DS/L Gaby Arroyo has entered the VB portal according to a post on volleytalk.
Sczech is probably a long shot, but still available so a girl can dream. Lol
She is from the Houston area (Sugar Land, TX). Was the #32 recruit out of high school. Enrolled in January - early at Baylor, so will be finishing a double degree in communications/journalism in May 2025 - 3.5 years. And therefore a grad transfer, but not sure she is available to enroll in January and thus maybe she is taking her time to see where she would like to go. I did see another Baylor grad transfer is going to LMU this year and two last year transferred to FIU and Pepperdine. So UD is certainly not out of the possibilities to be considered. We did beat them in 5 and she saw what Lexie can do. Lexie would have been hitting into her block and the setter’s block - each paired with a MB. Sczech knows we are looking to replace Lexie’s offensive production.
Sczech is a 2-time Big 12 2nd Team selection.
Portal closes on Monday January 6th. Gaby has not committed to another team as of early Saturday morning per cvbtransfers X account. The A10 had very few players enter the portal. The two biggest names are Gaby and a MB from SLU that is a good player - 2nd team A10 this year. She is headed to Missouri. The other 2 SLU players in the portal have not landed with a new team. VCU had a L/DS enter who has not found a home. But VCU just picked up a new L/DS from Michigan St. I don’t know the new player but coming out of the Big10 she probably has some skills.
Loy has an OH drop down to DII and brought in a new setter from MO St. George Mason picked up a new 6’4” MB from North Alabama. And George Washington lost two hitters to Nevada and Seton Hall. The OSU OH/OPP I posted about above is headed to TCU. The Baylor OPP grad transfer Allie Sczech is still available. We might not be looking to add anyone else, but she would be a nice addition if we are.
There was movement for a bunch of players since yesterday, so that’s probably the case here with 3 days left. After that, the portal opens again in May for about two weeks, so players can still move.
We might want to look at playing North Carolina next year. I don’t ever remember having them on our schedule. They picked up 4 players from the portal from Illinois, Iowa St, LSU and Va Tech. That seems to be a pretty good day at the office for that program. They were 23-8 last year and had 5 seniors/grad students that won’t return. 8 freshmen and sophomores on their roster last year, and no one entered the portal. They lost to SC and NC St - all their other losses were to ranked teams. They beat Yale in the NCAAs and lost to National Champs Penn State in the 2nd round 1-3.
We picked up a new setter from VA Tech - Victoria, who also played her first two years at Utah. VATech had 7 players enter the portal - which says a lot about how the program ran last season. 4 of them have landed with new teams at Dayton, Western Michigan, North Carolina and Auburn. Those are solid volleyball programs. Auburn missed the NCAAs but the other 3 were tournament teams. Let’s see what happens to the other 3 VATech players, but there appears to be some talent in the players leaving VATech.
Gaby is headed home to play for Miami (FL) next season. Hate to see her go, but wish her well. She has enrolled for the spring semester, so will be with her new team for the spring season.
So I see previous walk-on Setter Ava Larkin is no longer on the roster. That leaves 17 players for this fall's team. You can now carry a maximum of 18 players and they can all be full-rides or a combination of "funding" of any kind. I do not know what UD has budgeted for their volleyball program. But it would not surprise me if Horsmon picks up another portal player during the May signing period - and probably a setter if anyone. We only have 2 setters now - both new to the program and the system we run. One is a 6'1" senior and one an early enrollee freshman who is an excellent player but short at 5'7". I have no idea if either of these players is at the level of Alyssa Miller from last year. But if the starter goes down again, I think we are deeper than last year and the one who has to step in is better than Ava. So as a setter group - I think we are in better position than we ended last year, but there is a lot of work needed to get ready.
And we might run a 2-setter offense. Hard to tell at this point because I have seen nothing from the one spring match. The other "issue" with a 2-setter offense is you need one more outside hitter. That is usually a very good thing and a positive in this offense. But we are replacing up to 4 hitters already this fall. Taylor had surgery and isn't expected back until sometime this summer. So right now Liana is our only returning starter up front. We have hitters. There is talent. But it's a lot of work to get all the connections between the hitters and setters down plus the blocking teams working in tandem well.
Next Spring match is March 13th at Frericks on Hausfeld Court against Kentucky. We aren't going to win this one 4-0 like Xavier. It could be more likely 0-4. But it's a great chance to calibrate where the team is at and how much has to improve and be worked on yet this spring and then into the summer.
Ava Liening a 6-4 MB who originally committed to Alabama. Played at great Ballard HS in Louisville. She's a 2026.
Stop posting while I’m posting…LOL. You can delete the thread I started 5 minutes ago
Looks like you may have deleted it? I couldnt find a lot on Liening but hey if you are 6-4 and come from Ballard that has to be worth something right? Id love to see another 6-6 on the roster....its the one kind of player we seem to have in the A10 that no one else does. Bama was 11-16 last year and 3-13 in the SEC. They brought in a bunch of transfers this offseason so maybe Liening wanted to play closer to home.
Yeah - I figured out I could delete it myself and should have told you that. Sorry. This is an option to replace Liana who is a senior. But there are also a lot of MBs - young freshmen - on the roster this year. In the past I would have said to take Luana’s scholarship. I guess I now have to say something like take her academic aid/grant?
Don’t look now, but I was shocked to read URI is bringing in a 6-5 MB freshman from San Diego. Those CA girls are usually pretty good, but I know nothing about her.
So the May Volleyball Portal season opens on May 1. We have 14 players on our roster right now. There are 2 additional freshman scheduled to arrive in the fall. 3 freshmen enrolled early and are part of the 14 noted. So we are sitting at 16. You can carry 18 now (pending court settlement approval.) if we are going to carry the full 18, we go after them now. We are heavy on redshirt and true freshmen, so if we can, there is room for veteran impact players. Evaluating talent to fit into TH’s systems is way above my pay grade. With all the freshmen and revenue sharing - I doubt we are looking for a development project for this year. So it will be interesting if we sign anyone and if so the coaches probably expect them to contribute this year or next.
Who knows where the budget is? Schedule should come out any day now. We will see how many matches and what kind of travel. I expect some reductions, even if it’s just much closer to home travel for OOC.
I shouldn’t be, but I am. The volleyball portal opened again today and I’m shocked at some of the big names from big programs that are in the portal. I’m also shocked at the big programs going after recruits. I would have thought they got who they wanted when the first portal season opened. To the best of my knowledge, Wisconsin has the most money by a mike - like $437,000. It drops way down after that with the limited info available - but I posted a list of any P4 I could find - over in the NIL thread.
where is Wisconsin getting all their money from? People are saying one of the players parents are billionaires and they have given a boatload to give Wisconsin this big financial edge. Lots of posts on the players are going for the money and that’s why they think so many big names are jumping in this May portal season. So there you have it…the cash grab has migrated to volleyball.
A10 entries - the Disu twins at URI are in. I believe one was ROY two years ago - but need to look that up. If they leave, big loss for URI.
For UD - we only have 2 setters on the roster. One is a 5’7” Freshman who enrolled early. The other a senior from Canada who we picked up from the portal in the fall. She also enrolled in January. I have seen neither play. But IMO we need to carry 3 setters and another freshman would probably not be the way yo go.
Best setter in the portal so far as I know - and more names will surface over the weekend, is 6-0 Jr Hanna Borer. Played at VA Tech and then TX Tech this past year. She is from Lewis Center, OH. I have no clue if we are even looking for a setter. Just seems like we would be. Can’t hurt she is from Ohio. Also, a lot of good setters transferred in the fall/winter portal season. Schools that needed setter mostly got one. Hope that can help us too if we try to land a setter.
Those VB programs with $150,000+
WI - $427k
Co St - $189k - must have a major donor too
MN - $170k
WA - $157k
MO - $153k
So in addition to a 3rd setter on the roster, and that is no reflection on the 2 we have. I haven’t seen either play. We just need to look no farther back than the Nebraska match to know we should have had 3 on the roster. No fault of the coaches. They had 3 and one had to leave right before fall practice started because of a personal matter. If we go the full 18 - maybe an opposite/RS hitter. There are a bunch of opposites in the portal. It’s becoming the position that seems to be stacking up. Portal closes on May 15th.
also, I realize the coaches know who is on the fall schedule, and could tell a recruit. But I would think it would help if the schedule was out - if it’s another great schedule.
So in addition to a 3rd setter on the roster, and that is no reflection on the 2 we have. I haven’t seen either play. We just need to look no farther back than the Nebraska match to know we should have had 3 on the roster. No fault of the coaches. They had 3 and one had to leave right before fall practice started because of a personal matter. If we go the full 18 - maybe an opposite/RS hitter. There are a bunch of opposites in the portal. It’s becoming the position that seems to be stacking up. Portal closes on May 15th.
also, I realize the coaches know who is on the fall schedule, and could tell a recruit. But I would think it would help if the schedule was out - if it’s another great schedule.
and the schedule was released Friday. And it’s a great schedule. I won’t have time to break it down, but at first glance I think it might be better than last year. Credit to all who work on these things but also probably our Sweet 16 appearance has to help. That and we almost always win the conference. If P4 teams know how RPI works, they are looking for teams like UD because we can help their rpi - and a loss to us is a “good loss”. Many of these teams aren’t playing to make the NCAAs. They know they are in. They are playing to get seeded and to host. They need a big-time rpi to do that. So UD should be very attractive because we put up a 31-3 record last year with a Top15 rpi. It’s hard for P4 programs to find OOC teams with a 90% win percentage.
Last night I looked to see how many players were still in the portal from the winter season - 356. At 8;30 pm on May 1 - that’s jumped to 392 and I assume there have been some commitments today. So I’m guessing 40-some have jumped in.
Portal players are up to 444 on the morning of May 2nd. I’m guessing about 100 players have entered for the spring portal season. I’m working off a 2nd party online service - not the actual portal - so there is a delay in updating.
No Flyers. URI has another player listed - a 5’5” setter. Probably not a big loss. The Disu twins are a huge loss for UNI.
Wichita State had a redshirt 6’0” freshman setter enter with 4 years left. If we are going after a setter, she is probably a candidate. I do not know the player.
here is the link to my source:
11 am on Saturday morning 5/3 and the portal number is up to 462. I know of a MB that committed to WI. Probably other lower-level players have committed to new programs in the first 2 days. So about 120 players have entered the portal during the spring period.
No update on portal entries. Duquesne’s OH Avery Hobson over the weekend. She will be a junior. Played in 112 out of 113 sets for the Dukes last year.
i’ve also heard SLU and A10 FOY, Addy Brus has entered the portal, but I haven’t been able to verify that. She will be a sophomore OH with3 years left.
those are both losses for those programs.
Flyer Sophomore DS Ella Joesting has entered the portal. She was a walk-on last year. This is probably economic. She can get a scholarship with another program. If that’s the case, you can’t blame her. She is still listed on the roster but showed up this morning on the above spreadsheet under Dayton. I check the school tab about every 2-3 days and she wasn’t there over the weekend. I think UD’s policy is to leave a player on the rosters until they officially commit to a new school.
Volleyball adds a junior L/DS from Illinois Lily Berry. She played in 85 of 114sets as a sophomore. Averaged 1.88 digs per set and she served some. For that position in the B10, that’s pretty solid. Picking up a player that has 2 years of B10 experience is always a good thing.
https://fightingillini.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/lily-barry/14966
Portal is up to 502 players. Many of the new players added this week have been Beach players - as that season just came to an end. And players signing with new teams is picking up, so that would take players out of this count - meaning the committed players are not in the 502 number.
The portal is getting to be a marketplace of mediocrity where supply is vastly outpacing demand.
It will be interesting to see as the years go by what positions are in great demand and when. Setters and Liberos “went fast” in the winter portal. It is somewhat slim-pickings for those two positions this spring. I think we need a 3rd setter on the roster. So we will see how that plays out. Looking overseas is an option too. The coaches apparently thought we either needed another L/DS or they took Lily Barry because she makes us better and has experience. I think we were very fortunate to pick up any player from a P4 conference that has playing experience digging some of tge best hitters in the country. We also do not need anymore freshmen/redshirt freshmen. So to pick up a junior is a good thing too.
