During the offseason, all teams have holes to fill and problems to solve. If there was ever a team which could be defined by these types of question marks, it would be the 1995 Duke volleyball team.
After losing two-thirds of their starting corps to graduation and relocation, and bringing in an entirely new coaching staff, the Blue Devils have a lot of work to do. Like a cocktail party with nametags, Duke has spent much of the preseason just trying to get settled in with one another.
The changes start at the top as new head coach Linda Grensing, a former assistant coach at perennial powerhouse Ohio State, has brought a different atmosphere to the team. Joining Grensing will be Angie Millikin, a four-year letterwinner from the University of Nebraska. The only coaching holdover from last year is Sam Morris, who was promoted from team manager to assistant coach.
"I think that one of the important parts of a transition is that from top to bottom everything has to be different," Grensing said. "We're going to have to learn from each other--they're going to have to get used to my style of coaching, and I'm going to have to get used to their style of play."
Although the players have only been under Grensing's system for a couple of weeks, the veteran players have already noticed a completely different style of coaching. Such a change can often cause friction for a team which has had good experience doing things one way, but for the Duke players the change appears to have brought a new fire to the team.
"It's so much more intense now," sophomore Maureen Reindl said. "But Linda's been doing a good job making the changes gradual, rather than all of the sudden going to her type of a program, which is a really intense, kind of top-20 program that she's from.
"She has a lot of fast-paced drills, and we're going to speed up our offense a lot. Our whole offense was really slow without many options. She's working on bringing us more up-to-date with all the higher-level programs we're playing and competing against."
While a new offense may be in place, a big question facing Grensing is who is going to run it. Lost from the Blue Devils line-up was a group of four seniors who won four Atlantic Coast Conference championships and went to the Sweet Sixteen twice. The era of Ashley Wacholder, Adrian Nicol, Briar Blach and Tami Peterson has passed, but the Blue Devils remain one of the most athletically gifted and experienced teams in the ACC.
Along with the loss of Kristin McMahon, a transfer to Georgetown, there are plenty of spots open on the floor. Many of these may be filled by the freshman trio of Megan Irvine, Chrissie Lukasiewicz and Jordan Schultz.
"We have some big shoes to fill," Lukasiewicz said. "I'm sure we'll make a difference on the court, but how much we improve depends on how much time we spend and how much effort we put into practice."
The job of getting the freshmen into shape for the rigors of collegiate level volleyball will be given primarily to Reindl and returning setter sophomore Kristen Campbell, two players who came in as freshmen last year and immediately worked their way into the starting line-up. Other veterans who will be responsible for providing leadership to a young team are senior Virginia Hall and juniors Liz Neuhaus and Laura Krech.
Also sure to receive an increase in playing time is sophomore Jill Van Oort, a 6-1 middle blocker--who will give the Blue Devils some height in the middle-- and sophomore Sarah Corder, an outside hitter who can also fill-in at the setter position.
"[The team] is a good group of athletes, but we need a lot of experience under our belt," Grensing said. "Kristen and Maureen both have playing experience and have been to the Sweet Sixteen. They understand the game real well, and I have a lot of confidence in their ability.
"We have a lot of talented players including the freshmen. All three freshmen will be out on the court this year."
Once all of the questions on who will play where are answered, the next question will be how good of a team can Duke field this year. Winning the ACC title had become such a regular occurrence that the rest of the teams had engraved Duke's name on the trophy before the season had begun and started playing for second place.
This year is a different story as many people feel that the Blue Devils won't make up for the talent they lost. Duke is ranked 23rd in the USA Today preseason poll--making it the only conference team ranked in the top 25--but a recent poll of ACC coaches place Duke at third in the conference.
This sits fine with Grensing who wants the team to worry about the ACC, instead of thinking ahead to the NCAA tournament.
"As a team we need to focus week to week on who we play and not think too far ahead," Grensing said. "We need to do well against ranked teams, and we have to win against unranked teams."
Besides a rapidly improving ACC, Duke will also face highly-ranked opponents in Notre Dame, Penn State, Iowa and George Washington. This is part of Grensing's plan to make volleyball a high-profile sport here at Duke.
"I would like to market and promote the team to students more, make people want to come see us play," Grensing said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.