Philadelphia, Pa. - The Holy Family University women's volleyball team will once again begin the new season at the annual Marauder Clash hosted by Millersville University beginning Friday. The Tigers open the two-day tournament with a match up against Virginia Union University (3 p.m.), followed by a contest with Stonehill College later that night (7 p.m.).
After missing the postseason in 2012, the Tigers bounced back last year to qualify for the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Tournament for the sixth time in seven years. Despite an early exit in the tournament after falling to Caldwell College in the quarterfinals, the Tigers are posed to make another run at the postseason this year. Holy Family finished 15-15 overall and were 11-8 in conference play last season.
The Tigers will enter this season under the guidance of a new head coach, but a familiar face to the program in
Jeff Rotondo. After spending last season at Division I University of Central Florida as an assistant coach, Rotondo returns to Northeast Philadelphia in his first collegiate head coaching position. He spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons as an assistant coach with the Tigers.
In addition,
Susan Kim also returns to Holy Family as an assistant coach. Kim previously served as an assistant coach in 2012 before taking a position with Division I La Salle University last season.
The Tigers return only six players from last year's squad and welcome in four freshmen. A handful of the players were on the roster when Rotondo first came to Holy Family a few years ago as an assistant, which has been helping with the transition.
"In some ways, it does help," said Rotondo on the players he previously coached. "On the flip side, there are some ways that it could be a hindrance, but that hasn't been the case. Thus far, the athletes whom I have coached previously have been extremely adaptable in the massive amount of changes, learning and time constraints we have put on them. That has been paramount in the buy-in of the others whom I have not coached yet. We have had a great practice environment the first few weeks, with no friction in the collaborative/growth mindset approach we are creating in the gym."
OFFENSE Offensively, the Tigers return their top two kill produces from a year ago in All-CACC selection junior
Emma Herring (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) and junior
Rachel Johnson (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way West). Herring totaled 3.31 kills per set to lead the team, while Johnson registered 2.69 kills per set.
This year's offense though will be different than in years past as Rotondo has some student-athletes playing different positions.
"Our offense is still a work in progress, as we are having some people play much different positions than they did last year," said Rotondo. "We are working on some things that will make us more consistent in both the side-out phase, and the transition phase. Again, in both side-out and transition phases, we are working on being lower error than in the past. We have some players who can terminate in [Emma] Herring, [Rachel] Johnson,
Erin Miller (Chandler, Ariz. /Corona del sol) and freshman
Melanie Ingram (King of Prussia, Pa./Upper Merion)."
Last year, the Tigers had the second-most errors (691) in the conference, but had the third-most total kills on the attack with 1,377.
Rotondo continues, "Sophomores
Laura Tamas (Rhode-St-Genese, Belgium/) and
Katelyn Scherber (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) are both doing well with the time at the other outside hitter position. We lost a big part of our offense with the graduation of last year's setter,
Chelsea Keegan (Bucyrus, Ohio/Colonel Crawford), so senior
Devyn Ingram (King of Prussia, Pa./Upper Merion) and freshman
Kacie Brien (Turnersville, N.J./Washington Township) have some tough shoes to fill, but so far their improvement has been excellent. Devyn is such a great player, and has such a good IQ for the game, I have no doubt she will be fine."
Last season, Keegan paced the offense with 9.85 set assists per set and totaled 1,113 assists. She finished her career with 3,142 assists; second most all-time in program history.
In 2013, Ingram served as the team's libero and led the squad with a career-high 441 defensive digs (3.90 d/s).
DEFENSE Defensively, the Tigers will look to replace the block presence of
Sarah Ambach (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) who led the team with 76 total blocks and in the process became the program's all-time leader with 278 career blocks.
In the returning players, Miller finished last year with 63 total blocks (18BS/45BA) in her first full season, while Johnson totaled 46 blocks (13BS/33BA). In addition, Johnson finished second on the team with 289 digs, averaging 2.56 per set.
"The defense is also still in the development phase, as we are implementing certain terminology for our block schemes and defensive packages," said Rotondo. "We could possibly be in different blocking and defensive alignments from point to point based on what our opponent's tendencies are, and what our serving strategy is. So far, I have been pleased with how the players are picking up on these adjustments. Laura [Tamas] has been excellent with her ability to control the ball in her area, as well as freshmen
Cecilia Weir (Warminster, Pa./William Tennant). Separately, Erin [Miller] and Rachel [Johnson] have looked good in their blocking responsibilities, and newcomer
Emily Sheehan (Mt. Laurel, N.J./Lenape) is improving rapidly on her technique."
Holy Family finished seventh in the CACC with 170 total blocks and was eighth in defensive digs (1,551).
SERVING For the second straight season, Holy Family as a team finished among the nation's leaders in serving aces. The Tigers ranked 20
th in Division II with 1.90 aces per set and were second to only Georgian Court University in the conference with 215 total aces. The Lions finished with 260 aces.
With the success of creating aces, Rotondo feels the team needs to improve on committing fewer errors on the serve while still being aggressive.
"To be honest, it is not important to me at all," said Rotondo. "Aces are a result of hitting a good serve in the court, allowing the opponent the chance to error on that ball. We have actually spent an inordinate amount of time re-establishing what our serving philosophy will be. While we had a ton of aces the past two seasons, we also had an extremely high error rate. Our new philosophy will allow us to continue to be an aggressive serving team, which will tally a good amount of aces, but limit our errors at the same time."
Herring led the way with aces for the second straight season as she finished second in Division II with a career-high 0.71 aces per set. She totaled 75 aces, which were third most in the nation and tops in the CACC.
SCHEDULE Holy Family will have a 30-match slate this season and will be competing in two tournaments to jump-start the year. The Tigers, as mentioned, will open their season at the Marauder Clash before opening conference play with a home match versus Philadelphia University (Sept. 10). The Tigers will then compete in the two-day Wilmington Invitational hosted by Wilmington University (Sept. 12-13).
"I haven't dissected this year's schedule entirely yet," said Rotondo. "We will dive into some statistical analysis for each opponent beginning early this week, which will give us a better handle on certain team's philosophies. You would be surprised what you can ascertain about a team based on box scores. After that, we will have the ability to scout either live or by film, and we will approach each opponent as the most dangerous team we will face, picking up on as many tendencies as we can."
Holy Family will face 11 non-conference opponents in addition to 19 conference matches. In October, Holy Family will come in contact with all CACC competition with the exception of a non-conference match at West Chester University (Oct. 14). The 11-match month also has alternating home and away as the Tigers will never be on the road or at home for more than one match at a time in October.
- HFU -
