Leah McNary, Lauren Smith, and Michelle Sicner are working hard during the offseason (Spomer/WBR)
Volleyball season ended back in December for the Creighton volleyball team. However, there has been a lot going on with the program over the past several months — enough going on from now until fall camp in August to keep them in the spotlight.
With spring practice finishing up not too long ago, the Bluejays have continued to work and make a name for themselves not only in the state of Nebraska, but internationally as well. Take a look at their updates from their current trip to Nicaragua and see how they are affecting lives while also growing together more as a team that returns all of their rotation players from last season and is looking to advance through to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament after falling just short the past couple of seasons.
I had a chance to sit down with head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth before the team left for Nicaragua this past weekend. Here are the different topics we discussed which should wet the appetite of any volleyball fan leading up to the upcoming season.
Spring Ball
The spring was a little different this year for Booth’s team. In the past there were players lost, injured or absent from participating from spring for some other reason. This year was different as all but one of the players from last season is returning for the fall and participated in this spring’s festivities.
“Where it is really advantageous is that you can do a lot of team play in practice, a lot of 6-on-6,” said Booth. “We had enough bodies that we could do a lot of competitive drills. Sometimes when you have 8 or 9, you still have enough to put 6 on one side but not enough for the other side so you are filling in with either coaches or male practice players. This year we had enough that we could do a lot of 6-on-6 that the players really enjoy. From January to March we do a lot of individual and small group stuff. Obviously team play is what they enjoy. “
The Bluejays played several matches during the spring period with varying degrees of success and several different venues. The good included a win against Iowa State at Carroll High School in Iowa and travels to take on Iowa, Kansas State, and South Dakota in the spring. Although Creighton didn’t repeat last spring with a victory over Nebraska, they still helped Wayne, NE, raise over $17,500 to help with recovery from tornadoes that went through the small Nebraska town last year.
Through all of those challenges there was a lot learned from the spring period:
“I think we did a couple of things. We have really been keying on our serving this spring. I feel like I am seeing progress. I haven’t seen it in a match yet, but I feel like we are really challenging them to be more aggressive behind the serving line. We will get more errors in the short term, but hopefully we can get through that. When men’s basketball talks about their defense ranking a couple of years ago, that is where we are at in our serving. That has been a huge priority with us.”
“We have also sped up our tempo to the outside set. I have seen progress with that. We are trying to create more opportunities for our outside hitters. We looked at our stats, and our Middles are getting hits at a pretty good clip, but our outside and pin hitters need to hit at a higher rate, so we are looking at ways to improve that.”
Biggest Surprise During Spring
Coach Booth had a lot of great things to say about the individual development of players during the spring, but freshman Kenzie Crawford was pointed out as making some of the more significant strides. After redshirting this past season, Crawford is hoping to earn some playing time in the fall, despite all of the returning players taking most of the rotations
“She redshirted for us this year. She is fighting for that setter spot. I am not saying she is going to get it next year, but we have seen great improvement from her. We have seen improvement from her and becoming a bigger leader. If she doesn’t get the setting spot, she is fighting for DS time as well. A lot of other players made great strides, but she is a great kid that has made more strides.”
Competition at the Setter Position
Michelle Sicner has had an interesting journey in her career at Creighton. As a freshman, Sicner teamed with Megan Bober to play a 6-2 offense using two setters. As a sophomore, the Bluejays returned to the 5-1 and Sicner mainly played as an outside hitter, while Bober continued at the setter position. After Bober’s graduation, Sicner returned to her natural position of setter last season and led the Bluejays in the offense. At the end of last season, Sicner was named to the All-Big East 2nd team and an Honorable Mention AVCA All-American selection. Heading into her senior season, it would appear she would lead the way at the setting position. However, it is not that simple.
In addition to Crawford being in the mix, during the spring, Creighton signed a transfer in Georgia setter Maggie Baumert. The local Elkhorn product is coming back to her home state and will compete at the setter position right away after playing two seasons for the Bulldogs. Georgia was 22-10 last season and Baumert helped lead them to the NCAA Tournament. Having Baumert in for the spring could help build even more depth and the challenges that go with it.
“I think that has been huge for Maggie to have a spring to get used to our system. Georgia was a little more pin-oriented than we are so getting Maggie used to that we set the middles quite a bit. One thing we wanted to get better at is using our back row attack more and she is very comfortable with that. Sometimes it is great to bring somebody into the gym that does something different so that other players can see that. She sees some things that we do well that she likes and the things that Georgia did well that we have thought might work well in our system.”
“She has fit in very well with the team. You are always nervous bringing someone into a team as you don’t know how it will affect culture. She has been very well received, they like her a lot and I think she is enjoying the team as well.”
With a roster full of players with experience, it will be interesting to see how it all works out, but Booth doesn’t have any worries. Sicner experienced the same thing when she competed with the veteran Bober.
“We have three great setters and they all have different strengths. Any of them could run the show and do a great job for us. We don’t know yet. I think it is similar to a couple years ago where we made a decision with the Bober/Sicner setter decision two weeks into preseason and we gave ourselves and end date that we needed to make a decision. I think it could be very similar to that playing to the strengths and weaknesses of each setter and who will make us the best in November and not just September 1st. I will say that all three of them are all great young women and great teammates. They all like each other. That has been great to see. But it does make for some lively competition.”
Team USA Opportunities
In February, Creighton sent five players to the US National Team tryouts in Colorado. Leah McNary, Kellie Browning, Jess Bird, Lauren Smith and Michelle Sicner participated. Over 246 players across the nation attended the tryout. While 12 players were selected to participate in a series of training and competition in China during June, 36 others were selected to be part of the US National Team that will train and compete at the end of the June during the Junior National Championships. McNary and Browning were selected as a part of the group of 36.
After the training portion of the program, the 36 athletes will be divided into three equal teams which will compete in a round-robin event June 27-30 in Minneapolis. The round-robin event may add an international team to increase the field to four teams that would complete June 26-30. This program is considered a second tryout for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Browning and McNary have the opportunity to get chosen for the main Team USA for volleyball. Overall, with the five that attended, Booth received some really great feedback on the athletes that attended.
“It will be an awesome opportunity for them. First of all, it is a big honor to be selected. We had a couple of players that were alternates. We really had a great showing at the tryout as a program. What a great opportunity for Kelli and Leah to play around other great players. That should make them better players. Anytime you are around players that are as good or better than you, it takes you to new heights.”
Trip to Nicaragua
You may have been following the team over the past week during their foreign trip to Nicaragua through Creighton Athletics or their Twitter account. Not only are they playing matches, but they are also doing community service for the area providing needed necessities that many of us may take for granted. Booth explained more about what they are trying to do.
“It is a definitely a volleyball mission trip as I would describe it. We will be playing the Junior National team of Nicaragua. They have a lot of players in their pipeline so we will see diferent players in different matches. It will be great volleyball.”
“Probably the bigger part is going into the schools and working with the kids there. We actually have too many bags of donated items we are taking down there. We won’t be able to take them all. We have a lot of school supplies, clothing, the soccer team has donated some balls, so we are taking a lot of stuff to give to them. I think it will be a great opportunity for our players and even our coaches to not only see a different culture, but also be in an environment where they don’t have all the privileges we have. I think it could be eye opening for all of them and I am looking forward to it.”
In their matches down there, they played in all sorts of environments: cement courts, sand courts, non-air conditioned facilities, and even other facilities where lighting has been an issue. However, that is a small price to pay for what they are doing down there.
Scheduling
Before leaving for the Nicaragua trip last week, the Bluejays released their schedule for the 2014 season. Again, the schedule is stacked with quality competition, along with a new twist coming to the conference season.
“You have to play the best to be the best mentality. We have a really tough non-conference.”
Non-Conference
The Bluejays will start the first two weekends on the roads participating in tournaments at Kansas and at Kentucky. The Jayhawks ended the Bluejays season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. Over the past two seasons these teams have played three times with Kansas taking 2 of 3. The Bluejays may have revenge on their mind there.
The Kentucky tournament is an interesting one with Northern Iowa, and USC joining the Wildcats and Bluejays. It will be a four year tournament where each school will host the other three. It starts in Lexington, KY, this fall and eventually will make its way to Omaha in 2017. All of these teams are potential tournament teams.
“USC is a perennial power, top 5 program year in and year out. Kentucky is a top 15 program. Northern Iowa has obviously been a great program in the Valley. So it is a pretty great opportunity to be a part of it and we are really excited about it.”
For the past several years, the Bluejays have hosted the Bluejay Invitational, but this year, they are hosting two invites. Former MVC foe Wichita State returns to Sokol Arena for the first time since Creighton moved to the Big East and will make a great feature match of the invitational. The second invite is called the Bluejay Classic with Illinois, South Dakota, and Colorado coming to town before conference season begins.
Squeezed in between the two invites is the relaunch of the Creighton-Nebraska series. The Bluejays get their opportunity against Nebraska during the regular season again. This year it will be down in Lincoln, but the Huskers will make their way to the CenturyLink Center in 2015. The return of the series is exciting for Booth
“It is really important for our state for Nebraska and Creighton to play. We have a lot of Nebraska players on both rosters, a lot of othe players know each other from Junior volleyball and it is a showcase of two programs that are top programs in the country and have an opportunity to show what great volleyball we have here. I think both coach Cook and I want the sport of volleyball to continue to grow.”
Conference Schedule
With the reconfigured Big East into its second season this fall, a lot of things are different when it comes to the volleyball schedule. They have added a new opponent, and the scheduling was done differently.
Providence will join the Big East in volleyball this season after spending the past several seasons as a part of the American East conference. A big reason for the different conference had to do with the lack of scholarships that the program provided. It is a bit of a surprise that the Friars are already joining the league this season, somewhat concerning the Creighton head coach.
“I was surprised that we added them this quickly. They need to make a commitment to volleyball. They are saying they are going to do that. I wished it would be faster than it is going to be. They are adding scholarships. The reason they weren’t in our league was because they didn’t have scholarships. Some may say, ‘well a team that doesn’t have a lot of scholarships you should be able to beat them.’ Well that isn’t always how we want to schedule. We want to schedule great teams. Our goal is to play great teams and make it to the NCAA Tournament. We are hopeful that the Providence administration will add their scholarships quickly and that they can build that program.”
Last season, the Big East involved the coaches to help get the conference season put together. With the odd number of teams (9) and the scheduling challenges of the configuration of the league geographically, the schedule last season was put together based on a recommendation by Booth on how to do it since the office that would work out the scheduling had not been established yet.
Now with the 10 teams in the league, similar to when the Jays were in the MVC, this season is a little easier to schedule and it didn’t require the coaches to provide so much input. “Thankfully the league office took care of it this year,” said Booth.
Incoming Recruits
The Creighton roster is already stacked with the 12 returning players, but the Bluejays plan on adding at least another three when fall practice kicks off.
- Marysa Wilkinson: Marysa comes to the Bluejays from down the interstate. The All-Stater from Lincoln Southwest can play multiple positions and could actually compete for some early playing time despite the crowded roster. “Marysa has played a pretty high level in Class A, but also Nebraska Juniors club ball and that is a pretty high level club. So she could adjust to the speed of the game a little more,” said Booth.
- Brittany Lawrence: Lawrence comes from North Platte as a 6’3″ middle blocker. She led her St. Pat’s team to a 30-3 record while recording over 400 kills. With Kelli Browning and Lauren Smith filling up that middle position, don’t be surprised if you see Lawrence redshirt this season. “The speed may take Brittany a little time to get used to, but I think she could be a phenomenal player for us and has a huge upside. I think she might just need some time to get acclimated,” mentioned Booth.
- Toni Tupper: Although not formally announced by the University, 6’3″ Toni Tupper from Lincoln Northeast will be joining the Bluejays in the fall. The three sport athlete (Volleyball, Basketball, & Track) will make her presence known just based on numbers from last season and career at Northeast–kills in a match (35) and in a season (511), along with most kills in a career (1,799). It doesn’t hurt that she can throw a shot put almost 50 foot. Booth could not comment about Tupper at this time, but we are under the impression in our research that she could be evaluated at the same level as Wilkinson based on the levels they played in high school.
Coach Booth is still undecided on how the newcomers will fair come fall. “I always have a philosophy of going into he fall and everyone has to earn their spot. It will be interesting to see what happens when the new kids come in. We are looking forward to them arriving at Creighton.”
Fall seems like a long way away, but it will be here sooner than you think. The potential of next season’s Creighton volleyball team could lead them to heights never achieved by the program. You can join them on August 22 in the annual Blue/White scrimmage to start out the season.