Quote from BSUBass77 on May 25, 2023, 4:34 pm

We have a pretty good idea who will be on the team next and who won't.

Who won't:

Lauren Ohlinger - One of the best outside hitters(OH) that BSU has had.  She will be playing for SMU next year.  Probably a better NIL deal.

Kayly Pau - Very tall, but she had serious health problems that may have affected her ability to play.  Hope for the best.

Allison Casillas - Graduated.  Not indication she will try to use her covid year.  I enjoyed watching her.

Dana Branavets - Freshman last season that played many sets.  I am not sure she was scholarship, so she could be looking.  No indication in instagram that she is on another team.

Ashley Hayden - Primary setter last year early in the season.  She has at least one year to play.  Her instagram show no new team but she has nau in small letters.  I liked her but she had big shoes to fill.

Sam Beschell - Had a hard time getting into the lineup.  Probably looking for more opportunities.

Jet Taylor - A very late addition to the BSU line-up as a Grad using her covid year.  She was an undersized middle blocker that played for Eastern Oregon.

** There is some indication that the locker room was not very cohesive last year.  But in a tweet video, Annie Kaminski mentioned that "this year we have really good team chemistry."  So that could indicate things are better this year.

Who is here:

Returning:

Jordan Miller, So OH who has an amazing twist on her kills that bends the travel of the ball.

Reagan Casey, MB who hasn't played much since transferring from Missouri State

Chey Day, MB that can play in the back row and played setter in three games when all were injured.

Kiersten Van Kirk, Opposite (OPP) - the top player in Montana in high school, found some playing time last year as a freshman

Nicole Jacob, Setter, limited action last year, but should have more this year.

Bella McGirr, Libero, freshman with limited action last year

Anne Kaminski, one of my favorite players from last year as a middle.  If she gets a good set, forget it.

Paige Bartsch, another of my favorite from last year as an outside.  She can literally hurt people with her power.

Elle Cotton, became the starting setter in some matches later in the year.  She will compete for the starting job this year.

New Players:

Qauro Bentley, XFER  from VCU using her covid year.  I have seen some tape and she has good power on her kills.  She was named to the all Atlantic 10 first team.  Maybe fills the gap of all-around this year.

Noelani Helm, XFER from Portland using her covid year as a setter.  I expect her to compete for the starter.

Breanna Mitchell, soph  XFER from Cal St Northridge, played nearly all sets as the Lib and was named all Big West freshman.  If thing go her way, she will replace Casillas as the starting Lib.

Bridey O'Conner, freshman OPP had a very successful senior season.  Likely sitting this year in favor of Bartsch.

Anabel Kotzakov, freshman and newest player, very high accolades during her senior year.  Played for a winning team.  Might compete for a starting spot or a regular sub.

Kayleigh Carpenter, fresh, All Oregon First team and conference MVP.  She will play Lib for BSU, but was an undersized OH in high school. She might have a spot as a

Layla Smith, the lone signee from the early signing period, fresh,  MB from Tex that was named to several lists as the top blocker.  I expect that she will compete for first sub off the bench in the rotation.  She graduated early and has been practicing with the team since January.

Keys to success this year:

Defensive Specialists/Libero - I am going to be critical of our coaches in that they invested in offensive power over the last few years and only gave scholarships to one defense specialist.  The coaches expected that our frontline players could dig and return as well as any of the defensive specialists.  As I watched games, this was evident that we were very weak on back court defense.  So what do we have this year?  Probably the best recruit on the back court is Breanna Mitchell who should start as Lib.  But we need to get Bella McGirr and Kayleigh Carpenter ready to sub in as DS.

Setter - Hopefully our defenders can pass the ball a bit better this year. I think one problem Ashley had last year was due to some bad passing.  With better passing, Helm or Cotton should be able to set the ball very well this year.  Nicole Jacob will compete to be subbed in and hopefully she will get opportunities.

Hitting - our attacks were just not where they needed to be last year.  Olinger had her number called too often in my opinion.  One of the best players, but if the defense knows she is going to get the ball, it is easier to anticipate.  Bartsch had a better percentage, but she could clean up her hitting errors. The best percentage was by Kaminski, but she got less than half the attempts.  Hopefully we can mix it up a bit more this year with a balanced attack.

Serves - Coach Garus is really aggressive with serves and rightly so.  Service Aces are very game changing, but serves that are difficult to pass to the setter are nearly as impactful.  Having said that, we lost some matches last year due to timing of bad serves.  Hopefully we can cut down the service error by 20% and finish out games that we should have won.

Blocks - we still have a lot of length on this team.  Not as much as before with Pau and Olinger, but Bartsch, Day, Van Kirk and Smith are all 6'2 or over.  Kaminski is 6'1 but might jump better than the taller girls.  The other key is longer setters.  Cotton is 6' and Helm is 5'10.  Setters spend half of the time on the front row and are key to blocking.

Coaches-  It's pretty difficult to be critical of a two-time MWC coach of the year, but last year he was out coached several critical times.  Utah State used to be the bottom dweller of the MWC and now they are near the top due to coaching.  Our five set losses are particularly concerning. That would be five losses that should have been wins.  Also of concern are home blowouts at the end of the season.  UNLV, Nevada, SJSU all losses that we didn't come to play.  And an 0-3 loss to Air Force where nobody showed up.  I am not ready to trade Garus for Rob Neilson of USU.  But we clearly need to have a positive direction for this program.  I think BSU will have a better season due to Garus and his experienced staff.