NCAA preview series — American Athletic Conference

America, America….

Well, I can hardly call the series “Gearing up” anymore considering that the season has started. But we do march on. Here’s one of the most interesting conferences in the whole series, the brand new AAC. Here’s the rundown as we last left it:

America East Conference
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Patriot League
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Big Sky Conference
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Northeast Conference
Big South Conference
Colonial Athletic Association
Ohio Valley Conference
Horizon League
Western Athletic Conference
Southland Conference
Conference USA
The Summit League
Atlantic Sun Conference
American Athletic Conference
Ivy League
Southern Conference
Mid-American Conference
Sun Belt Conference
Atlantic 10 Conference
Big West Conference
Mountain West Conference
Big East Conference
Missouri Valley Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
Southeastern Conference
Big 12 Conference
West Coast Conference
Big Ten Conference
Pac-12 Conference

So…it’s not exactly clear just what the AAC is. And I don’t just mean I’m confused (although I am), the split from the old Big East to the new Big East and the AAC is anything but clean. In truth, neither side is the one and only ‘successor’ to the old Big East. They both have ties to the previous Big East, and they’re both unique in some ways. Obviously the new Big East keeps the conference name, and I’ve accordingly placed them in the rundown where the old Big East would have been had they not split, but the AAC is actually the legal successor (whatever that means), keeping the conference commissioner and conference offices. It’s been said that the new Big East retains the old’s basketball record books, but I don’t know what that means for baseball/softball and the other Olympic sports (let alone whether the AAC keeps the old Big East’s football record book, but I don’t really care about that).

It’s a bit of a mess. I haven’t seen any conspicuous announcement on the topic, but I’ve heard from a Big East coach and college volleyball guru Rich Kern that both the AAC and the current Big East will have automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. The AAC actually have the old Big East’s bid, since, as mentioned, they’re the legal successors to the old conference. The current Big East will get one, too, and it’s expected that the tournament will simply reduce to 32 at-large bids. Which I think is fine. I don’t know if anyone would have cried too loudly last year if North Carolina State or Loyola Marymount or somebody were left out. I do wonder what the conference expansion will do to the men’s basketball tournament — will they go to something like 72 teams, or just say the hell with it and expand all the way to 128? — but that’s neither here nor there.

So, without any past standings to go off, I’ll just detail the teams in alphabetical order.

The Central Florida (UCF) Knights are one of the four teams in the initial incarnation of the American Athletic Conference that were never part of the Big East. They signed on to join the Big East, and then the whole Catholic Six brouhaha happened. Anyhow. Last season in Conference USA, the Knights went 11-5, and 18-15 overall. This past weekend, the first of the season, they played their home invitational, defeating North Florida, Alabama State, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in three-set sweeps, but losing a five-setter to Valparaiso.

Leading the way for the Knights is junior middle blocker DeLaina Sarden, team leader in attacking efficiency last year and not too bad in scoring output either, at 2.3 kills per set. She reached a block per set, too — not bad at all for an underclassman. Sarden had a terrific first weekend in 2013, hitting .583 in the team’s first four matches, with a block per set and over 4 kills per set. Fifth-year senior Angelica Crump was the team’s most prolific scorer last year, better than 3 kills per set. Luxembourgian import (now there’s a country you don’t think of much when it comes to volleyball) Marie Reiterova handles the setting. She’s only now a junior despite being 23 years old, which gives her an undeniable aura of leadership on the team. She won three Conference USA Setter of the Week awards last season. Towering fourth-year junior Loren Cory looks like she may have more of a role at opposite hitter this season than last. She played all 14 sets this past weekend, averaging a steady two and a half kills per — very reasonable for a season rate if she can manage it.

The Knights will play another home invitational this weekend, against Elon, George Washington, and Stephen F Austin. They don’t have any particularly strong opponents lined up for their non-conference; the only (other?) big conference team on the slate is Clemson.

The Cincinnati Bearcats were an afterthought in a bad volleyball conference last year, though that has historically not been the case. They were an NCAA tournament team each of the four years prior. Unfortunately for them, it looks like at least one more year of struggle and strife may be in the cards. The Bearcats are an incredibly young team this year — back-row specialist Emmi MacIntyre is the only senior on the roster, which contains seven freshmen. The Bearcats’ first weekend of 2013 was a tough one, as they dropped three in a row at their home invitational, losing sweeps to Butler and Tennessee, as well as a four-setter to Morehead State.

The offence looks to be centred around outside hitter Ciara Hill, one of the many freshmen on the team. I know coaches like to use their younger players (and especially backup setters) a disproportionate amount in the early season, but I don’t think anyone’s necessarily in line to take Hill’s place. The only older players listed at OH are junior Me’Ashah Nicholson, who lined up at middle blocker this past weekend (she’s listed at both positions), sophomore Amelia Wegman, who played in a limited role, and sophomore Morgan Allred, curiously listed at OH/DS and looking like she’ll fill both roles. If you’re a small-time baseball nerd like me, a couple names on the roster might stick out — middle blocker Breanna Barksdale (who played briefly last weekend) and outside hitter Mallory Blauser (who played all three matches). Breanna shares her name with an umpire, and Mallory with a former All-Star shortstop (coincidentally, her father actually has the same name, but it’s only that — a coincidence). Neither are related to the baseball people.

This coming weekend, the Bearcats head to an invitational hosted by the Ohio Bobcats. They’ll also face NCAA tournament teams Dayton and North Carolina, and then another on the Tuesday after (Western Kentucky). End of next week, they’ll have their second home invitational, and matches they should more reasonably be expected to win.

Obviously, volleyball is not the women’s sport that the University of Connecticut are known for. They were fair-to-middlin’ in the Big East last year, going 10-5 and 19-12 overall. They travelled to IPFW this past weekend for the Mastodons’ invitational, splitting four matches there — sweep wins over Duquesne and Hartford, a five-set loss to Southern Illinois, and a four-set loss to IPFW themselves.

Sophomore middle blocker Erika Thomas had a strong first weekend, topping the team’s tote board for attack efficiency and checking in with over a block per set. The Huskies ran a pretty varied offence this weekend, with junior OH Devon Maugle recording 30 kills, sophomore middle blocker Immanuella Anagu with 33, Thomas with 34, freshman OH Jade Strawberry with 39, and junior OH Karson Ratliff with 41. Each of them played all 15 sets. Hard to say if they’ll all remain in such a relatively even distribution going forward, but they spread things out nicely this first weekend. The variation and general effectiveness (they hit .215 as a team, which is….not too bad) surely reflect nicely on sophomore setter Marissa Prinzbach, who racked up 149 assists in those 15 sets (as close as possible to the magic number of 10 per set without actually reaching it). Strawberry and Maugle also played all six rotations and wound up with dig totals rivaling that of libero Brianna Datti.

I see a lot of nice pieces on this team. This weekend, the Huskies will have their home invitational, playing host to Pittsburgh, Albany, and Northeastern. The biggest and best opponent on their non-conference ledger is undoubtedly Minnesota, due to be faced at the Dartmouth Duel in two weekends’ time.

Just like UCF, the Houston Cougars join the American from Conference USA. Last year in conference they went 7-9 and 9-19 overall, but I’ve heard a lot of people say they’re excited about this team and what they bring to the table, long-term. They opened 2013 at an invitational hosted by Texas State, losing to the Bobcats but beating Quinnipiac and Lamar. Earlier Tuesday, the Cougars eked out a five-set win against Texas Southern.

Freshman outside hitter Sarita Mikals is probably part of the reason some folks are thinking things are looking up for the Cougars. She’s started every match and played every set so far, and she recorded her first career double-double (kills/digs) in the Texas Southern match. Junior opposite hitter Cortney Warren may be more of a focal point of the offence, as she got more kills on slightly fewer swings than Mikahls in the team’s first four matches. The odd part is she’s yet to be part of a starting lineup this year, though unlike international and NCAA men’s, I’m not sure there’s any great significance to the starting lineup in NCAA women’s volleyball. So far, the Cougars look solid in terms of attacking — and setter Sophie Paine has done quite well pacing the offence so far — but in blocking and back-row defence they may have struggles. They’re exactly tied with their tiny-conference opponents in blocking and already more than a dig per set off the pace in defence. It’s likely those disparities will get bigger in the coming weeks and in conference play.

This coming weekend, the Cougars head to an invitational hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette. They’ll face a few big-conference foes in the weeks to follow (TCU, Ole Miss, Baylor, LSU) but no one of particular note.

Louisville were one of two Big East schools last year to announce a defection to the Atlantic Coast Conference. But while Notre Dame got out in time for 2013-14, the Cardinals have to play a year in the American before they can bolt for the ACC. Last season, they reached the 30-win plateau, dominating the old Big East with two second-team All-Americans on their roster. Both have now graduated, but enough talent is with the team this year to project them to the top of the American in their one year as members. They played two matches in the season’s first weekend, sweeping aside Syracuse before being dominantly beaten by Penn State, likewise in a sweep.

They’ve got four seniors leading the way, including All-American honourable mention libero Caitlin Welch. Welch hasn’t a great start to the season, but it’s still quite early. Middle blocker Brooke Mattingly and outside hitter Emily Juhl were the scoring leaders of the first weekend, Mattingly with 13 kills on a very good efficiency and Juhl 18 on a solid efficiency. Freshman OH Maya McClendon had 19, but took far more swings than Mattingly or Juhl had to get there. The Cardinals are running a 6-2, with senior Hannah Kvitle and sophomore Katie George combining for over 10 assists per set. One area where the Cardinals still need to get out of the blocks, pardon the pun, is blocking. They have just 5 double-blocks through their first two matches, for an ugly 0.83 per set rate. Obviously that won’t hold up, but there’s still the matter of getting out there and doing it.

The Cardinals should pad their numbers a little this weekend at an invitational hosted by North Dakota State, facing three teams they should probably defeat easily (the Bison themselves, Northern Iowa, and Wisconsin). Next weekend comes a difficult invitational with four 2012 NCAA tournament teams, as the Cardinals face Kentucky, Minnesota, and Pepperdine.

The Memphis Tigers also join from Conference USA. They went 7-9 in league and 12-19 overall last year. First weekend this year, they played at an invitational hosted by Belmont. They beat the Bruins in five sets, lost to the Miami Redhawks in four, and swept aside the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs.

In contrast to several of the above teams, the Tigers look like they’re pretty set in the back row, with some questions to answer in the front row. Junior libero Aleksandra Petronijevic, from Serbia, has racked up 80 digs in the team’s first three matches. That equates to 6.67 digs per set, a very strong rate indeed. She won’t keep that rate up all season (if she did, it would lead the nation), but it’s a strong start and reason to be confident in the future. Six-rotation OH Viktorija Teivane, from Latvia, has 50 digs in that span (and a comparatively paltry 27 kills, on an .050 efficiency). Freshman OH Catlin Lily also played six rotations for at least a part of the team’s season to date, leading the team in kills with 46 and adding 35 digs as well. The Tigers have nearly 20 digs per set as a team, two better than their opponents. Again, that disparity itself probably won’t hold up, but I do think it’s reason to be confident in the defence going forward. Redshirt sophomore setter Veronica Zimmerman‘s nearly 11 assists per set might bode well for the offence, but it sure looks like they’ve got a little work to do there, with so-so output and poor efficiency against lower-order competition.

This coming weekend is the Tigers’ home invitational, as they’ll welcome Alabama A&M, Western Carolina, and Southeastern Louisiana to town. They don’t have any big-conference teams lined up in their non-conference schedule.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are also on their way out of the AAC, headed to the Big “Ten” for ’14-’15 (I have to say I’m glad the AAC eschewed numbers and geographic terms in their name — it’ll never be a misnomer). Last year in the old Big East, the Scarlet Knights went 4-11 in conference and 18-12 overall. Weekend one this season was spent at the Indiana invitational, where the team swept Kent State, were swept by the Hoosiers, and beat Robert Morris in four sets.

Rutgers’ website….leaves a little to be desired. Tracking stats or even individual match box scores is far more difficult than it should be, so it’s hard to give indications of who the team leaders so far are.

Sophomore outside hitter Alex Lassa is the only regular scorer returning from last season. Megan Stephenson, likewise a sophomore OH, topped 100 kills in a part-time role in 2012, so I imagine she’ll be asked to contribute a little more this year, what with the near total dearth of scoring options. Senior libero Tracy Wright returns for 2013 having averaged about 4.5 digs per set last year, a solid total. Blocking was a weakness for the Scarlet Knights last year, and even then the team leaders from last year aren’t back. So I really wonder how they’ll do in that area this season. An 11 APS setter is also gone to graduation. So there’s lots and lots of question marks here.

This coming weekend, the Scarlet Knights travel to Syracuse for the Orange’s home invitational.

If there were ever a case for separate male and female nicknames, you’d figure South Florida may be it (that or the Fairfield Stags), though calling women’s teams “Cows” seems even a bit worse than calling them Bulls. So Bulls it is. In 2012, the Bulls went 7-8 in the Big East and 17-15 overall. Last weekend, USF played their home invitational, defeating The Citadel, Austin Peay, and Ball State, while falling to the Miami Hurricanes.

Lots of Bulls are off to nice starts. Sophomore OH Erin Fairs leads the team in scoring, notching 56 kills in the first four matches and actually leading the way in digs as well, with 80. Libero Amy Van Sant isn’t too far behind, with 65 (itself a solid total). Middle blockers Jennica Mullins and Andrea Rodriguez Gomez each have better than a block per set so far, and middle-stroke-opposite Carisa Whalen isn’t far off that pace. USF are going with two setters, with Natalia Soares and Wylie Devlin (who is listed at DS/L) combining for over 11 assists per set in the early going.

The Bulls will get to test themselves against somewhat more difficult competition this coming weekend, as they head to Creighton’s invitational. They’ll face the Bluejays and the Pac-12’s Cal in addition to Northern Colorado and Florida-Gulf Coast.

My sister went to Southern Methodist, so I suppose I should root for them, but I dunno, my heart’s just not in it. They’re the fourth of four C-USA imports for 2013. Last year, they were 7-9 in conference and 11-20 overall. The first weekend of this year was spent at the very same Texas State invitational Houston were at. The Mustangs beat Quinnipiac and Lamar while falling to the host Bobcats. Earlier Tuesday the 3rd, they lost three straight sets to the Baylor Bears.

The Mustangs haven’t played a lot of long rallies so far this season. They’ve averaged just over 10 digs per set through their first four matches, which is a tiny, tiny number for NCAA women’s volleyball. Of course it’s early yet, perhaps evidenced best by the fact that even 10 DPS is enough to out-pace the opposition, as SMU’s opponents are nearly a dig per set down the road. Both of those totals will come up in the near future. Junior OH Caroline Young leads SMU in scoring so far, having put up 36 kills in the team’s 13 sets so far, on a .272 efficiency. Senior MB Maddie Lozano isn’t far behind in output, with 29 kills so far. Lozano’s off to a good start in blocking, too, with 14 in the first 13 sets. The Mustangs’ offence has been just fine, and sophomore setter Avery Acker has done well running it, with 129 assists in 13 sets (just off 10 per). And despite their paltry dig numbers, SMU’s opponents are hitting just .198 so far, suggesting a tremendous number of unforced errors. So when it becomes necessary, I think libero Morgan Heise‘s performance will rise to the occasion just fine. Or at least, she’ll be better than just over 3 digs per set.

This weekend is SMU’s home invitational, as they welcome Grambling State, Sam Houston State, and Davidson to town.

The Temple Owls are the last team to visit. Last year as members of the Atlantic 10, the Owls went 8-6 in conference and 19-11 overall. They started 2013 at an invitational hosted by Buffalo, getting swept by the Bulls and defeating the Niagara Purple Eagles in five sets.

Opposite hitter Gabriella Matautia, senior, has led the Owls in scoring in the very early going in 2013, with 29 kills in the first two matches. Outside hitter Emily Carlin, another senior, is next with 21. Pretty plain to see that they’ll be called upon to provide the backbone scoring for the Owls this season. Junior middle blocker Jennifer Iacobini has 9 blocks in the first two matches, a strong start to her year as well. It’s just a little too early to really call out anything else about the team this year. Looking at last year’s stat book, one might reasonably expect senior OH Elyse Burkert to step up from her slow start to 2013, as she averaged nearly 4 kills per set last year playing in all the team’s matches.

This weekend, the Owls travel to Fairfax, Virginia, home of George Mason University, for the Patriots’ invitational. In addition to the Patriots themselves, they’ll also face Coppin State and Radford.

The verdict

It should be Louisville’s conference to lose, but I’m not sure anyone else will be in line for an NCAA tournament bid. It’ll actually be interesting to see. Nominally a “power” conference, will they get even the 2 at-large bids the old Big East got last year? I don’t think it’s anything close to a sure thing.

TNS SWAG

1. Louisville
2. Connecticut
3. Temple
4. Memphis
5. South Florida
6. UCF
7. Houston
8. Cincinnati
9. SMU
10. Rutgers