TigersTigers

A profound disappointment. The Tigers close the season with yet another 3-1 loss to Stony Brook, the worst team in the tournament. This is the first season since 2014 that the Tigers will not play in the CAA semifinals. Obviously, this group is not yet ready to win. It bears remembering that this team is very young, and there are several good pieces that will be back. The biggest thing they have back, though, is assistant coach Terry Hutchinson. He is an outstanding identifier of talent, and is very well connected in the volleyball world. It was primarily his recruiting efforts that got Towson the crop of players that would wind up winning 4 titles in a row. After a brief head coaching stint at Georgia State, he is back with the Tigers. The next season will be his third back with the team. It is at that time that we should start to see "his" recruits begin to come into the program. If the team is going to get back to that level, fresh blood is needed. We need another freshman class like the classes of 2018, 19, and 20. The right man is on the job, time will tell if the success of yesteryear can be replicated.

I did not get to watch the team at all the last couple of weeks, so I didn’t have anything to comment on as the regular season finished up. If you remove the penultimate week of the season, wherein the Tigers suffered two disappointing home losses to Stony Brook, the season has been a big success overall. With their win over Hofstra on the final day of the season, the Tigers clinched the 3-seed, putting them on Campbell’s side of the bracket. Their first round match will be a rematch against the Seawolves, which had to be the exact scenario the Seawolves didn’t want. After escaping SECU unscathed in the regular season, the biggest thing they would have wanted to avoid would be having to go back and show their faces there again. If the Tigers win that, they move on to face the 2-seed Camels, who they did not play this season. I do expect a revenge win in the first round; from there, it’s anybody’s tournament. Teams 1-5 are all pretty similar this season, so it’ll be all about who shows up and when.

I’m not sure why Elon is so good at destroying our perfect seasons, but it isn’t a big surprise that this team got caught on a rough day and dropped one. Despite a pretty rough loss on Sunday wherein the Tigers were up 14-12 in the 5th set, they still remain in first place in the conference. They will pick up two free wins on the road at Hampton next week, and will go into Stony Brook and Hofstra sitting at 11-1. Not a bad place to be.

Two 5-set wins on the road against the Tribe put the Tigers at 8-0 in conference play. To the outsider fan, this season so far probably looks like business as usual, with Towson dominating the league like normal. But, as evidenced by this weekend, that really is not the case. The Tigers struggled on offense for long stretches during these two matches, and instantly faced an 0-2 deficit on day 1 before absolutely roaring back and crushing the Tribe in sets 3, 4, and 5. Yes, they are undefeated, but that doesn’t fully explain the difficulty they’ve had. They’ve already gone to 5 sets 4 times, which was something they didn’t even do once the last time the went undefeated. That doesn’t mean the season has been disappointing or concerning though; quite the opposite in fact. The fact that this team has gutted out a bunch of tight matches and still remains unscathed is outstanding.

They hit #30 in the RPI at the end of 2019, which is the highest I can remember. In 2022, they actually were receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 (that’s the coaches’ poll. There is no volleyball equivalent of the AP Top 25). They got to the point where they were receiving over 50 votes every week and were the second-highest team out of the rankings. So by that measure, 27th is the highest they’ve ever gone. That year, they went on to be a seeded team in the NCAA tournament, meaning the committee viewed them as one of the 32 best teams in the country. To be clear, this team is not as good as 2019 or 2022. But they are definitely a contender in the conference

Two straight-set victories over UNCW push the winning streak to 15, with very little of consequence happening this weekend. The Tigers are firmly in the middle of the dog days, with their next three weekends all being should-wins against W&M, Elon, and Hampton. After that stretch is over, they finish conference with two more challenging weekends against Stony Brook and Hofstra. Having gotten through Charleston at home and Northeastern on the road, it should honestly be expected that they reach Stony Brook undefeated. W&M does have popular TikToker Sophia Van Name, but other than that fun diversion their program has regressed a bit this year. Elon hasn’t regressed so much as completely imploded; one of the most dangerous teams in the league just 3 years ago, they’re now not even a playoff team. And Hampton, as always, is a waste of time.

The pay in the CAA has risen significantly in recent years, for what it’s worth. As volleyball has exploded in popularity, most D1 schools are raising their pay to remain competitive. The latest publicly available data shows that Jason Kepner of Charleston is up to $112k. Emily Mansur of Hofstra has been there as long as Don has been at Towson and has won 2 championships, she’s likely above $100k as well (Hofstra is private). Even less relevant schools are trending up: W&M’s coach made $94k last year, and UNCW’s made $85k. Back in 2015, Don was making about $80k and he was one of the highest earners. Now, that’s the floor.

Speaking in terms of volleyball only, I’d take Metil as the greatest. Chris Riley deserves a lot of credit for taking the team into the CAA and turning a program with no history into a champion in just their 3rd year in the league. However, the success was short-lived; Riley jetted for Virginia Tech pretty much immediately, and by 2007 the Tigers were back to being an irrelevant team. Metil came into a program with a lot of talent but in huge turmoil. They were bad in his first season; since then, they have won at least 10 conference matches in every single season he’s been here. Since 2014, they have never finished lower than 5th in the CAA regular season standings, and since 2015, they have made the conference semifinals EVERY single season. Forget the 4 championships; since 2014, volleyball has been the most consistently good program at the school. This season so far has been one of his absolute best; not only has he taken a really young team and instantly brought them up to that same Towson standard yet again, he’s also shown more flexibility than ever before. He’s experimented with more different lineups than usual, and has also shown a willingness to change his philosophy. Usually a stubborn believer in the 6-2, he has leaned into a tall and athletic freshman setter in Peyton Meyer, slotting her in in a modified 5-1 offense. The best part about it? When it isn’t working, he stops doing it and changes personnel, which was a total rarity for him in the first 5 years at Towson. I speculated last season about the heightened pressure that comes with his huge salary increase; Metil now makes over $150k a year, putting him WAY above the normal salary level for a mid-major volleyball coach. That makes it clear the expectation for the program as long as Metil is there; the team is expected to be a consistent WINNER, not just a consistent competitor. If they were happy losing in the semis every year, they can do that while paying another coach half as much. In that regard, he may not be around for that much longer. But even if this last contract is the end, it’s been a hell of a run.

Two huge wins at home against defending champs Charleston to open conference play. This was way better than expected. The Tigers swarmed defensively as Charleston couldn’t get anything going in attack in either game, even totaling a ridiculous 103 digs in match 1. Going into this weekend, I had cautious optimism about the improvement we saw in non-conference. Now, we can drop the “cautious”. Towson even did it a little short-handed, with Taylor Pagan on very low use, clearly recovering from a nagging injury, and Destini Pickett not featuring at all this week. So is this team title-ready yet? Maybe not. Charleston was the preseason favorite, but it appears Hofstra’s may actually be the best team. The Pride went through non-conference completely undefeated, which is quite a rarity for them. Hofstra typically deprioritizes results in non-conference very aggressively, so the fact that they went undefeated while doing the typical Hofstra thing of heavily rotating their lineup means there’s some legit talent there. As for the Tigers, to be able to beat Charleston twice in week 1 is huge for a team with tons of underclassmen, and it will give them some belief that they can be the next great generation.

Non-conference comes to a close with the Tigers going 9-2 after a 3-1 win over Penn today. After dropping the first two matches of the season, the Tigers would go on to sweep through the next nine, with the biggest takeaway being (as is always the case in non-conference) some important personnel revelations. This team does not have the insane top-end talent of 2022 or the experience and chemistry of 2019, but they do have some interesting new faces that give the Tigers a bit of a different look from what we usually see. For starters, the Tigers have one thing this season that they almost never have: a tall, athletic setter. Peyton Meyer is a freshman from Omaha who is already getting significant playing time, mostly subbing in in the front row for the smaller, more technical Maisie Jesse. She does need a little work with set location, but the physical tools are there and she is a bit reminiscent of Kristin Spengler, another long and lanky setter who won two championships as the starter in 2020 and 2021. In conjunction with the use of a front row setter, it has opened up the door for Delaware State transfer Ella Sanders to play all 6 rotations as an opposite. Results have been a little spotty for her so far, but she was absolutely ruthless today. Taylor Pagan is a transfer from Colorado State who has instantly emerged as a lethal weapon on the left side, leading Towson in kills per set. However, she did appear to get injured against Princeton, and did not play against Lafayette or Penn today. In her place stepped Destini Pickett, a super springy true freshman who had easily her best weekend of the season so far. She will likely slot in as a quality option off the bench behind Pagan and the returning Sarah Callendar, and we hopefully will see more of her this season. One weakness of Don Metil's throughout his career has been his unwillingness to sub out his starters, even when he has quality players on the bench. One virtue of many winning teams throughout the years has been having three quality outside hitters they can rely on, not just the two starters. Destini Pickett has the potential to be that player off the bench for the Tigers, we'll have to see if she actually gets used effectively. The final new addition to the starting lineup, true freshman Malinah Purcell-Telefoni from Samoa is an interesting type of middle, unlike what we usually see on Towson. What she lacks in athleticism, she makes up for in technical skill and a good all-around game. She has a really good jump topspin serve, making her impactful in the back row as well as the front. The closest comparison I can think of is Silvia Grassini, another undersized but very skilled international middle who won a title with the Tigers in 2019. Purcell-Telefoni pairs really nicely in the middle with athletic freak Erin Brothers, who has returned for her senior season as the unquestioned offensive leader of this team. She looks absolutely fantastic, the best we've ever seen her in a Towson jersey. She has POTY potential if all the cards fall right. Overall, this non-conference hasn't been the most impressive, but it has been productive. The Tigers are a better team than they were three weeks ago, with a kind of unique identity that I'm excited to see be put to the test in conference play. They are mostly really young, but have the few experienced pieces every successful team needs. So, who is their first conference opponent? Only the defending champion and preseason favorite Charleston. This team is about to be thrown into the fire, right here, right now. When the water hits your ass, you learn how to swim, right?

Unrelated to this year’s team, 4-time CAA champion with the Tigers Fay Bakodimou is killing it in the professional realm. She featured heavily at the World Championships yesterday for her native nation of Greece in their 3-1 win over Puerto Rico, contributing 12 points on 9 kills. The representation from Towson in pro volleyball continues to be strong and consistent!

A full two years removed from a CAA championship, the Towson Tigers return for the 2025 season in an unfamiliar place, as for the first time since 2018, they are not the obvious frontrunners. Im not going to speculate too much about what we’re going to see from the team this year until a ball is actually served. There has been a lot of turnover in the roster, as the Tigers are firmly set to move on from the previous group that brought a lot of success, but ended in disappointment the last two years. There are six freshmen on the roster, along with a handful of transfers, and a sizable international representation as well. Does this new group have the talent to reach the heights of the last generation? I have no idea, and there’s only one way to find out. But knowing this staff and this program, you can bet that the Tigers will find a way to be in the conversation at the business end of the season yet again.

And just like that, she does see the court! Cajic got significant playing time as a substitute in Serbia’s 3-2 loss to France today. She was not heavily involved in the offense, with only 2 kills on 10 total attempts, but they left her in for long stretches of the game and she contributed positively on defense. She wasn’t stellar, but it’s a good foot in the door and she will likely get more opportunities.

Latest news out of Belgrade is Cajic will be on the roster again tomorrow for Serbia’s match against France. I’ll be keeping an eye on it. At the moment, Cajic is Towson’s most accomplished active professional athlete across all sports. After performing well for the upstart Pro Volleyball Federation’s Indy Ignite in her first professional club season, she has signed a contract in Turkey with Nilufer for the upcoming season. The Turkish pro league is one of the best in terms of pay, competition, and media coverage, along with the Italian league. A player in one of those two leagues can be considered a “top level” player. I really do hope she can break out with the National Team, and that Towson acknowledges her success.

Some cool news from abroad: former Towson great Nina Cajic suited up for Serbia yesterday in their Volleyball Nations League match against the USA. She did not play, but she is in the gym playing against world class players and on the coaching staff’s radars. The VNL is a yearly summer tournament in which the 18 best national teams in the world compete. It is a very prestigious tournament to be a part of, and her presence there is a huge moment for any volleyball player. Serbia is one of the strongest nations in international volleyball. They have a ton of talent and won the World Championships in 2022. Hopefully she gets on the court soon.