It will be here before we know it. I'd like to get some thoughts from those in the know about what we expect this season. I'm no insider, but I'm really ready for Aggie Volleyball to become a force within the conference again. Is this the year that it happens?

Force would be a stretch. I think they'll be in the top half, and are likely an NCAA tourny team. But it's hard to be a force in a conference that has 2 of the premier national forces in t.u. and nebraska.

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But it's hard to be a force in a conference that has 2 of the premier national forces in t.u. and nebraska.

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You don't have to win the conference to be a "force" in it.

I'd say the Aggies would be considered a "force" by most people if they were a consistent 3rd place team that could beat up everyone below them and mess around with the two top taems.

$Bill need to step up here - we need a new perspective in Aggie V-Ball to get to the top

$Bill need to step up here - we need a new perspective in Aggie V-Ball to get to the top

A lot of our success this season will hinge on how quickly we can get the new Middle Blockers to an acceptable blocking level. They probably won't be expected to carry much of an offensive load, so any offense from the freshman middles would be bonus, but they have to be able to put up solid blocks or our back row defense will get eaten alive in the big 12.

Ball control should be improved from last year. Kelsey Black has had a lot more time to train as Libero and hopefully will pass even better than last year. Also, I wouldn't be surpised to see some of the freshman Tori Mellinger at libero, as she was considered one of the top ball control players in the state coming in. If Mellinger does take that role it would free up Black to sub in for any struggling hitters, as she is probably our best back up outside hitter.

We have consistently had good offense when we have good passing for the last four or five years but the main problem has been not having good enough passing to run a good offense and becoming too predictable with Ammerman taking a ton of swings. She has a good enough arm to take a lot of swings and still be effective, but against the big blocking teams in the league we will have to control our passing or it will be too easy to know where the ball is going.

As previously posted, Texas and Nebraska are head and shoulders above everyone else in the league and are two teams being seriously considered as national championship contenders. We probably have a chance at beating Texas since we always play well against them, but more than likely we go 0-4 in these matches.

A lot of people are expecting big things from Iowa State this year after their appearance in the regional final of the NCAA's last year (Elite 8 level, I believe). We should be able to at least split with them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they beat us twice.

Kansas State is a perennially good team but lost some good players last year and we should be able to beat them twice.

Baylor is probably going to be better than last year and I would say is in a similar position as us. I would be happy with a split with them.

OU should be improved over last year, but I think we still have the better talent than they do. They have a great setter who now has a year of experience under her belt, and they tend to play very tough defense and frustrate offensive teams into making errors, but we are capable of beating them twice.

Colorado is in major re-building mode with a brand new coach (Liz Kritza from Tulane). She is a heck of a coach and they have a decent amount of talent on that team, but it will probably take more than a year or two for her to turn that team around. They will be a force to reckon with in the future though as Colorado is quite a hotbed for high school volleyball talent (Ammerman and Schevnikhoven as two examples). In the future she will probably be keeping a lot more of that talent in-state. Hoepfully we go 2-0 against them this year.

Texas Tech is also in re-building mode with a new coaching staff, but probably less starting talent than Colorado. We should definitely sweep that series.

Kansas and Missouri are both decent teams but shouldn't be significantly different than last year. I think talent wise we have an advantage, but I bet we slip up in one of the road matches with these two teams. Likely 3-1 or 2-2 in those four matches.

Of course OSU still doesn't have a team so that'll be no contest (literally)

With 11 big 12 volleyball teams and a total of 20 conference matches, I foresee us going anywhere from 13-7 to 10-10. I know the seniors really want to leave it all out on the court this year and make the NCAA's, but its gonna be tough relying on two freshman at middle blocker.

Good point 2011. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a force on the national scene, but you're right, if it goes that way it could happen. I stand by that it will be hard, because it seems like it's always t.u, Nebraska, and then everyone else kind of tends towards the middle, but it could happen.

Thanks for the synopsis drumbeat.

Drumbeat, did having those three freshmen on campus in January give them a good foundation for the fall? Is this something we'll see more of?

BBRex, I can't answer your question, because I don't formally know enough about the program/volleyball in general, but everything I heard was that the team did very well in their spring season, even after losing a good number of players.

I assume these freshmen played a part in this success. And like any other sport, can't hurt for them to come in early. They're almost like Sophomores by the time they play their first official matches. It's always a big deal for football players to come in early, and with volleyball players getting a chance to play real matches with the team in the spring, I think it's got to be at least as big of a deal.

So, it sounds like they certainly helped the team, and I assume coming in early is good for them too.

But then again, I admit that I may totally misunderstand the situation.

The Big 12 Coache's Poll was released today. The Aggies were picked to finish 4rth, behind the Sips, Huskers and Cyclones. If we finish that high in the conference I think that will demonstrate real progress.

I think a lot of it will depend on our record if we finish fourth. If we are solidly in fourth with two or three wins ahead of the next person, we will likely make the NCAA tournament, but if all the league teams beat up on each other like year's past and we just squeak into fourth place I could see us getting not taken to the NCAA's again.

Going into the season, the only teams most everyone predicts as locks for the NCAA tournament are Texas, Nebraska, and Iowa State. I'd like for A&M to get to the point where we are perennially being picked as a lock for the tournament before the season even starts. A lot of that starts with recruiting great talent, and we haven't been bringing in top-notch talent the last few years. Maybe the new facilities at Reed Arena will be a boost for recruiting.

The most important thing is to take care of business against the conference teams at home, and hopefully pull out a win against Iowa State like we did last year, which would go a long way toward building our resume. We also have to keep from having the classic slip-ups against lower quality teams on the road. Unfortunately it doesn't look like our pre-season schedule will give us much of a chance for any quality wins, with the possible exception of Virginia and Saint Mary's. If we lose one or both of those, it's really going to hurt our Resume as those are the only decent teams we will play out of conference.
(Although you can't really fault the coaches for wanting to get a few easier games under their belt while trying to integrate two new middles in the first few weeks of the season.)

I think if this team can just be consistent and beat all of the teams they should beat, it will be a good season, and we should be in a great position come NCAA selection time.

Is Reed really that much of an upgrade for volleyball? I mean, I assume that the players' training facilities, weight rooms, etc. won't change too much, but if it were me, I would prefer to play in the Holler House where the fans are right on top of the opponents yelling in their ears. At Reed, everyone will be a ways away, and that place is going to seem really empty given the size of it vs. our attendance.

Although really, attendance always starts out pretty good, and then just dies off towards the end of the season. Maybe if the team contends, that won't happen?

Ya I'm not too excited about it being played in Reed this year, I like the closeness of of G. Rollie better, helps you feel more in the action.

Hopefully once the season starts though Reed won't turn out too poorly.

From what I hear the locker rooms/ training rooms/ coaches offices and all the facilities are a significant upgrade from what was in G. Rollie.

That said, I do think attendance will suffer as a large portion of attendees tended to be on-campus living freshman and G. Rollie is super close to all the dorms. I think a lot of people will just forget about volleyball or be too lazy to walk all the way to Reed for it. Plus G. Rollie was considered by many followers of volleyball around the country to be one of the premiere places to watch a match due to the gym setup and closeness to the action.

All of the top-flight volleyball programs in the country have a dedicated volleyball gym, including our top competitors Nebraksa and Texas. What would have been ideal would have been to remodel and upgrade all of the other facilities in G. Rollie to more modern standards while still keeping the games at G.Rollie, but the university had other plans.

Does anyone happen to know any of the specifics of how they will set up Reed for volleyball matches? I had heard they were going to turn the volleyball court perpendicular to the length of the basketball court and curtain off half of Reed to make it feel more intimate and less cavernous, but I'd be interested in knowing if that is actually going to happen or not.

They're playing on the court as is. The old student end for basketball (by the main entrance) will be curtained. Students will have the across from the benches side with reserved seats in the courtside seats behind the benches. There was a map in my invitation for select-a-seat. Looks like they're trying to keep the crowd in the courtside seats. Public GA appears to be at the other end of the court. The map I have shows some floor seats.

Well I'm glad it sounds like they're trying to keep the student section courtside! Hopefully it'll all work out well.

Just win, baby!

Heh, we were always trying to watch the games during practice through the little slit up in the sweatbox. Definitely going to miss that atmosphere, but the new facilities are definitely a huge improvement. I've gotten the chance to play with the girls for a few practices and they definitely have a pretty cool setup there under reed

As far as the freshman MB situation goes, I was very impressed at how Miller played these first few home games.

I agree, both freshman middles looked quite good for being their first collegiate matches. I was more impressed with Miller than Katsmo even though Katsmo won the Big 12 freshman of the week award, but they are both playing very well to start things out.

Should be interesting to see how things go out in Cali this weekend. Playing on the road will be quite different.

On a sidenote, the matches in Reed had pretty impressive attendance. Hopefully the team keeps winning and the fans keep coming!

Well, we had our first chance to prove that we belonged in the NCAA tournament tonight, and lost a very close 3-1. For Coach Corbelli's sake, we really need to win tomorrow.

The press release claims the soccer team will be in the arena cheering them on before the teams catch a red-eye back home together. What are the odds that this actually happens? I feel like the soccer girls aren't going to be in the mood to watch volleyball. Too bad, they could use the support.

The soccer team WAS there...and they rocked the house with Aggie cheers! The USF fans didn't know hat hit 'em, and neither did their vb team.

[This message has been edited by JackBlack (edited 9/8/2009 8:27a).]

That's awesome. This is the reason why I like the smaller sports. If you ever see a basketball player or football player at another sport, they just sit there and play on their phone. Can you imagine those guys even showing up to this, let alone making noise?

JackBlack, might you be a member of the soccer/volleyball team?

It was an amazing site with half of the SFU gym sawing bosse's horns off and the other half looking on in astonishment. (No...not a student)

Haha so there were really that many Ags there to fill up half of the gym? That's awesome! Did you just take the trip to go watch, or do you live out there?

On the side of the gym that parents and friends occupied, roughly half were wearing maroon, maybe more since the soccer team was there. (Just a sightseeing coincidence)