2020-21 Volleyball Season Preview
UW Athletic Communications
1/18/2021
SEATTLE - “There’s nothing other than excitement, and gratitude, and an attitude of ‘bring it on.’”
Much has changed and many steps have been taken since the Huskies walked off the court after battling No. 1 Baylor for four sets in the Elite Eight of the 2019 NCAA tournament. Those small steps have finally led the Huskies to their next opponent, this Friday, January 22 of 2021, when UW will return to competition against Arizona State.
Yes, the road to get here was very long and, yes, the road forward will likely still take many detours. But Head Coach Keegan Cook says the Huskies are ready and appreciative of what’s to come.
“You have to be so proud of this group of athletes who showed up in August with a lot of uncertainty,” says Cook. “They lost their season, they could only train with heavy restrictions, they spent four months in a practice environment that wasn’t very game-like, and certainly wasn’t the most exciting.”
But gradually things have started to look more and more like Husky Volleyball. The team was allowed to resume blocking, which was disallowed for Covid-19 safety, and practice groups increased in size. Players returned from overseas and recovered from injury. Schedules and protocols were put in place, and all the while the Huskies continued to grind and to keep themselves safe and healthy.
They relied on the principles they created back in August when they first came together, not knowing when they might next don their jerseys.
“We’ve talked about flexibility since August,” says Cook. “We’ve talked about how practicing very clear principles gives you the space to navigate unforeseen situations. We’ve always valued routine and building habits, and the environment that we’re in doesn’t allow us to do it the way we’re used to. So now there’s more conversations about principles and flexibility.”
With the fall practice restrictions, the UW staff and players turned their attention more to individual work, on technical skills, rather than on team development.
“It was a lot of hard, lonely fork for these athletes. We all walked away believing that we’d improved quite a bit, but we didn’t know for sure. After these first 2021 practices where we’re a little more free to compete, you can see the progress individuals have made. So that’s always the most fulfilling thing. We were in the dark for a long time, and until you’re playing six-on-six you don’t know the progress that you’ve made.”
Washington, like the rest of the Pac-12, will now have to go zero-to-sixty in a hurry, as this unprecedented winter-spring season goes straight into conference play starting this week. For eleven straight weeks, the Huskies will play every other Pac-12 team, facing the same opponent twice each week at one location, sometimes on back-to-back days and other times with a day off in-between. That will take UW to the end of March, and the plan is for the NCAA tournament selections to take place on Apr. 4, with a smaller 48-team NCAA tournament starting a few days later and concluding on April 25.
To handle the unfamiliar season, the Huskies have many familiar faces back from the 2019 team which finished No. 6 in the final AVCA poll, tied with the 2015 team for the highest finish in Cook’s five years as Head Coach.
All-American setter Ella May Powell will look to steady the Huskies throughout another tough Pac-12 run, joined by All-Pac-12 honorable mention seniors Lauren Sanders and Samantha Drechsel. Senior Maria Bogomolova and juniors Claire Hoffman and Shannon Crenshaw have loads of experience to build on and veterans Emma Calle and Marin Grote and look to see their roles expand this year as well.
Several more Huskies could see their first significant playing time over the next few months, or make their collegiate debuts in the case of two redshirt freshmen and one true freshman.
It seems like half a lifetime ago, but one of the things the Huskies got right back in 2019 was defining the roles for each player.
“Role clarity and team chemistry: those things were in place,” says Cook. “We had a strong sense of who five of the six starters would be and then the roles that would complement that. It was really clear for a long period of time.”
At the outset of this season, parts are still being auditioned. “We have a lot of depth at all the attacking positions. Those roles haven’t been clearly defined yet. There are some more questions. There’s some excitement around that and certainly some ripped up pieces of paper in terms of lineups and roles. But that’s what these days of practice are for.”
Click below for Coach Cook’s thoughts on each position group.
OUTSIDE HITTERS | SETTERS | MIDDLE BLOCKERS | LIBEROS
