From a couple of coaches being hired, to teams traveling to the globe, to one player soaring to new heights, this is an update on NCAA women’s volleyball happenings.
COACHING CAROUSEL: Two schools have hired recently.
Jacksonvlille State, the Alabama school moving from the ASUN to Conference USA, hired Derek Schroeder. Schroeder has been the indoor and beach coach at Mercer the past six seasons and replaces Todd Garvey, who is now the head coach at IUPUI.
Schroeder previously was head coach at Samford. from 2008-20015. Last season Mercer finished 10-19, 6-10 in the SoCon.
He takes over a program that finished 24-6 last season, 12-4 in the ASUN. Jax State has been to the NCAA Tournament three times, in 2005, ’06 and ’09.
Charleston Southern hired Carry Brown, who has coached at Brescia University, Kentucky Wesleyan College and most recently Florida College. Last season her team finished 28-10, 12-1 in the CAC, and made it to the NAIA national tournament. She takes over a team that finished 15-16 last season, 8-8 in the Big South.
Dartmouth needs a coach. Gilad Doron resigned last week after seven seasons in which he went 70-76, 32-50 in the Ivy League. According to a Dartmouth news release, the former head coach at San Francisco left “to pursue other professional opportunities and take some time to spend with his aging mother in his native Israel.”
No coaches are listed on the Big Green website roster. Dartmouth, which has never been to the NCAA Tournament, finished 16-9 last season, 8-6 in the Ivy.
Among the openings in Division I are UCF, where Todd Dagenais left to become head coach of the Atlanta franchise of the Pro Volleyball Federation, and Louisiana-Monroe, which hasn’t replaced Charlie Olson, now the beach volleyball operationa director at Rally Volleyball.
GLOBETROTTING: NCAA teams are permitted to take an international trip once every four years. Most go with Bring It USA and friend of VBM Tim Kelly. And right now Bring It is pretty busy.
Kelly reported that Bowling Green landed in Berlin on May 8 and California Baptist arrived in Athens the next day.
Western Michigan started in Istanbul the day after that and then BYU got to Paris for a long layover before continuing to Egypt. And then Washington State got to Athens.
Along the way, of course, NCAA teams play against local club teams and many of the programs invite boosters and friends of their team to join the trips.
BYU, for example, goes to Turkey and then Greece. But not before taking some photos aboard camels.
Kelly said that this week’s arrivals include Texas Tech (Madrid), Old Dominion (Barcelona), Tampa (Zagreb) and SMU (Athens). Most tours include visits to three more countries.
And Bring It is just warming up, Also in May, trips include USC (São Paulo), Loyola Chicago (Madrid), Maryland (Graz, Austria), Hawaii (São Paulo), Bethel (Costa Rica), Iowa State (Athens) and Cincinnati (Budapest).
In June, the traveling teams include Wisconsin (headed to Turkey, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland), Stanford and Clemson.
Nebraska leaves May 29 for a 17-day trip to Brazil where the Huskers will train and play in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.
HJ GOLD FOR ISENBARGER: Katie Isenbarger, the high-flying 6-foot middle who finished her fifth year on the court last fall for the Toppers, is still going in track and field for Western Kentucky. On Sunday she won the Conference USA women’s high jump. Isenbarger cleared the bar at 1.79 meters (5 feet, 10.5 inches). She also won the title earlier this year at the C-USA indoor meet. In March, our Chuck Curti profiled the product of Zionsville, Indiana.
NCAA women’s volleyball: Coaching moves, teams go on tours and camels, Isenbarger soars Volleyballmag.com.
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