TigersTigers

Towson emerges from their toughest road weekend of the season 1-1, with a 3-1 loss to the Blue Hens on Saturday followed up by a 3-2 win on Sunday. The two front runners in the conference looked like exactly that, and I would be willing to put money on the CAA Championship match being a rematch in November. There honestly isn’t that much to say about the weekend that we don’t already know. Saturday was bad and Sunday was good, and that’s what it will come down to when these teams inevitably meet again. I will say that we’re definitely seeing some growth from this team, and that was apparent today. The setting was much improved, and the out-of-system defense looked a lot more coordinated and cohesive today. Shout out to Sarah Callendar, who was absolutely terrific in both matches this weekend. She attacked confidently and very cleanly, only making a combined 2 hitting errors across the series. That style pairs perfectly with Vic Barrett, who racks up kills but also tends to compile more errors as well. With Callendar at her back taking really good care of the ball, it gives her more of a green light to take risks and be aggressive. Lastly, the biggest positive from the weekend was the return from injury of Erin Brothers. She wasn’t super involved on Saturday, but on Sunday she showed just how big of a difference her presence can make for this team, putting up 10 kills with zero errors. In fact, her and de Mango combined to hit .586 from the middle on Sunday against a Delaware team that usually has a huge advantage over their opponents in that phase of the game. Overall, it obviously wasn’t a perfect weekend, but this team is clearly improving, and the second match was the best one they’ve played all season so far. If nonconference instilled some mild doubts in this team’s ability to win the conference with a new group of players, this weekend silenced them. The Tigers still have what it takes.

The Tigers wrap up a satisfactory opening weekend to conference play with two wins over W&M, sweeping the Tribe on Saturday and then holding on for a 3-2 win on Sunday that actually wasn’t as close as the set score might suggest. Despite blowing sets 3 and 4 in the second match, the Tigers were never really in any danger as they immediately went up by 8 in set 5 and put the game to bed. Some quick fire thoughts: - Victoria Barrett will almost certainly be CAA POTW, with a combined 45 kills across the two matches. Clearly the best player on the floor, and that will be the case for most matches this season. - Ball control has been an issue for Towson for a while, and it’s an even bigger problem this year. The setters are inexperienced and inconsistent, and Don recently alluded in an interview to the fact that their starting jobs are not totally secure. Sarah Callendar is a solid OH2 but is a liability in serve receive, and Barrett has never been the steadiest passer. Sydney Stewart looked pretty good this week, but the serve receive unit is still shaky and it makes the setting job even harder. - Ava Nakai has slotted right in to the starting lineup at the second opposite position as a freshman, and is an awesome secondary weapon to have. She is very athletic with good fluid arm talent, and even reminds me a bit of Nina Cajic, the best player ever to put on a Towson jersey (who is absolutely tearing it up for Tennessee these days). Thanks in large part to her, Towson still has the best core of pin hitters in the conference. - This team really misses Erin Brothers, who is still out with an obviously long-term injury. In her absence, both Kendall Minta and Mackenzie Whyte have seen playing time at the middle position, with neither being all that impactful. Ylenia de Mango is very good, but second middle will be a weakness until Brothers returns. Next up, it’s a road trip to the defending champion Blue Hens, who opened their season with a pair of sweeps over a hapless-looking Campbell. These will be two big matches, but it makes me miss the old scheduling format, wherein you would play two different teams in a weekend. Now, the two favorites will play at the very start of the season, and will never meet again so there’s never really an opportunity to make adjustments or track head-to-head progress.

The Tigers end a thoroughly unexciting nonconference 9-1, having settled on some lineup choices and solidified some things. Freshman Ava Nakai has been a welcome addition at Opposite, putting up good numbers on relatively high volume. Vic Barrett looks outstanding on the left after a mildly disappointing 2023, and W&M transfer Sarah Callendar has emerged as the second outside hitter. So who is their first conference opponent? What do you know, it’s W&M! The Tribe have been the conference cellar-dwellers for 20 years, but have recently built themselves into a more robust and respectable program. We’ll never know why Callendar chose to leave the program, but I can’t imagine the Tribe are thrilled about it.

Update: alarm bells are not ringing.

The game of musical lineups continues. A bad and preventable loss today. Even playing at their absolute worst, Towson managed to stretch this match to 5 and only lost by two in the fifth. Even so, Tennessee Tech is a team that should not be giving the Tigers problems at all. If they don’t bounce back against Charlotte, alarm bells will be ringing.

An interesting opening day, to say the least. Seeing the team today made me glad that our nonconference schedule is not as hard this year, in all honesty. Not because they’ll be bad, though; there’s still considerable talent and depth on this roster. Moreso because, as evidenced especially by the first match, Don has no idea who is going to start for him. We saw a ton of different lineups, the players who played poorly in match 1 played well in match 2, we basically have three brand new setters, and everybody was spotty. The one constant was the play of Senior Victoria Barrett, who will carry a huge load offensively this year for the Tigers. She was outstanding in both matches, and will be looked to as the unquestioned on-floor leader. One mild concern is the absence of Erin Brothers, who is expected to be a big contributor in the middle. She was not dressed for either match, obviously dealing with an injury.

Surprise surprise. The Tigers are back at it again, ready to push for a potential 5th CAA title in 6 seasons. Last season, they were heavily favored to repeat as champions yet again, but it didn't turn out that way and their golden generation exited without the exclamation point we thought they would have. Now, they return with a very different roster. It certainly won't be a complete rebuild, though; the Tigers still return plenty of firepower, including Preseason POTY Victoria Barrett on the outside. They are also very strong in the middle, with Erin Brothers and Ylenia de Mango expected to start, and Sydney Stewart will be a defensive lynchpin at libero. The question mark positions are setter and opposite. After starting for the Tigers at setter for two seasons, Sarah Jordan became the first starter to voluntarily leave the program since I started following the team in 2014. She does not yet have a clear replacement. The opposite position has been a HUGE strength of Towson's ever since Don Metil became coach, but Nina Cajic and Irbe Lazda are gone, leaving Zyare Abdul-Rahim (somehow in her 6th year) as the proverbial next-man-up. There are definitely questions to be answered, but the Tigers have made at least the conference semifinals every single season since 2015, and don't be surprised when you see them hanging around during that time of year yet again.

Yeah, I’m with you, the schedule is boring as hell. But I really don’t get it. This team will still be a top team in the CAA. Maybe not completely dominant, 4 championships in a row level, but still very competitive. This is shaping up to be like the 2014-2017 seasons; we’ll go almost undefeated (if not completely undefeated) in nonconference, and then enter conference play totally untested.

Here’s some cool news: Fay Bakodimou, who played for Towson from 2018-22 and won 4 CAA championships, just recently signed a contract with Cuneo, a team in the Italian Professional League. This is the best league in the world, hands-down, and many players who play there are making really good money. This is awesome for Fay, who had been playing in her home country of Greece since graduating from Towson. It is the equivalent of a basketball player making it to the NBA!

Another non-surprise. Cajic completed her 4 years with Towson, becoming the single best player in program history in the process. She will move on to a very strong program; the Lady Vols made the Elite 8 last season and are an outside contender for the National Championship. At the very least, this graduate season in the SEC will bolster her resume, and she has the potential to land a big contract in one of Europe’s top leagues in the near future. Best of luck to her.

None of these others are particularly surprising or damaging. Sara Wasiakowska and Aayinde Smith are both graduating from Towson and moving on to grad school, and got proper senior night send-offs. Jas Purakal is a backup Defensive Specialist who rarely played.

Big loss. Towson has not had a starting-caliber player voluntarily leave the program before graduating since 2014. One starter was kicked off the team in 2017, and one graduated a season early in 2019. Other than that, there has been extremely low turnover in the starting lineup from season-to-season. There has been considerably higher attrition among non-starters, in large part because the starting lineup never changes. Don is an all-or-nothing coach, you’re either one of his favorites or you’re not. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here; since Don arrived Towson has been extremely savvy and active in the transfer market, picking up a boatload of high level players from the portal. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again.

And the run comes to an end. Congratulations to Delaware, who played an unreal match and deserved the victory. Statistically speaking, Towson actually played a good match too. It was high level volleyball and Delaware are a team worthy of ending the dynasty. Nina Cajic, Irbe Lazda, Aayinde Smith, Rachel Hess, and a few others now say goodbye to the Towson program. I want to congratulate all of them on forming the nucleus of the best Towson Volleyball teams of all time, and wish them all the best of luck in the future. As for those who do return, we can’t pout forever. There is still a lot of talent in that gym, and the Tigers will compete again for the title next season. Onward we march.

With a 3-0 beatdown of Stony Brook, Towson advances to their fifth CAA title match in a row. CAA POTY Nina Cajic led the way with 14 kills on ridiculous efficiency, and the Tigers completely outclassed the Seawolves to head back to the big one. Delaware awaits after a 3-1 win over Campbell in the second semifinal. These have been the two best teams all year, and they split their two regular season meetings as well. It’ll be a fun one; if you’re in the area, head on over to SECU and catch this one live at 7pm ET!

Yes, I would say that. The tournament is the tournament, and anything can happen, no matter who you are. But this Towson team has clearly gotten better over the course of the season, mainly on the defensive side of the ball. Sydney Stewart has improved significantly in her first season as the starting libero, and the block does a great job of funneling attacks to our back row defenders. It is not surprising at all that this team leads the conference in hitting percentage, hitting almost .300 as a team (good for 7th in the nation). But it IS surprising that they also lead the conference in opponent hitting percentage (the best indicator of a team’s overall defensive strength), holding CAA opponents to just .154 hitting for the season. The shakiness and personnel uncertainty of nonconference is gone, and I really like the way this team has been playing the last month. One more note: The Tigers did lose one of their starting Middles, Erin Brothers, to an apparent knee injury during Saturday’s match against Northeastern. I can’t say for certain what the injury was, but it looked bad and she did not dress on Sunday. My guess is that she will miss the rest of the season. Brothers had been having a great Sophomore season, so it’s definitely an untimely and unfortunate injury for her. In her place, we got to see Junior Ylenia de Mango start for the first time this year on Sunday, and she did not look out of place at all. A tough injury, but definitely not an insurmountable one.