TigersTigers

It’s almost that time again for the Tigers of the volleyball variety, who were unanimously picked to win the CAA for a 5th consecutive season. If you are a casual supporter of the team without much volleyball knowledge, I’ll give you a four-word rundown: you should be excited. The Tigers return basically all of their best players from a team that went 29-2 last year, including the two best attackers in the conference, Outside Hitter Victoria Barrett and Opposite Nina Cajic. All of the key players that they did lose have clear replacements: Fay Bakidimou’s graduation will be mitigated by the arrival of Julia Lenik, a highly-touted prospect from Poland, while losing Lydia Wiers in the middle clears the way for Erin Brothers to step in, who had to sit on the bench all of last season despite being good enough to start for any other team in the conference. Sarah Jordan, who made the all-rookie team last season, returns to start at setter again this year, while Middle Hitter Aayinde Smith, Opposite Irbe Lazda, and Libero Rachel Hess all have 2 years of experience in the starting lineup. Of the other new faces, the most interesting one is not a new face at all, but rather an eyebrow-raising transfer: Opposite Zyare Abdul-Rahim, who spent the last 4 seasons battling against Towson for Hofstra, has chosen to utilize her Covid year to transfer home to Baltimore, to play for the team that originally passed on her, and her old team’s biggest rival. It’s just another in a long line of events sure to make Towson and Hofstra hate each other even more than they already did. 
 

As for the Tigers’ competition, Delaware was picked to finish second in the CAA, and they do look the part. They too are returning almost their entire starting lineup, including 2022 POTY Lani Mason. Last year’s runners-up will be tough and experienced, but still don’t look to be a significant challenge to the ultra-talented Tigers. Hofstra was picked 3rd, and will also be at least as strong as they were last year. Overall, the CAA will likely take a step forward from 2022, as many key players are returning, and the addition of a solid program in Campbell also strengthens the league. Even so, the Tigers appear head-and-shoulders above the rest. 

1 hour ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Thank you. that makes sense. 
I’ll watch volleyball in the Olympics (and beach). It’s one of the more fun sports to watch and there’s much action.  Just wish they weren’t in flo so I could watch more. 
 

is video review new? Or only for the tournament? We were pretty  unsuccessful in our challenges it seemed  
 

Video review has been in college vb for about 7-8 years. It was in pro vb first, and has been extremely successful due to the installation of high-speed cameras all over the gym. College vb saw that and wanted to replicate it, but they weren’t willing to invest in the high-speed cameras, so it’s totally unreliable in college. Not to say that’s why we were unsuccessful with challenges tonight; Don’s decisions on when to challenge were, to put it mildly, totally idiotic. 

16 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

The last line is Towson athletics in a nutshell. Hey! We have a program and a good one!

 

what went wrong tonight?  Had it on but don’t know much about volleyball. Announcers seemed very pro dogs

The main issue tonight was that Georgia dominated the serve/pass game. Think of this as being kind of like the o-line/d-line battle in every football game. It isn't sexy or glamorous, but having strong linemen enables the rest of your team to flourish. In the same vein, the ability to put the other team under pressure with your serve, and to receive serves accurately and consistently, gives you a huge advantage on both offense and defense. Georgia served very well, with 6 aces against only 8 errors. More importantly though, they were forcing us to frequently have bad first contacts, meaning our setter was having to run long distances to retrieve the ball, and was not able to choose who she wanted to set, thus making our whole offense dysfunctional. Conversely, Towson only registered 3 aces against 11 errors. The lack of pressure allowed Georgia's first contacts to put them "in-system", meaning their setter is in a perfect position and can choose to set any player she wants. It doesn't matter how many great attackers you have; if you can't pass the ball, they never get a chance to attack.

Disappointing. A season's worth of good work was undone by one serve receive meltdown in Austin. They tried their best but it's just too difficult to beat good teams when you're routinely digging yourself a 5-point hole to start every set. If it was this group's first crack at the tournament, some of the poor decisions and ball control shakiness would be understandable. But it was a frustratingly naïve performance for a team that should be past that by now.

Game day!!! Let’s go ladies, get it done. 6pm eastern time (4pm my time), ESPN+. It’s the best time of the year!

Personally I think this is a very fun draw. Getting the recognition of earning a seed is very nice to see, as well as a first round matchup against Georgia that is exciting because Georgia is a big name, it’s a team that Towson can beat, and it’s a team they don’t normally get a chance to play. On top of that, Gregory Gym is one of the cathedrals of American volleyball. Should they win their first round match, they will get the experience of playing against the #1 team in the country and one of the sport’s cultural giants in front of 4,500 fans. I just hope they give themselves that chance.

6 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Then and Pitt are making it, anyone else from our schedule ?

I don’t think so. Furman lost in their conference semifinal, American ending up disappointing this season, and Princeton got shocked in their first playoff match.

Worth noting: Bowling Green, who we absolutely steamrolled at the beginning of the year, won the MAC yesterday. The result could go a long way toward determining if we get a seed or not for the tournament.

Serial winners. in their biggest match of the year, Towson came through with a monstrous attacking performance, and delivered a 3-0 no-doubter to head back to the big show yet again. This team was a clear class above the rest of the CAA, and assuming they return most of their players, they could very well be just as dominant next year. 

Moving on to the NCAA tournament, there has been a big rule change that will greatly impact our placement. The committee now seeds 32 teams instead of 16, and then sends the bottom 32 to locations that they are close to. In the past, only the top 16 teams were seeded, so we were never even in contention for a seed. This is why we were always sent somewhere nearby, and it mostly benefitted us because the conferences/teams in our area are not as strong as those in the midwest and west. Now, we could get a seed, but it would be a low one. This would mean we would be sent to our first weekend location based on competitive placement and NOT proximity. As a result, the whole country is open, and we would be destined to play one of the best teams in the country in the second round. It'll be a big challenge, but that's what it takes to be a top program. Bring it on, I say.

15 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

NE tomorrow. Did we play them this year?

Nope. They are old and definitely dangerous, but they don't have good depth of talent and there are some obvious weak points in their starting lineup. Basically, their 5 best players are all really good but after that they don't really have anybody who scares me. They are capable of being great, and this stage is never easy. But Towson is the better team, and should expect nothing less than to win. 

13 minutes ago, TigerFan54 said:

Shocker in the opening round: No. 7 seed W&M beats Hofstra, 3-2, after the pride led 2-0. 

Huge upset. I guess the Towson weekend messed with the good vibes/confidence Hofstra had built up to that point. Had the field remained in its traditional 6-team format, the Tribe wouldn't have even been in the tournament. They have been the cellar dwellers of the conference for the last 15 years. But, they took their opportunity and pulled off the stunning reverse sweep, grabbing their first tournament win in 21 years in the process.

It was another big season for Towson in the end-of-season individual awards! A big congratulations to Don on being named CAA Coach of the Year for the 4th time. Nina Cajic, Victoria Barrett, and Lydia Wiers made the First Team, while Aayinde Smith made the Second Team and Sarah Jordan made the All-Rookie Team.

As expected, Delaware's Lani Mason was selected as POTY. She is not the best player in the conference, but she is definitely the most indispensable to her team, and their reliance on her led to some crazy statistical output this season.

Hofstra's Chiara Cucco and Beatriz Alves won Libero and Setter of the Year, respectively. Both were deserved, especially Alves (who was likely in the running for POTY as well). They are Hofstra's two best players, and both can seriously ball. 

Kali Moore of Stony Brook earned ROTY, which was slightly surprising. She just edged out Hofstra's Izadora Stedile, likely because she was more consistent over the course of the season, while Stedile ran very hot and cold.

Tournament starts tomorrow morning. Now for the fun part!

Two statement wins to close out the regular season. The Tigers showed their quality in Match 1 on Saturday, absolutely steamrolling the Pride to set up the title showdown on the final day. Match 2 was a topsy-turvy affair, with Towson again breezing through the first two sets before Hofstra completely flipped the script and dominated sets 3 and 4. Not to be deterred, the Tigers raced out to a big lead early in set 5, and held on down the stretch to clinch the #1 seed. Worth noting: I had talked up the animosity between the two programs before the weekend. While Saturday was relatively tepid (as Hofstra had nothing to boast about all match), Sunday was extremely heated, as heated a match as I have ever seen between the Pride and the Tigers. The lingering bad blood from this weekend could be setting us up for a delightfully hostile rematch should the teams meet in the Championship. 

Speaking of the tournament, here are the matchups for round one, beginning Thursday:

• #1 Towson vs. #8 Stony Brook, 11AM
• #4 Northeastern vs. #5 Elon, 1:30PM
• #2 Hofstra vs. #7 William & Mary, 4:30PM
• #3 Delaware vs. #6 Charleston, 7PM

As promised, here is a breakdown of this weekend's pair of matches:

Hofstra (17-9, 14-0) @ Towson (24-1, 13-1)

The Stakes: The Pride and the Tigers are set to experience their most consequential matches against one another since the 2018 CAA semifinals, when the Pride withstood a furious Towson comeback to win in 5 sets. These two matches will decide who wins the CAA regular season title and gets the #1 seed for the upcoming CAA tournament, which will be hosted by the Tigers no matter what. Regular season titles are relatively meaningless, save for the fact that in the CAA, the regular season champion earns the right to host the tournament the following season. Not only are the two teams fighting for the usual bragging rights, but the Pride will have some extra motivation to break Towson's 3-year streak of hosting the playoffs. One win does the job for Hofstra; Towson must win both matches to get the #1 seed and keep the tournament in 2023. 

Why Hofstra's Record is So Weird: How does a team go from winning just 3 nonconference matches to going undefeated in one of the better volleyball conferences in the country? The answer is simple: Emily Mansur. Since she became Hofstra's head coach in 2014, the Brazilian native has carefully built a program that reflects her own personality: ruthless, pragmatic, audacious, and successful. She has shown over the years that she cares about one thing, and one thing only: winning the conference. She could not care less about nonconference record, RPI, rankings, or individual awards. As a result, Hofstra almost always does poorly in preseason, as Mansur experiments with many different players and lineups. Yet, they always end up playing their best volleyball come season's end, and have become a mainstay in the CAA tournament.

The Metil vs. Mansur Era: While Hofstra has dominated the series all-time, 37-17, the last 8 years have been far more contentious. With Don Metil and Emily Mansur at each helm, the teams have met 16 times, with the Tigers holding a 9-7 edge. In fact, they have split every single regular season series except for 2019, when Towson was undefeated. They have met twice in the tournament in that time as well, with each team winning once. In the modern era, these two programs could not be more even. And yet, they are fundamentally different. Despite having many international players, Metil employs the classic American model for success: Recruit players with great speed, strength, and jumping ability. Run your offense as fast as possible, and blow by teams with your tremendous athletes on the pins. Mansur is the polar opposite, in line with a more European approach to the game. Her players tend to be less physical and more technical. Vary the offense, don't be afraid to play unconventionally, and outclass teams with your superior ball control and quality. Which system is better? Who cares, it's a great watch.

Not for the Faint of Heart: In addition to clashing stylistically, Metil and Mansur also just so happen to be easily the two strongest coaching personalities in the conference. They tend to butt heads just about every time they play one another, and their teams follow suit. One mainstay of Mansur's program has been coaching her teams to give themselves the psychological edge by any means necessary. She has been known to coach her players to celebrate brazenly, physically intimidate opponents, and trash talk frequently. This doesn't sit well with any team, but has always been especially grating on the Tigers, who have developed a tangible aura of arrogance during Metil's tenure. While he does not deliberately instill the behavior in his teams the way Mansur does, he certainly doesn't do anything to stop it, and the Tigers are no strangers to nastiness themselves. Throw in a few unpleasant recruiting battles, decommitments, and social media shenanigans, and you have quite a fun time on your hands. This weekend will be the latest installment in the continuous mounting of bitterness between the two programs, and what do you know? They just so happen to be the two best teams in the league as well. 

This Year's Pride: It is easy to point to attackers as impact players on teams that you don't watch frequently. After all, they score the points and make the headlines. But Hofstra's two best players occupy the non-scoring positions, which is a big reason why they're so much better than expected. Setter Beatriz Alves and Libero Chiara Cucco, both Sophomores, are both the type of player that make everyone around them a little better. Their consistency, ball control, and defensive abilities have allowed the Pride's attackers (who are not as strong individually) to excel as a unit. It is reminiscent of Towson's spotless 2019 campaign, wherein a talented setter made the rest of the team's individuals coalesce into a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The Pride are buoyed offensively by a quartet of pin hitters: Senior Zyare Abdul-Rahim (a Baltimore native who Towson passed on), Junior Yagmur Cinel (the most improved outside in the league), and Freshmen Izadora Stedile and Clara Bal (who are both ROTY candidates). None of those players are great, but they're all good. That's why they're so hard to predict, and even harder to beat. 

Prediction: The Pride have been a revelation this season, proving to be about two years ahead of schedule in their rebuild. They are a group of talented and classy volleyball players, who have proven that they know how to win. And yet, they are going up against the Tigers, who have established themselves as the conference's prominent perennial winners. Even with Hofstra's season turning out to be the absolute best-case scenario, Towson is still the better team. I still believe that the Tigers should win both matches, and not doing so should be considered a disappointment. Yet again, it is Hofstra, a team whose MO for the last 8 years has been making things difficult. So, I'll go for what these teams always do against each other: a 1-1 split. Hofstra takes the #1 seed, and it hopefully sets us up for a rematch in the championship game. 

Cannot be understated just how big the two wins were this weekend on the road. It finally brings us to the main event of the entire CAA season next week: 14-0 Hofstra @ 13-1 Towson. I'm thinking I'll do a detailed breakdown of the matchup and provide a little context for the matchup later in the week. Long story short: Hofstra vs. Towson is the biggest sport-specific rivalry in the conference, and these 2 matches will be intense and emotionally loaded.

4 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

It still feels like it will come down to that last weekend at SECU against Hofstra. At College of Charleston doesn't have as much recent futility as it did before 2019. Towson has only played at Charleston three times (2-1 record) since 2019 with all the COVID scheduling. However, like you said last year Towson won a tough five-set match and lost one as well at Charleston. They have already lost five times at home this year and don't seem quite as formidable as usual. Of course, they should not be overlooked. 

I was just looking at the attendance for the year, and it looked like they had 1,000+ fans for the Rutgers match which stood out compared to other matches this year. Does anyone know if there was anything special done for that match, and if there are plans to try to do something similar for that last weekend against Hofstra? 

Hopefully yes, but away at CofC has still been a problem recently, despite the 2-1 record. In 2019, Towson was undefeated, and Charleston finished last. And yet, they still forced us to grind out a tough 4-setter. In 2021, we were down 2-0 before coming back to win 3-2. Then, the very next day, we went down 2-0 again before coming back to force a 5th set yet again. In the 5th set, we erased an 8-point deficit and still ended up losing. Going there is always a problem, always has been, will never not be. I'd bank on us splitting the two matches this weekend. However, I also think Hofstra are due for a loss this weekend against Northeastern. 

Both the volleyball team and the athletic department marketed the absolute hell out if the Rutgers match, and it paid dividends. The trouble is all the conference matches are played in the early afternoon, because the matches must be played early on Sundays to give teams time to travel on Sunday evening. Playing a match on Saturday night and then Sunday morning is a pretty nasty turnaround, so all the Saturday matches are played at 1 or 2 PM. This has been a death sentence to attendance. In the past few years, Friday night games had been very well attended. The Saturday afternoon games are much more difficult to drum up support for.

A quick look at the league heading into the final two weeks of the season:

League Standings

1. Hofstra (12-0)*
2. Towson (11-1)*
3. Northeastern (8-4)*
4. Charleston (7-5)*
5. Elon (7-5)*
6. Delaware (8-6)*
7. William & Mary (6-6)
8. NC A&T (5-9)
9. Stony Brook (4-10)
10. UNCW (2-10)
11. Hampton (0-14)

The top 6 have all already clinched spots in the 8-team tournament field. Both Hofstra and Towson will have difficult schedules to finish the season, with Hofstra play Northeastern at home before travelling to Towson, and Towson travelling to Charleston (where they almost never win) before hosting the Pride. It is worth noting that during their bye week, Hofstra played Chicago State and lost. 

At the bottom, the last spot is likely to come down to Stony Brook and NC A&T. Both teams only have 2 games left, but Stony Brook should get 2 free wins against Hampton. Meanwhile, A&T will have to go to Charleston. I actually see Stony Brook overtaking them and claiming the 8-seed. 

Two home games this weekend against William & Mary, who is surprisingly in 3rd place. This standing is slightly inflated, as they have avoided all of the top teams in the league so far. They should pick up 2 losses this weekend, which will push them back into the pack. Speaking of, tournament seeding looks like it's going to be a mess up to the end. Hofstra (12-0!) and Towson (9-1) are clear at the top, while UNCW (1-9) and Hampton (0-12) have already been cut adrift. The entire rest of the league is sandwiched between 6-4 and 4-8, with everybody having either 4 or 6 games left to play. Those 7 teams will fight it out for the 6 remaining tournament spots, with Hofstra and Towson both already having clinched. Reminder that should both remain unscathed from here, Hofstra and Towson will meet at 14-0 and 13-1 on the final week of the season in Towson. Those two matches will determine top seed in the tournament, as well as who gets home-court advantage for next year's tournament.

Well, that's that. No undefeated season, no ranking, and probably not even an at-large bid should they not win the conference. Oh well. Pressure's off now. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, and just play our best for the rest of the season, like we always thought we would have to do. Get 'em tomorrow. 

Yep. Not only that, but we also closed the gap between us and #25. Michigan and UCF both had bad weeks, so they are now tied at #24 with 79 points. We were 84 votes off of 25th last week, now we're just 27 votes away. It now feels like we're just one bad week by a couple competitors away from getting that coveted meaningless number next to our name.

Edit: Also worth mentioning that we shot up 10 spots in the RPI to #33.

42 minutes ago, TigerNation said:

Do you think we finally crack top 25 this week?

I don't think so, but we will probably gain a few votes. We got 36 votes last week, and #25 WKU had 120. I don't see us picking up 80-90 votes from this week alone.

Well, shows what I know. I thought this weekend was going to be one of the most difficult of the whole season. I certainly did not expect two stone-cold ass-kickings.

Day 1 was a somewhat sloppy and defensive affair. Several of Towson's players did not have good offensive performances, but it didn't particularly matter since Delaware couldn't score on them to save their lives. What really tipped the scales in Towson's favor was their ability to not just contain Lani Mason, but to completely shut her down. She did lead her team with 10 kills, but it took her 12 errors to do it. In fact, Delaware's entire team hit a combined -.019. It is a very rare occurrence for a team (let alone a Top 100 team) to hit negative in a match. That just illustrates how thoroughly Delaware's offense was outclassed by Towson's defense on Saturday.

Day 2 was tactically not at all the same as Day 1, but the result was the same: a 3-0 slaughter. Instead of stifling the Blue Hens, Towson blew right by them with a monstrous attacking performance. The Tigers hit .400 as a team, with every single offensive player in the lineup having a good game. Very quickly, this match turned into a straight-up highlight reel, with every player taking huge swings, almost as if they were in a competition to see who could hit the ball the hardest. It still is true that Delaware is good enough to catch Towson out and beat them on a bad day. But Sunday's match was proof that when Towson is playing well, nobody in this conference can touch them. 

One final note on Nina Cajic: She raised her hitting percentage again, to finish the weekend at .445. This should move her up to 2nd in the nation, only behind a middle. As previously stated, middles should always have higher percentages than pin hitters, as they attack the ball less often and in more advantageous circumstances. Basically, Michigan's Jess Robinson is leading the nation with a percentage of .483, but due to their positions, Cajic's .445 is actually more impressive.

2 hours ago, RundaPower said:

I thought that his new contract raised his base to the “J” grade.  That would mean that hes over $100k base . He could have left for multiple jobs  over the past 5 years.  I hope that he stays.

Yep, it looks like his base pay actually got bumped to $102k. Looks like they're making more of an effort to keep him than I would have expected. 

1 hour ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Sounds like Steve will be looking for a new volleyball coach at years end. So is life as a mid major but it’s always good when coaches move up from here as it means they had a level of success!  
maybe our resident volleyball poster would know but how much door big schools pay volleyball coaches?  Any potential big Jobs out there?

 

Currently, Don's base compensation is $85,000 a year. With performance bonuses and camps (A huge moneymaker for all college vb coaches), he probably ends up making between $100-120k. Meanwhile, basically every Power-5 coach is paid 6 figures for their base compensation. For P5 teams that are not traditionally strong, coaches are usually making between $120-$200k. For good teams, you can generally expect about $250-400k. The highest earner in the sport is John Cook of Nebraska, who is paid $675,000 per year. With camps and other income, he is a millionaire. 

There's no question that he'll be gone soon. The highest Towson would probably ever be willing to go for him would be about $100k, and he can make more than that in his first season even at a bad P5 school.

Bowling Green is actually a very strong team, and it says something that we absolutely steamrolled them and didn't really even care. 43 is about what I expected, we finished last season at #66 (11 spots behind JMU), and spent most of 2019 in the 40s (although we finished it at #30). Before that, it was mostly 65-100 from 2014-2018.