Despite a statistically disappointing season, ending 1-9 in conference, head coach Eddie Stanislawski expects the men’s volleyball team to, “with the returning talent we have and the recruits we’re hopefully going to get…do well and compete at a high level” next season.
The team was rife with personnel issues from the start, due to the fact 14 of 21 players on the roster were freshmen, and that Sia Irillian, setter, quit when the team was 1-2 in conference.
Stanislawski, who vested a lot of confidence in Irillian, said the setter quit because “he basically just said it wasn’t important to him anymore.”
The freshman-filled roster was a result of the quick two-year community college turnover rate, which graduated many of the players from the past season.
Morale was definitely a factor in the team’s performance.
“I think by the end of the season, once we missed the opportunity to make playoffs, it’s difficult to show up and work everyday at practice when it’s not for a lot,” Stanislawski said. “It was a tough, tough spot.”
Javael Boykins, freshman opposite hitter, felt the team lacked unity.
“Everybody contributed to the failure of the season, even myself,” he said. “We just were not a team. You could see on the court the way we played.”
Boykins also said the team did not dedicate enough after-hours time to practicing or getting to know each other.
“We didn’t have the camaraderie, on or off the court,” he said.
The team is in a beneficial position for the next season, because the freshmen of this spring will become the veterans of the next.
“The development of the maturity of the people playing next year is going to be crucial in our success next year,” Stanislawski said. “I was happy to see a lot of these young kids step up and take a leadership role and kind of mature a little bit.”
“We’re lucky we have a lot of the guys coming back this year,” he continued. “They know what to expect…and how hard we need to work in order to make it to the state finals. We’re going to be sitting in a really nice position to do really well.”
If there was anything the coach could have changed this semester, he said he would have given more attention to the setting position, which, when vacated by Irillian, was in emergency status.
“You can’t always judge someone when things are going well,” Stanislawski said. “You have to judge them when things aren’t going well.”
Richard Barraza Jr., sophomore libero and team captain, pinned much of the season’s shortcomings on personal player responsibility.
“With Sia quitting and with a lot of the guys not showing up to play, it was really tough this year,” he said.
Though it was too late, Barraza said the team started to shape up by the end of the semester, and is confident the team will push harder next season.
He said, “Eddie has this saying: ‘All the hurt, all the running, all the losing, all the pain this season caused, you grab it and stick it down deep and let it fester. Next season, you work twice as hard — because you never want to feel this again.'”