TigersTigers

Hooray for 16-0, but the team did play poorly today. This match and the Rutgers match were their two worst performances of the season. Both matches should have been sweeps, but ended up turning into grinds. But that's just how it is sometimes. No team in any sport has their best day every day, and good teams make themselves tough to beat when they're having a bad day. It still stands that right now, this Towson team knows how to make themselves very tough to beat. 

Looking ahead to next week, these Delaware matches are starting to look extremely tough. Early on, Delaware looks to be the second best team in the conference. Both teams are undefeated, but Towson has only played the 3 newcomers, who will all finish in the bottom 5 this season. Delaware, on the other hand, has already beaten Northeastern and CofC, who will both finish in the top 5. They are one of the oldest teams in the CAA, and have already won numerous close matches. Like the Pitt tournament, this upcoming weekend will tell us a lot about both of these teams.

On a different note, Nina Cajic continues to have the most impressive individual season I've ever seen from a Tiger. She somehow managed to raise her already ludicrous hitting percentage slightly, to finish the weekend at .444. For a frame of reference, she had 13 kills and 2 errors today, for a hitting percentage of .393. That performance would be considered a masterclass by any team in the nation, but it actually lowered her season average slightly. 

Deserved. Absolutely outrageous numbers from Cajic this weekend. For those of you who don't fully understand volleyball statistics, hitting percentage is a stat commonly used to identify how effective an attacker is for their team. It reads just like a batting average, but is measured by the formula (Kills - Errors) / Total Attempts. If a player takes 10 swings, gets 5 kills, and makes 3 errors, her percentage will be .200. If she makes 3 kills and 5 errors, her percentage will be -.200. A negative percentage means you are hurting the team more than you are helping it. A good team will want their outside hitters hitting between .180-.280, their middles hitting between .300-.400, and their opposites hitting between .240-.340. Middles are always expected to have the highest hitting percentages, as they get fewer attempts and they don't have to deal with any out-of-system balls (ie. when the pass and set are not ideal). 

So how good was Cajic this weekend? She had 43 attempts, made 2 errors, and had 32 kills. (32-2)/43, for a percentage of .698. An opposite who is consistently half as effective as Cajic was this weekend would be considered a generational player. For the season so far, Cajic has an efficiency of .442, the highest I have ever seen for a Towson pin hitter. She is currently fifth in the nation in this statistic, only behind four middles. Nina Cajic won't win CAA Player of the Year because Towson has too many other good attackers, so they don't have to rely on her as heavily as Delaware does on Lani Mason, or Elon does on Leah Daniel. But the fact is, she is the best offensive player in this conference, and she will be playing high-level professional volleyball once she leaves Towson.

14 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Detailed write up. Curious to what your connection is to the school/program. You seem like quite the fan and knowledgeable on volleyball 

These days, just a fan! I was a student manager for the team when I was at Towson, and I've also coached DIII college and club in the past. I just really enjoy playing and watching volleyball, I follow the CAA closely but I also watch lots of Power-5 and professional. I thought I would lose interest after graduating and moving away, but they keep getting better and better and pulling me back in!

It really doesn't matter much, but any hope of getting ranked this season hinges on going completely undefeated all year. They probably won't get ranked during the entire month of October, but once the RPI comes out they might have a chance if they hit 20-0 or 22-0. With conference basically starting for us this weekend (Hampton was not a realistic challenge), I figured I'd do a little breakdown of the rest of the season moving forward with the benefit of having seen nonconference.

9/24-25: Away vs. Stony Brook. They are slightly improved from the last couple of seasons, when we beat them 3-0. They are driven by their two outside hitters, Kali Moore and Leoni Kunz, who comprise about half of their offensive production. They are fairly good in attack, but they are not a good blocking team at all. They dig a lot of balls, but that will be very difficult to do against our extremely potent attack. I expect Towson's numerous quality hitters to shred Stony Brook's block and win both matches without too much hassle.

10/1-2: Home vs. NC A&T. One of the strongest teams in the MEAC before they left it in 2020, and did well in the Big South for the one season they were in it. Despite losing both matches, they showed pretty well against Elon in week 1. They rely even more heavily on their two outsides, Naiya Sawtelle and Hannah Howell, than Stony Brook. This bodes well for Towson, who have excelled this year at shutting down their opponents' pin hitters. They have a strong program right now, but Towson should win both matches, maybe dropping one set over the course of the weekend.

10/8-10/9: Away vs. Delaware. This could be trouble. Delaware looks like a top 4 team in the conference this year, and they will be psyched up to beat us on their home floor. On top of that, they have the best individual player in the conference, Lani Mason, who comprises 42% of their offense all by herself. She got 35 kills in their 3-2 win over Northeastern last Sunday, which is tied for the highest in the nation this year (with another one of our later opponents). Best case scenario: Mason is limited to about 15 kills and Towson has no trouble with the supporting cast, who reluctantly have to take on more responsibility. Worst case scenario: Mason erupts for 25 and the supporting cast thrives as we devote all our energy to stopping Mason. Towson is the overall better team, but this is the first major roadblock of the season.

10/15-16: Away vs. Elon. This one is tricky. Elon should be a very good team, but they inexplicably had a horrible nonconference. On top of that, they did not look super convincing in their week 1 wins over NC A&T. They still have mostly the same team as last year, when they were 3 points away from winning the conference. This includes 2021's Setter of the Year Haylie Clark, this year's preseason POTY Leah Daniel, and the best libero in the conference, Jordan Gower. There is no reason a team with this much quality should be 4-7 right now. If they've found their footing by mid-October, these will be the two toughest matches of the season. They are probably the only team in the conference with talent that can rival Towson's, but if they keep playing the way they are now we'll walk them. No matter what, they'll have revenge on their mind, so this should be another significant challenge.

10/22-23: Bye. There is one home nonconference match this weekend against Chicago State, who does not belong to a conference this season. They are a mediocre team except for Yanlis Feliz, the other player in the nation who has gotten 35 kills in a match this year besides Lani Mason. Beyond that one match, she has not been as prolific or efficient as Mason has. They are a good blocking and defensive team, but their team offense has been poor. That said, this will be one of the biggest matches on their schedule since they don't have a league, while Towson could lack a degree of intensity. It won't be a cakewalk, but Towson should win.

10/29/30: Home vs. William & Mary. The Tribe have been the whipping boys of the conference for years, but they do look better than usual this season. They split their two matches vs. UNCW on week 1 but looked like the better team for the most part. They pose a threat through their offensive balance; their top 4 attackers all have a similar number of kills and 8 players have made significant contributions. Teams like this are difficult to gauge, as you don't know which player is going to kill you on any given day. That said, none of their players are all that strong, and the offense-by-committee method can only take you so far when you come up against a team like Towson who does the same thing except all of their players are better. W&M haven't beaten Towson since 2013, and I don't expect that to change this year.

11/5-6: Away vs. CofC. Another tough road weekend. Charleston has been a thorn in our side ever since they joined the conference, holding an 11-6 record against us. They had a slightly disappointing nonconference, but they are big and physical just like in years past. Their best player is middle hitter Claire Campbell, but they have 6 players with at least 50 kills this season and have never been the type of team to ride just one player. By this point, they will probably have established themselves as one of the top teams in the league. These will be two high-pressure, high-level matches a long way from home against a team that loves to beat Towson. Both matches went to 5 last season, and we can expect something similar this season.

11/12-13: Home vs. Hofstra. The final regular season test will be a homestand against Towson's biggest rivals in this sport. These two teams have played a series of heated and downright nasty matches over the last decade, including last season when they traded 3-1 victories in Hempstead. That said, what made the matches so intense in the past was the similar competitive levels of the teams, and that could be missing this year. Hofstra looks to be firmly middle-of-the-pack right now, still trying to rebuild after their 2018 title. In attack they are buoyed by the trio of Clara Bal, Zyare Abdul-Rahim, and Yagmur Cinel who populate both pins. However, in just about every major statistical category they are average. If we're still undefeated by this point, these matches will be very hyped up. But the fact is that Towson should win both matches, and anything else would be a disappointment. 

So, final verdict: will Towson go undefeated this season? Honestly, they might. They already did it in 2019, and this team is better than that team. Delaware, Elon, and Charleston will be the three toughest weekends, and all of them are on the road. But, no matter how you break it down, the fact remains: top to bottom, Towson's players are better than any of their opponents'. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll just win. Sports don't work that way. On October 8, they will walk into Delaware's gym 16-0. On that day, the real tests begin. No matter what, win or lose, it'll be fascinating to watch.

Basically a bye week for them to start conference play, Hampton was unanimously picked to finish last in the conference this year.

On an unrelated note, I'd just like to mention here for no particular reason at all that Pitt wrapped up an undefeated week by plastering #5 Ohio State 3-0 at home earlier this afternoon. 

To me, it is unlikely that they will crack the Top 25 if they didn't do it this week. It'll be too easy to dismiss them after this week with the tried and true "they don't play anybody" line. And if they commit the mortal sin of losing one match? Forget it. But whatever, it just is what it is. It was nice that they received so many votes, I only expected a small handful.

The good thing about being a fan of a non-revenue sport is media companies don't really care about copyright infringement of volleyball matches. Here is a Youtube replay of the Pitt match, for those of you who missed it and want to see it: 

5 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Don Metil for Coach of the Year already, assuming he wins his fourth straight CAA title. Beating the No. 7 team in the nation on the road is unreal. Hope we enjoy this team for another season because I assume he's going to be a hot commodity after this win and if he wins No. 4.

If they win the conference again he'll be gone for sure. 

While everybody else is stressing out over football, I will go ahead and pour my thoughts out here. I just need to decompress a bit, and this space is as good as any.

As you all either know or will soon be finding out, Towson defeated #7 Pitt on the road this evening, 3-1 (25-12, 25-23, 16-25, 25-18). It was, without question, the best volleyball match Towson has ever played. Pitt may not be quite as good as they were last year (when they made the Final Four), but make no mistake: They are unquestionably a top 20 team at minimum, and they are the best team Towson has ever beaten. They already have wins this season over Hawaii, Texas A&M, Cincinnati, and BYU. But not Towson. And we didn't just beat them, either. We smoked them. They didn't even belong on the floor with us. It looked like we were the team that had just been to the Final Four. Yes, they played an awful match. I don't care. We made them play that way. 

At just about every single position, Pitt is 3-4 inches taller than us. Our tallest player would be one of their shorter starters. Yet, right from the jump we played like we were the bigger team. We had 9 blocks in the first set alone. That is an unfathomable number for a team like Towson. Occasionally, a powerhouse like Nebraska will get like 12 blocks in a set against a bad mid-major team. Towson grabbing 9 in a set against Pitt? Unheard of. Over the course of the whole match, we out-blocked them 16-3, the final one coming on match point. We just looked, felt, and played big. Victoria Barrett is listed at 5'9". She's probably not even that tall. And yet, of all the offensive players on the floor, it was she who left her mark on the match. She attacked the ball 25 times this match. She scored on 16 of those, and only made 3 errors. 64% of the time that Barrett attacked the ball, it ended up on the floor on Pitt's side. For an outside hitter, that is crazy. Outside hitters usually have low hitting percentages (between 15-30%), as they are often put in disadvantages situations where scoring is highly improbable. Not Victoria, not tonight. It was a career-defining performance on a program-defining night, on the back of a win earlier today against American that we would have considered program-defining 5 years ago. 

Of course, the whole season won't be like this. This Towson team is good, but we're not THAT good. We're not a top 10 team. We will not make the Final Four, we will probably not make the Sweet 16, and just making the tournament again would constitute a successful season for us. For now, this win doesn't mean all that much. The American match was more indicative of how our season will be (3 tight and nervy sets against a strong mid-major). But maybe, just maybe, it'll make a couple more people in the volleyball world say "oh yeah, I hear they're pretty good" when somebody brings up Towson. Maybe it'll make just a few more people show up for home games this year. Maybe it'll makes us get just one more good recruit that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It feels like the culmination of something. But maybe, just maybe, it's the start of something instead. What a day to be a Tiger. 

It has been a slow and steady rise for women's soccer since Coach Vettori took over. They are laying the framework for what could be a really great program. Field hockey's progress has been slower, but they also have improved under Coach Jackson and they certainly started from a lower point. Getting the dedicated field hockey field will prove to be huge for them long-term.

While everyone was watching football yesterday, this happened 

Unfortunately, the 3 opponents this week offered no real challenge. Thankfully, there are some tougher non-conference tests to come. Princeton, Radford, and Rutgers will all be fairly tough next week. The week after, though, should be brilliant. They will head to Pittsburgh on Sep. 9-10 to face Bowling Green (one of the strongest teams in the MAC), American (who has dominated the Patriot League for 15 years), and #6 Pitt (who made the Final Four last year). This is the type of nonconference schedule I've been hoping for, and these next two weeks will be a very good indicator of just how good this team is right now.

The 2022 Volleyball season began today, and as the resident volleyball guy on this forum, I figured I'd start a thread for this season as the Tigers go for their 4th straight CAA title. Early signs are promising, with two 3-0 victories on opening day over Norfolk State and East Carolina. The team returns many high-quality players from last season, including Senior Middle Lydia Wiers and Junior Opposite Nina Cajic. Fay Bakodimou has opted to utilize her COVID year and return for a fifth season on the outside, where she will be joined by a very good transfer from New Mexico State, Victoria Barrett. Setter is the biggest question mark position, with two new players entering the starting lineup for the first time: Senior Katie McCracken and Freshman Sarah Jordan. Expectations are as high as ever; the Tigers were voted first in the preseason poll and are heavy favorites to return to the NCAA tournament. The real question, though, is if they can take the next step and claim a Power-5 scalp in the tournament. The pieces are there, here's to hoping it comes together. 

A very good match tonight. What satisfies me is the fact that we played pretty well, and it just wasn’t enough to win. Outside of the first set, it was well-contested, and Penn State certainly had to think harder than they would have wanted to. By now we’ve established ourselves as a mid-major power, but we’re still not quite good enough to challenge the big boys. We should have a team that is fairly similar in quality next year, hopefully we can get back to this point again. 

 After waiting two years for it, the team will finally get the rematch against Penn State they've been hoping for. This is the best chance we'll ever have to beat them, they're an unseeded team this time and are significantly weaker than they were two years ago. We're certainly not favorites, but this is absolutely a winnable match.

Absolutely crazy match. The best thing about it was both teams played great. It was extremely high-quality volleyball, and certainly a worthy final. A thrilling win, and it all played out in front of a great home crowd.

The regular season comes to a close this weekend with two home matches against middle-of-the-pack Northeastern. Two wins guarantees the #1 overall seed for the CAA tournament, two losses means no first-round bye. Northeastern is capable of beating Towson twice, they were one of the preseason favorites before getting absolutely decimated by injuries and Covid unavailability. When they are actually able to put all their best players on the floor at the same time, they are very strong.

Huge double-header coming up this weekend on the road against JMU. Both teams sit at 9-3, tied atop the CAA standings. If Towson wins both matches, it'll pretty much guarantee a first round bye for the conference tournament (top 2 seeds get byes, 3-6 play in the quarterfinals, 7-9 are eliminated). JMU has looked better than Towson so far this season, but the Tigers will be boosted by the full return of their best offensive player, Nina Cajic, who had missed the last 8 matches with a broken hand before returning on Sunday for some limited action against Delaware. 

Not the end of the world. It's better for them to have a loss anyway, takes some of the pressure off. A COVID-induced change has been made to the competition format this season. Similar to basketball, teams now play both games against the same team in one weekend. They capitalized on the newfound chance for immediate revenge, winning 3-1 this afternoon. 

On 9/13/2021 at 12:33 PM, Blazer49 said:

Props to the volleyball team.  To help some of us who do not know the volleyball terrain, any upsets in these 12 matches or were they exoected to win those matches?

It’s my time to shine! No, none of those matches were upsets. Navy, Princeton, Loyola and FAU were all good wins, but at this point Towson is a top-50 team that should be beating most mid-majors. I was a little disappointed to see no Power-5 teams on the schedule this year. Not only do we have a quality team, but our track record against the P5 the last couple of years has been quite good. Overall, the non-conference schedule was weaker than it should’ve been for a team that was expected to be this strong going in to the year.

It’s a winnable matchup, but will be tougher than last year. Dayton is gigantic, with a handful of starters that are 6’4” or taller. We will be considered the underdogs here.

I'm kind of baffled by this, but there was not a minimum game requirement to make the CAA tournament this year. As a result, Towson has actually made the tournament as the top seed in the North with a sterling regular season record of 2-0. They'll play Charleston in the first round, who went 4-4 but still managed to come out second in a wacky South Division. Northeastern plays JMU in the other semifinal.

Following back-to-back 3-0 victories over Delaware, the team is now 2-0 in conference and 4-0 overall. Despite having to replace 5 of the 7 starters from 2019, the team has retooled nicely and looks like a title contender again. One particular standout has been Nina Cajic, who is an early ROTY candidate. 

The format for this spring season is, unsurprisingly, different than usual. The league is split up into North and South divisions. The North has Towson, Delaware, Hofstra, and Northeastern while the South has Elon, W&M, Charleston, UNCW, and JMU. Each team plays 8 conference matches against only teams in their division. At the end of the abbreviated season, the top two teams from each division make the CAA tournament, which is hosted by Towson this season. There is an NCAA tournament this spring as well, although it will have 48 teams instead of 64. 

And that brings this brilliant season to an end. A spirited fight tonight against a superior opponent. Given the talent in the gym right now, this team could not have done any better than they did. 

As for next year, it seems a tad unreasonable at this point to expect a repeat. They still have plenty of talented attackers, but the biggest challenge will be replacing Marrisa Wonders. She is leaving massive shoes to fill, and there isn't really a clear frontrunner on the team now.

Extremely tense and kind of strange match. Neither team played their best. The word that comes to mind when thinking of this Towson performance is “gritty.”

If ever there was a time to beat Penn State in volleyball, this is it. This is not a vintage PSU team (although still significantly better than us, let’s not make two ways about it)