October won't get here quickly enough for
Jim Giacomazzi and the Wayland Baptist volleyball team. Giacomazzi said it likely will take that long before the Pioneers – a mixture of six returners, two former redshirts and 11 new faces – have worked out the kinks in their game and developed into what he thinks will be a contender for the Sooner Athletic Conference title.
"Wait until October; we'll be better. It'll take about that long to figure out what we're doing," Giacomazzi said of what is his 12
th team at Wayland. "It takes a while for new girls to understand our system."
The issue with taking six weeks to put things in order is that by then the conference schedule will be exactly half over. So the coach is banking on everything coming together a little quicker.
"We have a bunch of smart girls on the team, so it might be sooner."
The process began last week when the Pioneers – hoping to return to the NAIA National Tournament after missing last year for the first time in five years – started on-campus practice. It continues this week in California where the team will open its season at the Hope International Summer Slam. Wayland takes on Vanguard University (Calif.) in Costa Mesa at noon (CDT) Wednesday before heading to Fullerton for matches against La Sierra at 6 p.m. Wednesday followed by Aquinas (Mich.) at 4 p.m. and The Master's (Calif.) at 8 p.m. Thursday.
"It's been difficult. We started practice not even a week ago and scrimmaged, and now we're in a tournament (Wednesday)," Giacomazzi said.
Wayland's scrimmage took place Monday on the team's drive out to California. The Pioneers played nine sets at Benedictine College in Phoenix.
"We looked like a bunch of freshmen," Giacomazzi deduced, which isn't surprising considering all of the new faces on the roster. "I wrote four pages of notes of things we need to work on over the next couple of weeks."
Many of the issues will be solved with time.
"Our setters are still learning the hitters and most everyone is learning what I want. Our setters need a lot of touches and our defensive people need to learn to read better. We have to figure out the system and play within the system.
"All of that comes with lots of practice. It'll be good to play this week to see what we really need to work on."
Rethinking his assessment of Monday's scrimmage, Giacomazzi added, "Considering we had only practiced four times I thought we did well. We did well at things we could control."
One of those things was communication.
"They communicated really well. They're doing things last year's team never did. They're more vocal, more energetic. Nobody's a bump on the log doing their own thing."
Making things a bit tougher for the Pioneers right now are injuries to two left-side hitters, senior
Mallorie Ellis of Brownfield and freshman
Tatijana Markic of Calgary, as well as a late-to-arrive middle hitter where Wayland must replace two-time all-conference
Megan Sharratt, who graduated along with setter
Elisabeth Piroli,
Jade Jones and
Lindsey Schwab.
Another left-side, senior
Alex Wood of Junction City, Kan., is returning from a redshirt season and "just now getting back into it."
All of that has forced a few lineup shifts, which is something the Pioneers are taking in stride since "we cross-train every year anyway."
Joining Ellis as a returner from last season's 17-12 team (9-7 in the SAC) is sophomore left-side
Amber Daniel of Lubbock, the conference's Freshman of the Year last season when she was second on the team in kills (281) and aces (34), third in digs (278) and fourth in blocks (29). Also back are sophomore middle
Kellie Kozak of Ituna, Saskatchewan, Canada, and junior libero
Jordan Breding of Albuquerque, N.M., who along with Daniel and Piroli earned All-SAC honorable mention.
Junior
Sadie Staton of Perryton is back on the left-side where redshirt freshman
Jessica Nguyen of Odessa looks to contribute as well. Sophomore defensive specialist
Jai'Cee Tudman of Amarillo is another returner.
Taking over as setter will be senior
Stephany Orjuela of Colombia, a transfer from Ohio Valley College, and freshman
Renzelle Horner, the third Canadian on the current roster. Freshman twins and defensive specialists Tacie and
Tevia Bell of Amarillo round out the roster.
"We don't have any standouts, so we're going to have to play as a team," Giacomazzi said. "I don't know who our starters are going to be. This tournament will be something of a feeling out process where everybody gets a lot of court time. We could have some lopsided scores because we're just experimenting. We have to find a combination that will be successful" when conference play opens.
Speaking of conference play, it begins in a little over two weeks on Aug. 31 when Wayland starts a five-match home stretch. This week's matches are the Pioneers' only outings prior to league play since two contests with University of the Southwest (N.M.) recently were cancelled.
Giacomazzi said the conference is wide open (WBU is picked fifth to match its place last year) with five new coaches among the 12 teams. And, perennial power Oklahoma City, the defending co-champion with Southwestern Assemblies of God University, is carrying 11 freshmen.
"It will depend on who's hot and who gets better and stays healthy as the season progresses."
Giacomazzi said he has high hopes for his 2018 team and is confident they will give great effort and show lots of improvement.
"I was disappointed with our effort last year, which part of that was due to injuries. Provided we stay healthy, we're going to get better every match. Once we start to become more of a team we can develop strategies on offense and trust within our defense."
