Everything’s bigger in the South?
Here we go again. Another day, another league to explore, as we inch ever closer to the start of the season. Here’s the rundown as last we 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
The Big South name is in my mind a minor misnomer. The conference has full members in three states — Virginia and the Carolinas. And sure, they’re south of the Mason-Dixon, but when I think South I think Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Misssippi, Georgia. Maybe it’s just me.
The conference won’t have a change in membership this year, though it will next year. It’s not going to effect volleyball, though, as the departing school (Virginia Militiary) does not have a volleyball program. Of the 12 current full members of the conference, ten sponsor the sport. It’s probably unlikely that the Big South will bring in a new full member, considering that, effective with VMI’s withdrawal, they’ll add Monmouth as a football-only associate member. This allows them to keep the two-divisions-of-six-teams structure that they currently have. Adding another full member, unless it’s a non-football school, would only disrupt that.
No Big South team has ever won a team NCAA championship, but the’ve got a pretty fair history in track and field and cross-country running, with six individual national championships there to the conference’s name and frequent yearly representation at the national meets. That to me is a bit more legit of a championship pedigree than NCAA bowling, but you take what you can get, yes?
Here were the 2012 Big South volleyball standings:
1. Liberty 12-2 (25-8)
2. Coastal Carolina 10-4 (14-14)
3. High Point 9-5 (21-11)
4. Presbyterian 9-5 (13-18)
5. Winthrop 8-6 (14-16)
6. UNC Asheville 7-7 (12-20)
7. Radford 6-8 (16-16)
8. Charleston Southern 5-9 (13-18)
9. Gardner-Webb 4-10 (9-22)
10. Campbell 0-14 (7-24)
Conference scheduling is a partial double round-robin that probably has a rationale to it, but not one that I can easily find. The Big South has one of the more robust conference tournaments in volleyball, inviting the conference’s top eight teams. That would figure to make things perilous for any top-ranked club — one rought day and a season is down the tubes — but top-seeded Liberty did win the Big South tournament last year, in a four-set final over Coastal Carolina. They then drew eighth-seeded Minnesota in the NCAA tournament, and while the Gophers did win in a sweep, it was hardly a cakewalk — final linescore of (25-21, 25-10, 34-32).
The Liberty Flames, with their bird mascot, played a pretty strong schedule last year and still entered the NCAA tournament with a 25-7 record. In their non-conference, they defeated two Big East teams (Central Florida and Georgetown) and played, but lost to, two ACC teams (Virginia and Virginia Tech). This year, their non-conference is even stronger, as they’ll face teams from the Big Ten, Big East, ACC, and SEC, including one 2012 NCAA tournament team (Kentucky).
And they’ll do it with most of the same roster they had last season. Middle Loren Thomas was the team’s only senior last year. The roster as a whole is far smaller, but it’s mostly due to the departures of players who got very little or literally no playing time last year. The only other somewhat notable departure is outside hitter Ansley Gebben, who was previously a two-sport athlete for the Flames but will now focus exclusively on running track. Hey, they can’t all be Liz Brenners.
The accounting of notable returners must begin with outside hitter Caroline Douglas, the 2012 Big South Player of the Year. Remarkably, she was also Freshman of the Year, as it was indeed her first year of college volleyball. She led the conference in kills per set and was seventh in attack efficiency (best OH). Setter Jade Craycraft returns this year as a senior, having led the conference in attack efficiency (and with a not-insignificant kill and a half per set in output) while being the third-most prodigious setter. Just like Thomas and Douglas, Craycraft was first-team all Big South last season. Second-team outside hitter Lillie Happel also returns as a senior. Two back-row specialists, libero Gabrielle Shipe and DS Becca Haraf are back having played every match and set last year. Reigning Big South Coach of the Year Shane Pinder is in his tenth year with the program.
This is a small peak for the Flames, as they have four seniors on the roster. Their season begins 30 August at an invitational hosted by Northern Illinois.
A Chanticleer isn’t really a thing, in case you were wondering. It’s a metonymical reference to a rooster character from the Reynard the Fox stories, which….would take more words to explain than I care to expend. But just in case you were wondering, there it is.
Coastal Carolina are in pretty good shape for this year. Last year to this, they had minimal attrition, graduating two seniors (Jamie DiMaggio and Samantha Palka) and seeing one player transfer (Melissa McGwin, to Niagara). All had support roles; DiMaggio was the most frequent starter, and she started 9 matches. Everyone who attained all Big South status last year will be back, with first-team middle blocker Kindra Bailey leading the way. Bailey finished in the top ten in the league last year in blocks per set, aces per set, and attack percentage, despite missing three matches.
The team’s leading scorer, Gabriella Horvath, was on the Big South all-freshman team a year ago, as was middle blocker Eszter Nagy, who was third in the conference in attack percentage. Nagy has played for the Hungarian national team (Horvath is also from Hungary). The team will be even more international this season, as recruits from Bulgaria and Serbia join the program, among others. Setter Lauren Alejo returns having started every match and played every set last year.
Coastal Carolina’s season begins 30 August with a home invitational. Their most high-profile opponent is Tennessee.
High Point are probably a year away from their real peak, having had one last year. They graduated six seniors last year, though only three were regulars. This year they’ll have just a single senior, with six juniors on the roster. Setter Maddie Simpson is one of those juniors, having been the second-most prolific setter in the league a year ago. Returning outside hitter Kristin Heldt was second-team all Big South in 2012, as was libero Annemarie Chin, who will only be a sophomore in 2013. Her twin sister Wavie Chin, who played as a DS last year, is the most experienced of those returning, having played every match (with five starts) and all but three sets a year ago. A bit surprisingly, the Panthers return two of the top hitters in terms of offensive output from last year, Heldt and Chelsea Davis, who will both be juniors.
The Panthers also have some interesting new infusions to their roster. Head coach Jason Oliver has inked a three-player class of ’17 and has also added middle blocker Katie Vincent, a Utah juco transfer who will be a junior in 2013. High Point begin their season 30 August at an invitational hosted by South Carolina. They play one 2012 NCAA tournament team in their non-conference, Summit League champs IPFW.
If you’ve ever thought your team had a bad nickname, at least be thankful you weren’t saddled with that of Presbyterian College, who don’t even have an actual logo (just some interlocking typeface). The Presybterian Blue Hose, which, yes, really is about socks. I suppose the baseball teams of Boston and Chicago would balk at my balking at a team being named after plantar undergarments, but seriously, even yet another “Wildcats” moniker would have been fiercer than being named after socks (despite what the linked article would have us believe). Well enough about that.
Presbyterian have a new head coach this season, as Korrinn Burgess has been handed the reins. She joins having most recently coached an Alabama junior college, where she was part coach and part athletic director, overseeing such things as travel logistics and budgets for her team in addition to more traditional coaching duties. She has also been an assistant for the ACC’s Clemson. She’s got her first recruiting class for the Blue Hose, as three players have signed on for the class of ’17.
Recruiting will be even more of a focus in the offseason after this season, considering the current construction of Presbyterian’s roster. Along with the three incoming freshmen, there is just one senior on this year’s team, and a whopping seven juniors. No sophomores. The team have a chance to be very, very good next year, because of the seven juniors, six of them were either regular starters or very consistent role players a year ago. No reason to think they won’t be again, unless they’re supplanted by someone better, which, hey, so much the better, meaning they’ll be immensely experienced as seniors next year.
Libero Mary Trimpe probably leads the way in terms of that group, being named first-team all Big South last year after posting a very solid 5.29 digs per set. She’s also the best server in the conference who returns from last year, with 44 aces last season. Having a two-way player the strength of outside hitter Elizabeth Miler (not a typo, by the way, but I do wonder if it’s pronounced “Miller”) was part of the reason Presbyterian led the Big South team rankings in digs per set as well. Miler posted just better than a kill per set in an offensive support role, but also bagged two and a half digs per set. Setter Ashtin Frank, who was “just” second-team all conference despite leading the Big South in assists per set by a pretty wide margin, also chipped in two digs per set. Blocking looks like it should be decent, as Kelly Berryman and the team’s lone senior Andrea Barman return having posted good figures there. The one question I have is backbone offence, as no player returns who averaged three kills per set last year, and Miler is in fact the only OH who returns at all. But chances are that’ll look after itself.
I may not like this team’s name, but I do like this team quite a bit, and will even more next year. They have not yet announced their 2013 sechudle.
Here’s one of the most staggering understatements you’re ever gonna see: Winthrop are in a period of transition right now. From last year to this, they’ve got a new head coach — former Towson University head man Bruce Atkinson — and their roster this year contains one player that was on it last year. Yeah, you read that right, one returning player. Players commonly request transfers in great number when a new head coach comes in — after all, the person who recruited them is no longer with the school. But I’ve never seen anything like this. The Eagles had 11 underclassmen in 2012, and only middle blocker Rachel Lenz remains for 2013. Lenz was a regular contributor in 2012, playing every match and every set with 19 starts. Her blocking numbers weren’t very impressive, but she was pretty prolific as a scorer, notching two and a half kills per set. Her season was good enough to land her on the Big South all-freshman team. Only time will tell if she’s part of the picture in 2013, but I have to imagine she will be. Else, why would she have stayed?
The replenishment of the team’s playing ranks began with the announcement in mid-April of two transfers and three incoming NLI’s, a group which includes players who have seen time with the Norwegian and Ukrainian national teams. Another transfer and two more freshmen were signed about two weeks later. Setter Jessie Vicic’s transfer from Maryland-Eastern Shore was confirmed in June, giving the team an experienced option and their likely starter at that position. Outside hitter Jackie Landers’ transfer from Division II Azusa Pacific was made official a couple of weeks later. All told, in Atkinson’s first four months on the job, he added 11 players to the roster and even managed to find some with experience, meaning his roster, while still freshman-heavy, is not weighted down by the class of ’17. While it remains to be seen how competitive the team will be, I think that by itself should give him some consideration for Coach of the Year honours at season’s end.
Winthrop begin their season 30 August with the first of two home invitationals. Their most notable non-conference opponents are Clemson and South Carolina.
If this school rings a bell despite you not being particularly familiar with the conference, this is probably why:
The school gained some national recognition back in 2007 for having the tallest basketball player in NCAA history, Kenny George. He didn’t have the happiest of circumstances bring his college career to an end, though he has still played a little in Europe, which is nice to see.
As for volleyball, the team should be better this year than they were last. True, they did lose two seniors to graduation who played every match and nearly every set, but there were actually nine such players for the team a year ago, so they won’t be wanting for experience. With five seniors this year, four of whom are starters, this season should be a peak for the Bulldogs. All-conference returners include senior middle blocker Anna Moore, who was named to the second team last year after a season where she was top-ten in attacking output. Setter Katie Davis was the only Big South regular at that position last year, which is likely why she was named to the conference’s all-freshman team. She ranked fifth among her peers in assists. Middle blocker Meredith Foster, outside hitter Christine Lakatos, and back-row specialists Rachel Wells, Alex Stewart, and Bryn Pfeiffer return having seen all action last year, either very nearly or literally so. It was usually Wells who suited up in the off-colour jersey, but they shared the wealth as far as digs went, none of them posting a terribly impressive figure on her own but the three of them combining for over 7 digs per set.
Head coach Frederico Santos has signed three new recruits for the class of ’17, all players of size as the back row looks to be well taken care of for the foreseeable future. The Bulldogs’ season begins 30 August at an invitational hosted by Western Carolina. Their most noteworthy opponent this season is probably Tennessee.
Radford are probably due for a downswing. Last year, they had four seniors who are of course now gone to graduation, and they’ve also lost a transfer student as outside hitter Emily Carlin, the team’s leader in total kills last year, will spend her senior season with Temple. Seven incoming freshmen bolster the ranks, and while head coach Marci Jenkins has directly said that some of them will compete for playing time immediately, you of course never really know with freshmen.
As is probably predictable, the lower we go, the fewer noteworth returners there are. The only returning Radford Highlander in the Big South’s record book from a year ago is junior middle blocker Emma Deininger, who was ninth in the conference last year in blocks. Radford used two setters last year, Jena Braden and Christine Beckham. They entered the program together as freshmen in 2011, but only Braden remains with the team (you’ll notice the link for Beckham is an old one). Wasn’t able to find why that is. Two of the incoming freshmen are setters, Rachel Flores and Christine DeVries, so the 6-2 may well be re-formed. Although maybe not, considering Braden is the only holdover who played every match and every set last year — she’s definitely got the experience edge.
The team’s most proficient scorer, outside hitter Rachel Wiechecki, returns as a junior this season. There will be an obvious changing of the guard at the libero position, as the only three players listed at that position on the team’s 2013 roster are incoming freshmen. Whoever does take up the role will have pretty big shoes to fill, as the departed Katelyn Meeks was second in the conference in digs last year, and so was the team itself.
Radford begin their season 30 August with a home invitational. They do not play a power conference team nor any particularly likely NCAA tournament team in their non-conference.
Here’s another school I’d never really heard of before, but they’re charter members of the Big South (formed in 1983), so they’ve always been around. Last year, they just did sneak into the Big South tournament by finishing eighth. The situation at the top of this program seems a bit….well, a bit awkward, frankly. The team’s head coach last season was Al Givens, who I can only identify from a quote given in regards to the team’s final match last season. Just a single player was brought into the fold as a freshman recruit, in an announcement made by assistant coach Kim Lissinna. About a month later, Christy Mooberry was announced as the team’s head coach.
See what’s missing? Yeah, like I said, awkward.
(if you haven’t followed along, I’m referring to there being no announcement of Givens retiring or taking a new job)
With only 11 players next year, the season probably stands to be a lean one for the Buccanneers. Their leader is probably Meredith Parrott, a middle blocker who made the conference all-freshman team last year. She played every match last year, though her blocking numbers were actually pretty unremarkable. Setter Kirsten Struksnes returns for her junior season likewise having played every match last year, though equally likewise her performance last year was really not anything special. Other high-playing-time returners include libero Ashley Higginbothem and outside hitters Kayla Klinger and Siraya Windsor.
There just isn’t really any indication that this team are line for a breakout. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong. Charleston Southern start their season 30 August at an invitational hosted by Davidson. They do play one big conference team in their non-conference, but it’s one of the very worst such teams (DePaul).
The Gardner-Webb Bulldogs will probably be a little bit better this year than they were last. They did lose four seniors to graduation and one player to a transfer, but most of their top players are still around. This accounting of prior top players must start with senior middle blocker Tyler Cockrell, who would have been all-conference if this weren’t a pretty strong league for MB’s last year. I’m quite confident she’ll at least be second-team this year, barring injury or a sudden case of the yips. She was the team’s leading scorer and blocker in 2012, both by pretty solid margins. She’s not one of returners who played in every set last year, though — that’d be setter Heather Feldman, who was fourth-best among Big South setters in 2012, and libero Anna Pashkova, fifth among her peers. Other experienced returners include middle blocker Amanda Murphy and outside hitter Erin Anderson.
Third-year head coach Leo Sayles has brought in three new freshmen, who were announced last fall rather than in the spring. That’s kind of a switch from other announcements I’ve been finding. I don’t expect this team will win the conference, but I do think they’ll make the conference tournament this year, and they should probably harbour it as an expectation. Gardner-Webb begin their season 30 August at an invitational hosted by Belmont. No high-profile teams are on their schedule.
Best nickname and logo ever. And that’s not a question. The Campbell Fighting Camels didn’t have much fight in them in Big South play last year, as they went winless. They’ve got a new man at the top, as Greg Goral takes over the reins (are they racing camels too? God I hope so) after five seasons as an assistant at Morehead State.
He has brought in a nice incoming class for a first-year head coach, with two transfers and two freshmen signing on the dotted line. I do have to wonder why Jenny Tait would have an Australian flag right behind her as she signs, though. She is, of course, Australian, but do you have your nation’s flag prominently displayed anywhere you go regularly? I sure don’t.
Don’t mind me, I just notice these things.
The team will have only 11 players this year, so it’ll be a tight rotation. Middle blocker Lindsey Coats is the team’s most experienced returner, a senior who played every match and every set last year. She was ninth in the conference in attack efficiency. Setter Heather Wilson played in all but one match, ranking seventh among Big South setters last season. All other statistical leaders are gone, either to graduation or transfer.
Campbell open their season 30 August (because of course) at an invitational hosted by William & Mary. They actually do play some big-conference teams in their “preseason,” namely Georgetown, West Virginia, and Wake Forest. Maybe none are exactly volleyball powerhouses, but that’s still some strong scheduling for a team that went winless in the Big South a season ago.
The verdict
There’s an awful lot to like in this conference. Lots of strong players returning, and some intriguing new blood as well. Whoever do come out of this conference will still probably end up playing a seeded team in the NCAA tournament, but I wouldn’t sleep on ’em. I feel confident saying this is an “up year” for the conference itself, and will be for whoever emerge from it.
TNS SWAG
1. Coastal Carolina
2. Liberty
3. Presbyterian
4. UNC Asheville
5. High Point
6. Gardner-Webb
7. Winthrop
8. Campbell
9. Charleston Southern
10. Radford
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