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The Giants of College Volleyball
7/27/2010 10:40:00 AM | Volleyball
By CHRIS COOK
Duke Sports Information
Height rules college volleyball. The rosters of perennial national championship contenders Penn State, Stanford and Texas - just to name a few - are filled with players listed at 6-3 or taller, even a handful that could stand eye-to-eye more than a few Duke basketball players.
Traditionally strong volleyball conferences such as the Pac-10, Big Ten and Big 12 typically load up on the tallest recruits in the country, giving them an advantage over teams from the ACC where speed and athleticism rule.
In the past, Duke has had plenty of success with that combination, winning ACC Championships in 2006 and 2008 while advancing to the NCAA Tournament for five straight seasons. In 2010, however, the Blue Devils will close their gap between the college volleyball elite with one of their tallest rosters in more than a decade.
"We've been trying to get a little bit bigger over the last few years so we can play at a higher level at the net and touch more balls to slow it down and help our defense," said head coach Jolene Nagel, now in her 12th season at Duke. "It's been a process over time, but certainly the size we hope is going to help us play at a higher level."
Eight of Duke's 13 players stand at six foot or taller, making for one of the ACC's biggest rosters. Excluding liberos and defensive specialists - positions typically reserved for short and quick back row players who do not block - Duke's average height of 6-foot-1 is the tallest in the conference.
"Our aspirations are to compete for a national championship some day and certainly continue to go further into the NCAA Tournament," Nagel said. "In order to do that, we felt that having some size is going to be very important to make those steps."
Led by an experienced middle blocking trio that includes 6-foot-1 senior Becci Burling, 6-foot-3 junior Amanda Robertson and 6-foot-5 sophomore Christiana Gray, Duke is a preseason favorite to not only win the ACC, but advance deep into the NCAA Tournament. The aforementioned middle blockers - who consequently are the tallest middle blocking group in the ACC - were the foundation of a defense that held opponents to an ACC-low .160 hitting percentage in 2009.
Burling, a senior captain, is the shortest of the group at 6-foot-1, but makes up for her lack of height with athleticism and experience. In 2009, she led Duke in points and blocks, ranked second in kills and total attacks and was named All-ACC. As Duke's top returning offensive threat, she will shoulder an even bigger role this year as the focal point of the offense.
Robertson and Gray, meanwhile, both had breakout seasons in 2009 as Robertson set career highs in kills, blocks and attacks and Gray made an immediate impact with 113 blocks, 200 kills and a team-leading .314 hitting percentage as a freshman. Throw in incoming freshman middle blocker Chelsea Cook, at 6-foot-2, and Duke's middles stack up with any team in the country.
Duke's height, however, is not confined solely to the middle. Junior setter Kellie Catanach, who was an AVCA All-America Honorable Mention selection in 2009, is the tallest in the ACC at her position at 6-foot-2, giving Duke yet another dominant force at the net. On the outside, Duke has 6-foot-1 junior Sophia Dunworth, who ranked third on the team with 295 kills last season, and athletic six-footers Kayla Kirk and Megan Hendrickson.
Even at the libero position, where past Duke standouts included the 5-foot-6 Jenny Shull and 5-foot-8 Polly Bendush, Duke has three-year starter Claire Smalzer who stands at 5-foot-10.
"We have 6-5, 6-3, 6-2, a bunch of 6-1 and six foot players," said Catanach, who already ranks seventh all-time at Duke with 2,686 career assists. It's going to be a huge advantage for us, especially blocking, but just having that presence too."
It is easy enough though, to simply load a roster with tall players. It is much more difficult, however, to compose a game plan that takes advantage of that height and puts each player in the best position to succeed. Nagel, 12th-year associate head coach John Wasielewski and second-year assistant Cristina Pintilie have spent the offseason looking at ways to improve how they use the team's height and take advantage of it even more in 2010.
"I think these first couple weeks of preseason are certainly going to be huge, no pun intended, as we try to figure out how we can best utilize our size," Nagel said. "Certainly, we'll try to utilize that size as much as we can, but we need to keep in mind that we still need to control the ball and transition smoothly.
"There are a lot of different styles. We tend to be faster than some [of the bigger teams] that move the ball a lot slower and higher. We do not intend to change any of that. We have all intentions to continue with the tempo that we've used historically."
If the Blue Devils can manage to blend their traditional combination of speed, precision and ball control with the added height, 2010 could be the year that Duke stands toe-to-toe -- and eye-to-eye -- with the giants of college volleyball.
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