Jim Giacomazzi will have lots of new players on the roster but hopefully begin to experience a lot of his program's past success when the Wayland Baptist volleyball team begins its 2016 season this weekend in San Antonio.
The two-time defending Sooner Athletic Conference champions won't have players such as four-time all-American
Shahala Hawkins,
Chelsey Driskill,
Emily Welch and
Cat Wiechmann, all of whom helped take Wayland volleyball to unprecedented heights the past four seasons. Giacomazzi will, however, have a promising group of newcomers to blend with a handful of solid returners to form what he thinks will be another contender.
"It's an exciting time because we have so many new players," said Giacomazzi, who is being assisted by
Tatiana Gonzalez, a two-time all-conference player at Wayland from 2010-11. "We're a completely different team than we've been the past 4-5 years because everyone is so new.
"We're going to be a work in progress all season."
The Pioneers opened training camp by traveling to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where they spent several days not only practicing but getting to know each other and bonding.
"Our goal was for everyone to start learning to trust each other and to sync together," said the coach about to start his 10
th season at Wayland.
Giacomazzi said the trip was a success in that regard, but added that there's lots of work still left to do before the Pioneers are ready to begin their quest to claim another conference title and qualify for the NAIA National Tournament for the fourth straight year.
"We're trying to assimilate to the kind of offense and defense that we run, which is a challenge because we only had two weeks before we get to compete," Giacomazzi said. "They're working hard."
Although he's hesitant to agree, Giacomazzi said he's been told this year's team is ahead of recent squads at this stage of the young season.
"I hear from a lot of people who step into our gym that we look as good as we've looked this early in the season," he said. "I'm happy other people are seeing that, but it's difficult to accept that praise knowing how much work we have to put in. I'm trying to see where we need to be.
"We haven't won a set yet, and before we do we have to put a whole lot of hard work in."
A handful of familiar faces are back on the roster in senior libero
Rossanna Ramos, senior left-side hitter
Cindy Horn, junior right-side
Katie Inman, sophomore middle/right-side
Jessica Stohlmann, and sophomore libero
Mallorie Ellis. Ramos earned second-team All-SAC honors a year ago while Horn was honorable mention all-SAC. (Horn will be sidelined until mid-October after suffering a knee injury in a spring scrimmage against Texas Tech.)
The rest of the roster will be filled by nine new faces: four juniors and five freshmen. Three of the juniors – 6-footers
Lindsey Schwab and
Megan Sharratt, plus
Alex Wood – are transfers from Seward County Community College in Kansas. Junior setter
Elisabeth Piroli of Brazil comes from Polk State College in Florida.
The freshmen include three Texans –
Krista Epley of Midland,
Riyana Rakrouki of Houston and
Sadie Staton of Perryton – along with
Jordan Breding of Albuquerque, N.M., and
Hanna Fridriksdottir of Iceland.
Giacomazzi said all starting positions are up for grabs.
"Everybody is fighting for a spot. We have a lot of competition. The new players want to be starters and the returners want to stay a starter. That competition is good for the team."
After two weeks of long, intense workouts and on the verge of opening their season, the coach assessed that his players "need to be quicker on defense" and "need to understand their roles.
"We have to speed things up a notch. The challenge for the freshmen is to get to college speed. They don't know yet how fast they can really be.
"A few have said it feels like they've never played (volleyball) before, but they don't understand what they don't know. They want to be comfortable, and I told them if it feels right then they're doing it wrong. They're going to be uncomfortable a lot before they feel like they know what they're doing."
Giacomazzi said the team will get where it wants to be…eventually.
"It's going to happen with a lot of blood, sweat and tears – heavy on the tears. The knowledge they gain is only going to happen in games and hard practices."
Wayland's season begins at 9 a.m. Friday against Xavier University of Louisiana in the opening match of the Our Lady of the Lake Saints Classic in San Antonio. The Pioneers then take on Tennessee Wesleyan at 3 p.m. before on Saturday meeting No. 20 Evangel (Mo.) and host Our Lady of the Lake at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.
Wayland hosts former NAIA rival Lubbock Christian in a scrimmage at 6 p.m. Tuesday before putting on the Coca-Cola Classic Aug. 26 and 27.
While the Pioneers have been picked to finish second in the SAC behind Oklahoma City and are ranked the equivalent of 34
th in the NAIA, Giacomazzi said predictions are difficult with such a new team.
"Everything is unknown right now," he said.
The coach did say the NAIA has expanded the national tournament field from 32 to 48 teams, and that the SAC – with Science and Arts of Oklahoma beginning a volleyball program to give the conference 10 teams – would be awarded two automatic bids to nationals. Also, Wayland will host the conference tournament semifinals and finals as a result of winning the SAC crown last season.
"Our goals are to win the conference, win the conference tournament, qualify for nationals and win matches at the national tournament," Giacomazzi said. "And be an NAIA Scholar Team."
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