA D1 Florida Gulf Coast, then Blinn’s long time coach took a position at D2 West TX A&M; Trinity Valley’s head coach is taking an assistant position at Southern Illinois, and less than a week later, Trinity Valley’s opening was filled when the ’24 coach at Missouri State-West Plains decided to take it. All of those JUCO squads made the national tournament in their respective divisions last season.

  • Incredible Final NAIA Run!

    I know it’s almost a week late, but I found something that I couldn’t pass up on writing about. NAIA Defending Champ IN Wesleyan, down 14-8 in Set 5 to Bellevue, scores the last 8 points to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Reserve 1st year player Autumn Colehour will be gladly telling this tale for quite some time. She was the one doing the serving during that run, and all the rally points had plenty of play. There was not a single service ace during that winning charge.

    In NCAA D2, Findlay broke the hold that Hillsdale had as the top squad in that respective conference, beating Hillsdale once in the conference tournament, and then in the D2 tournament. Talk about a double-whammy–

    JUCO’s–say it with me, in all three divisions each defending champ took the titles in thier respective divisions.

    Navarro still has a consecutive match run with at least 1 service ace going–last I checked at ’24 season end it was approximately 169 matches in a row if I’m not mistaken.

    Speaking of Navarro, after the ’23 season, their coach moved on to NCAA D1 Lamar, and led that squad to its’ best season in several years.

  • Update on ’24 Transfer Players’ Progress

    Disclaimer: The following info is not meant to do any denigration, after all, there are factors beyond the control of the players in these situations (depth, in-game injuries, rotation factors and what-not,.)

    All stats through matches of 10/13/2024:

    A couple of transfers from now-closed Birmingham Southern are making an impact-Kylie Wilhelmi leads Randolph-Macon in Kills and Points (238 and 248.0 respectively. L Samarin Kipple leads Mississippi College in Digs (215)L/DS Mia Hinkamper (transfer from Quincy). leads Edgewood College in Digs (256 as of 10/13).

    JUCO Transfers: NCTC transfer S Janna Krstic became the first NAIA setter to reach 1,000 assists this season for NAIA Campbellsville in a loss against Cumberland-KY. Central WY transfer Rana Yamada leads AZ Western with 228 Digs; Neosho County CC transfer Maria Luiza Chaves leads Wiley in Assists (116); KCKCC transfer Taryn Dial leads NAIA Baker in Assists (245) D1 Mercer transfer Aria Eisel leads Juco Santa Fe with 281 Digs; Cisco transfer Hailey Nixon leads Tyler JC with 112 Digs; Frank Phillips transfer C Bothwell leads McCook with 389 Digs, Vernon transfer Julia Pereira leads NAIA MO Baptist with 399 Digs, CSI transfer Chinaru Inoue leads D2 Western CO with 264 Digs.

    I’ll stick with volleyball from here on with my few and far between posts.

  • Early HS band progress

    Like I indicated in my first entry, my reputation as a good player was increasing. However, the first week of HS I was floored (first I was 2 weeks late to begin with after recovering from hamstring surgery earlier that summer. Second, the building was so large I got lost trying to find my classes, and third, I found out I couldn’t march because my knees weren’t strong enough to take the grind just yet. I got a relatively low score in tryouts and ended up in the 2nd row in the clarinet section.

    We tried to do a parade at Southridge Mall in early December. The crowd was so large that we only got 2/3 through 1 level and 1/3 through the other before we had to pull off.

    The band also competed during the summer, working out a 10-minuut field drill show (similar to a college band halftime performance). At first, I hated going over the same moves ad nauseam with the hard-nosed drum major watching everything. Early June banc camp was held for 2 weeks, we’d be out there in the hot sun-the other thing I remember was that was the same summer that Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover” was released. If memory serves correct, the first competition was in Verona, just outside of Madison. There was a crowd there, cheering us on. After that first time, I started to see that the hard work was worth it.

    The band did a concert on the White House steps in Washinton DC that same summer. It was a humid day with temps in the mid-90s and several players wound up in the hospital after passing out. I still remember the sister of one of those players weeping as she assisted me off the playing area that day. I just hadn’t seen much crying at home or from anyone else in that age group before then.

    I skipped a couple of competitions because my legs weren’t strong enough (they allowed me to do every other marching competition back then). Every time I would march (even though my errors wouldn’t count in the scoring_ the band’s score would go down. By the time we got to Carpentersville, IL I was so frustrated, I cried after the lone rehearsal we had there before our last competitive field dirll competition. Fortunately, that was also the same (lone) competition we didn’t finish in last place.

    My 2nd year of HS, I was put in a weight-training class, which helped increase my strength big time.

    First funny HS band incident: Winter of Sophomore year at a concert in the gym–stands were lined up in rows, all the parts in order on each stand for the opening segment. Each player marches to their spot correctly, but when the director cues to bring the horns up, the long end of a trombone hits one of the stands, the music goes flying off that stand and the audience was getting a good laugh out of it. Fortunately, the director had a dry sense of humor about it, saying later on in the program “I’m going to walk right between the 2 guys who embarrassed me earlier;”

    Second funny incident: Winter of the following year, prior to a rehearsal, I was with a bunch of brass players in a small hallway west of stage in which there was enough space to hold sectionals. I stood and listened as these guys were jamming away, nothing coherent, just jamming frustrations off. Mind you, it’s bitterly cold outside (single digits, a slight wind and flurries. 10 minutes into their jam session, one of the guys says “Let’s go ouuside and do “Smear It Up”. One of the trombone players had a red T-shirt on, and the guy who made the suggestion had a white sweater on. I watched the whole bunch go out there. They barely got through the first line before they started laughing. They went back inside and the guy in the red T-shirt says “It’s mighty coold out there” I was thinking “Well-DUH! What did you expect?” (For obvious reasons, I dedn’t say that.) I finished my first year of weight training, which helped my endurance greatly. More on that in a seperate entry.

  • ’24-Another VB season underway

    Heard from my D3 Volleyball West Region connection about a new NPI that is being implemented starting this season. Since he’s been doing such a thourough job with it, I’ll just leave the analysis to him-won’t even venture my take on it until later in the season.

    Underdog squads I’m watching from a distance:

    NJCAA: Caldwell Tech, Alexandria Tech (came out of nowhere to make the ’23 national tourney last year,)

    A couple of transfer players are already making an impact;

    One player who transferred from D3 Birmingham Southern (Kylie Wilhelmi) was in the top 10 nationally in 2 categories on the offensive side of the ball as of last week for D3 Randolph Macon.

    JUCO Transfer Irene Mostardini (from Polk State to D1 Bradley) also had a strong start, ranking in the Top 10 nationally in 1 category. (Digs/Set–5.64)

    Here’s one for the “impeccably placed point at the best time” department. That goes to former Navarro JUCO player Audrey Brooks (now playing for D2 Shorter) In an exhibition match against D3 Berry, she got the kill that sealed the victory for Shorter. in 4 sets.

    No matter how much a player chips in, it’s valuable.

  • More JUCO Hot Stove Talk

    I’ll let my D3 West Region connection take the rest of the thunder regarding the statistics loss and go back to the Juco talk-

    MB Casidy Fried from USU-Eastern to Utah Tech; ’23 stats 179 kills, 157 total blocks, 279 total points.

    2 from top Florida Southwestern State: OH Alondra Alarcon to UNLV and Roberta Purashaj to Oregon: ’23 stats Purashaj 1,035 assists; Alarcon 384 kills, 299 digs.

    More later.

  • Statistics Loss #2

    Analysis for D3 Region 2 Conference MASCAC:

    Team    Record Pts Lost  Assists Digs   Pts/Set

    • MCLA  21-5   0.6%   3.3%  10.5%  0.1
    • Fr St   21-11  46.5%   2.3%  18.9%  6.9
    • Wo St  13-15  29.7%   10.2% 37.5%  4.8
    • Wst St  10-19  42.7%   49.6% 51.3%  6.3
    • Salem St 8-12  27.6%   0.4%  5.0%  3.1
    • Fit ST  8-17  5.7%   84.3% 17.1%  0.6
    • Brg St  4-13  24.0%   83.2% 19.0%  3.3
    • MA Mt  4-21  13.2%    0.09%  2.2%  1.4   

  • Statistics Loss-D3 Region 1

    I’m going to try the same thing for D3 Region 1 that my West Region connection is working on for Region 10–starting off with the North Atlantic Conference:

    Team:    Record   Pts Loss   Assists  Digs  Pts/Set

    NAC East, then West

    • ME-Maritime 25-6   2.8%    1.4%  13.9%   0.44
    • Husson    7-16  22.6%   21.5%  27%   2.78
    • VSU Johnson 11-13  26.4%   6.5% 33.9    3.2
    • UMPI    10-17  47.5%   65.8% 29%    6.03
    • VSU Lyndon  2-18 No losses anywhere, no seniors on roster
    • Lesley     0-18 No major loss, lone senior had 3 digs -gotta feel for the last 2 squads in this division, both had the least depth
    • ENC     28-3  9.2%   78%  19%  1.9
    • Morrisville   18-13  3.5&    72.8% 11% 0.6 
    • Cobleskill   12-15 39.9%   18.9% 16% 5.6
    • Delhi      7-17  stats not available
    • Canton     5-21  21.1%    11.7% 38% 3.8
    • Polytechnic   1-24  41%    13.4%  45% 3.8 
    • (Maybe I’ll just pick teams from 1 conference per region–)           

  • JUCO Player Hot-Stove Talk #7

    OH Hanna Tylska is going from Navarro to D1 UConn: Her ’23 numbers– 461 kills, 116 service aces, 396 digs, 34 total blocks,

    Former ’22 NJCAA POY (Florida Southwestern State) Barbara Koehler is transferring from Wichita State to FGCU.

    Caught some early action from the Professional Volleyball Federation-pulling for either Grand Rapids (team closest to me geographically) or Atlanta. 2 of the 3 matches played so far in the opening season have gone the full 5 sets.

  • JUCO Player “Hot Stove” Talk #6

    4 Western Texas College players have transferred; MH Avery Northcutt to Alaska-Anchorage, DS/L Lauren Fuller to McNeese State, and S/RS Sara and OH Katie Bebout to NAIA Kansas Wesleyan.

    Northcutt: 28.5 total points in 14 matches; Fuller; 706 digs; Sara Bebout; 146 kills, 170.0 total points; Katie Bebout; 223 kills, 236.0 total points.

    Enterprise State OH Tiyanna Preston is going to Bethune Cookman; Her ’23 stats; 273 kills, 292.5 total points, 28 total blocks.