Longhorns Voted Big 12 Volleyball Favorite for 12th Consecutive Year
Jerritt and the rest of the Big 12 coaches believe it will remain Baylor. I believe it will be any or all of Baylor, KU and ISU. I'd love to see KSU and Tech get better.
Baylor is a very young team and they won't have Pressley to rescue them from horrible passing. I'm really surprised that VDM and Bramschreiber were not convinced or asked to play their Covid year in Waco. They need the experience & depth. Where Baylor could end up fielding a team of mostly freshmen with Harrison (OH) and McGhee (MB) as seniors; Texas can do the complete opposite and field a team of Super Seniors with one Senior (Phillips) and one Junior (Skinner) who just happens to be a national champion. There is no Big 12 team with as much experience as Texas and I don't really see a team as young as Baylor being their primary competition.
KU is interesting because they had a good NCAA showing last year but then Crawford, their star middle blocker, transfers to Wisconsin to supposedly replace Retke. Wisconsin is so deep at middle blocker she could wind up on the bench. I'm not sure this poll was taken before Bechard got Lauren Dooley to replace her from the portal. She's a 6th year from Florida, a totally different type of MB than Crawford but she's 6'6". KU is also young. KU was the only team we played a 5 setter against in Big 12 play last year. I'd expect the game in Lawrence to be good competition.
I'm hoping for a more competitive Big 12 season than what we've seen over the last two years. I don't think any of the teams except Texas thrived in the back-to-back match format. In fact, many struggled with it. Going back to home and away will give us matches in Ames, Lawrence, Manhattan, Waco and Morgantown all in the same season. We've even gotten competitive matches @ Norman & Ft Worth in the past. I don't see that happening this year though. OU has issues and Ft Worth has a new coach and they now play in the basketball arena.
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