Volleyball Notes from the Pre-Conference Matches

Volleyball Notes from the Pre-Conference Matches
by MPG (2023-09-19 15:50:58)

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1. Beginning the second season of a complete rebuild, the Irish completed the non-conference part of the schedule with a 6-2 record. The schedule did not include any teams that I would view as NCAA tournament contenders.

2. Coach Rockwell has been creative in assembling this season's line-up. Last season's setter, Phyona Schrader, has been moved to an outside hitter position and has been reasonably effective there. The new setter is a grad transfer, Nicole Drewnick, who was a reserve for Nebraska and Georgia Tech. She looks good to me, but I don't know for certain because of the quality of the competition so far.

3. The two stars of the team are senior libero, Hattie Monson, and junior transfer, Sydney Palazzolo. Monson was the only starter from 2021 who remained with the team when Coach Johnson left and has been a positive leader for the team since the beginning of the Rockwell era. Palazzolo was Big South player of the year in 2022 and leads the ND offense in kills from her outside hitter position. She is talented enough to play the back row positions, so she never has to leave the court.

4. Blocking other teams at the net has been a challenge so far and may prove to be a fatal weakness in ACC play. The best middle blocker, senior Lauren Tarnoff missed the recent home and home sweep of lowly Toledo.
This resulted in undersized senior Charity McDowell and the versatile former setter, Schrader, as the two middle blockers. The other middle blockers on the roster are an injured sophomore and a walk-on freshman. Neither of them has seen action for the Irish.

5. Volleyball recruiting is on an early commitment schedule with many recruits committing by the beginning of their high school junior seasons. Coach Rockwell salvaged part of the 2022 recruiting class and added a couple of late walk-ons and three grad transfers for the 2022 season. She honored two 2023 commitments from the Johnson era and added a late Harvard de-commit, Ava Lange. Lange has been a regular in the outside hitter rotation and has moved ahead of the top returning outside hitters from the 2022 team. I view her as Rockwell's true first recruit, although she probably had some work to do with the earlier 2023 commits.

6. The Irish were 5-13 in the ACC last season, avoiding the cellar by virtue of two wins over last place Va. Tech. I think that they have a shot at an 8-10 record in the ACC this season, if Lauren Tarnoff is able to return to the court this week. They open the season with two winnable matches at home this weekend vs. BC and Syracuse. If they don't win both those matches, they are likely to fall back to last season's 5-13 mark

7. The outlook for 2024 is more positive. Coach Rockwell's first complete recruiting class features two middle blockers and two outside hitters, all of whom should be ready to play. Recruiting for 2025 is off to a good start with commitments from a setter, a middle blocker, and an outside hitter. Each of these three has been to USA training camps.

Fantastic update

My daughter played volleyball through college (D-III), and I grew to love the sport. I am very hopeful our new coach can bring lead us to the upper echelon of the sport.

Please keep us informed. You clearly understand the game, and have good insights/sources,

Great review and share. I do think the ACC competition will

continue to be tough and I am glad you think maybe we can see the light at the end of the tunnel next season with Rockwell's recruiting effort. I have been impressed with Freshman Lange who is second on the team to Palazollo in Kills and Points so she was certainly a recruiting add.

Thx. ESPN Now Regularly Broadcasting VB Matches ...

...with absolutely packed houses (watchout hoops) and one hopes ND's trajectory can move upwards.

Swarbrick made one of hib better hires with Jim McLaughlin, who had the Irish on the right track with his recruiting and coaching. Heck, even after he retired with the back issue, Mike Johnson kept those recruits going, then blam! He's gone and team's gone. And that silence is probably of a legal variety because no one"s talking>

So with all that said, Coach Rockwell seems to be getting what she has playing as well as can be expected and trying to get recruits to consider her and Notre Dame.

Hopefully, ESPN has a long-term commitment to volleyball and ND can start to climb the rungs of the ACC ladder en route to being shown on TV someday.

All of ND matces are on ACCNX and sometimes ACCN

It was on accnx - I watched the last set

Watching that Pitt/Oregon match in front of a packed Pitt

crowd was awesome and on ESPN. I plan to take a few Oregon or Oregon State Vball matches live this year in our last PAC12 season.

I agree ESPN is pushing their SEC and ACC brands including ND as they lose all the Big 10 schools and the 4 PAC12 schools going to the Big 10. Stanford will also start getting highlighted. They seem to keep the Big12 on their streaming pay ESPN+ network but have to show cable content on ACCN and SECN along with their primary channels.

I just found an article on Sydney Palazzolo and her family

that adds some extra seasoning to my post...

Click here for link at https://fightingirish.com/how-midwest-product-sydney-palazzo

Any relation to Enrico? *

Thanks, Rockwell seems to have stopped the bleeding

I think she will turn out to be a good hire.

Still wonder what the story of the Johnson dismissal and the mass exodus of players

Yes, she arrived at ND in the winter of 2022 with eight

players on the roster, which is not enough to even have an intrasquad scrimmage. 2024 should see a major step forward, although the addition of Stanford will make the conference a tougher one. I don't know much about Cal or SMU...

Nice notes and article.

There is no question that she has made a huge difference this year. As both you and the article point out, she never leaves the court and can score from the back, the front or while serving. She is truly fun to watch.