Two Ranked Classes in Two Years
 

It’s official. The incoming class is ranked 20th, joining the class from two years ago that was ranked 17th. You add the 2007 class that was ranked 23rd and those are the three classes that have been ranked.

The 2007 class were seniors in 2010 when Dayton was ranked the entire year and finished at #16 - the highest ranked team ever at the end of the season. That team was also 2 points from a Sweet Sixteen. It’s not hard to imagine how good UD volleyball could be the next couple years if theses women work their tails off.

http://daytonflyers.com/news/2018/5/...lass-20th.aspx


Also the announcement on the setter Josie Vondran added recently. I’m very excited she is left handed. Setters have an advantage attacking if they are left handed.

http://daytonflyers.com/news/2018/5/...man-class.aspx

I dont have a subscription to the website that publishes this ranking, but I’ve checked another website where people appear to have posted the list and if it’s accurate, only Dayton and Creighton are non-P5 conference teams in the top 20.

I like it. But it also means with the best recruits you should have the best team and highest expectations (which I think is generally true in the A10). Last year we were exposed a bit. injuries didnt help. But its time to get back on the mahogany train. Once you get on campus, your HS press clippings dont lift the medicine balls.

Last year was an anomaly, key players hurt and or out for the season. Did quite well considering. A little humility now and then don't hurt.

First...I think my headline is wrong. It’s two ranked classes in three years. The two ranked classes are separated by last year’s class of which Bridget is the only true sophomore this coming year. She is now joined by 3 redshirt sophomores from the class 3 years ago that was ranked 17th - Brooke, Jamie and Olivia. Getting these three an extra year hopefully will turn out to be a good thing because they are now a year ahead of this year’s ranked class.

Second, yes we had some injuries last year, but we still should have been a much better than we were. I think we lacked leadership more than anything last year. TH teams have always had a strong leader on the court and I didn’t see or feel that last year. Dayton VB history is filled with stories of Horsmon pushing players to step up their leadership roles. One of those was Libero Adrienne Green. She wasn’t a natural leader. Maybe because Adrienne played with her twin sister Robyn who was a hitter and it was Robyn who had a better prep career. But it was Adrienne that finished her collegiate career in the NCAA record books ranked 9th all-time in career digs. Anyone who watched a match with Adrienne on the court clearly saw her leadership skills. Can anyone make a case for who was the court leader last year? Looking back it seems easier to remember critical times during matches when we seemed more lost in focus than a leader rallying the team.

I think one of the keys to this fall will be a clear leader or leaders on the court. I love Bruins fiery personality. I see a lot of Adrienne Green’s competitive nature in Margo. Krafka was a very talented Libero and had a great career, but others on her teams were the leaders. I would love for Margo to step up her court leadership this year. I also liked what I saw from Jamie as a freshman. She wasn’t the leader two years ago, but she also wasn’t a wall-flower out there. She can lead and this fall I’d like to see her step into that role, especially if she plays all 6 rotations.

Adrienne wasn’t the only leader. She had support from Setter Erin Schroeder, OH Jamie-Lee Richards, OH Nicole Bateman and OH Kortney Norris. These ladies were in total control of the team on the court when they played. We need to find those personalities on this year’s team. And those players need to lead the players this summer to work harder than ever before. I wonder when the last time a Dayton team had a players-only practice during the season? During the Green-Schroeder-Richard-Bateman era they would call a players practice occasionally when they had been given a day off if the leaders felt there was something to work on. That’s how hard they worked. It’s the work-effort that has driven Flyer Volleyball. I think we’ve lost a little of that and we need the right leadership to get it back. It’s always been the key to the program’s success.

As far as expectations are concerned, we will play the toughest schedule ever for the program. 44% of the roster will be freshmen (8 of 18). (The 2019 class only has 2 recruits so I expect some redshirts in the 2018 class.) 67% of the roster this fall will be freshmen-sophomores (12 of 18).

All that said, we also return 7 players who have been solidly in the starting rotation a lot of matches. We have more Top 100 and Top 250 players than ever. We have more All-conference players returning than any other team.

We are VERY young and VERY talented. I expect us to win the conference, but it will be interesting to see if the coaches vote us as the favorite in the preseason.

I also expect us to COMPETE against our tough OOC schedule and knock off someone. However, 8-5 or 7-6 might be our record heading into conference play. I’ll be okay with that if we COMPETE in those losses.

One side note, I’ve heard tOSU’s recruiting class this year wasn’t even top 50. So Dayton won the recruiting battle in Ohio this year.

Recruiting class rankings - I’ve now seen that BYU is probably in the top 20, so that would be 3 outside the P5s. Dayton would still be the school that recruited the most above expectations in the top 20. However I think there is a school that I’ve seen in the top 30 that even surpassed Dayton’s great recruiting. I’ve seen a breakdown that shows Texas State as number 30. (Who? Lol) They must have landed a big time recruit this year. Everyone else on the unofficial lists I’ve seen of the top 30 are P5 schools.

It wouldn't surprise me if Mackenzie Weaver stepped into a leadership role. She seemed to be calling out things a lot at the end of the year when she was on the court.

Texas State is not that big of a name, but they have 38,000 students.

For recruiting purposes, I just got this from my daughter's program from Coach Horsmon regarding expected athleticism...

"For an attacker we are usually looking for someone that is around 10' as a starting point. If they are a 6 rotation outside and super skilled we may be open to a kid a little lower than that. Both of our current 6 rotation outsides coming this year are about 6'0 tall and touching around 10'3. (This class will be ranked inside of the top 20 in the country this year though just for some perspective.) Our middles and 3 rotation right sides should always be over 10'. Setters may be lower but again would need to be really skilled. I'd like to see setters approach touching at least 9'8 if they are going to run a 5-1 and block. We do factor in how intense their lifting and jump training is before their arrival. Rule of thumb here is the more athletic they are the more gains they will make when the get here. We have kids who are average athletes and have only picked up an inch or two on jump. We have super athletic kids that have picked up 4-5 inches. "

and this from Wittenberg's coach:

Over the last 2 years, the physicality of D3 has gone off the charts. Each team in the D3 Elite 8 has at least one 10’ touch. Most have more than 1.

Our 2017 D3 NCAA Runner-Up Wittenberg team was:
6 Rotation OH 5’10’’- touching 9’7’’
6 rotation OH 6’0’’- touching 9’6’’ but hit harder than most D1.
MH1 6’0’’ touching 9’9’’
MH2 6’1’’ touching 9’11’’
RS 6’4’’ touching 9’11’’
(sub) middle 6’1’’ touching 9’7’’

This Spring, this is where we’re at:
Both OH’s are at 9’8’’
MH 1 still at 9’9’’
MH 2 up to 10’
RS recovering from injury but expected at 10’ by Aug
(sub) middle up to 9’11’’ (a freshman who made HUGE strides in college level weight training).

Top D1 teams probably have a 10’6’’ minimum their players have to get to. Penn State is around 10’9’’.
Miami, OH (D1 Mid-Major) exceed all of our numbers at Wittenberg by about 2 inches more per position; in some cases 4 inches more.
However, lower level D1 programs do not have the level of physicality that we have at Witt.

Ten years ago for elit D1 teams, a 10’ touch was considered very good. Not anymore. Penn State’s players all blew by that 5-6 years ago so 10’ 6”+ doesn’t surprise me. And now we are seeing so many 6’5” tall kids entering college an 11’ touch isn’t far off.

Where the heck do these young women come from? 6’ use to be so tall for a girl. Not anymore.