Even those most closely paying attention to WSU volleyball over the past few seasons will find it difficult to name more than half of the 2024 volleyball roster. That’s because just five players of the 14-woman roster were a part of the team last season.
First-year head coach Korey Schroeder and his brand new staff of Cassie Krieger, Jason Ruppelt and Kristin Watson brought in nine new players through a mix of the transfer portal and in recruiting first-year players.
On the 2024 roster, there are three true freshmen (freshmen) – JP, three transfer juniors, three transfer graduates and five returning players.
Headlining the returning class is Katy Ryan, the senior lefty who played a significant rotational role in last year’s NCAA Tournament team that made the Sweet 16. In 34 matches, she had 281 kills while hitting .279% to go along with 84 total blocks. After three seasons as a steady presence in the offense among the likes of Iman Isanovic, Pia Timmer, Laura Jansen and more, Ryan will now be the player with the most experience with this program.
The other four returning players are graduate defensive specialist Logann Golden, sophomore libero Emma Barbero, graduate outside hitter Weronika Wojdyla and redshirt freshman middle blocker Lucie Blažková.
Golden has been with the program since the 2020 season, playing in 113 sets over 57 matches in her career thus far. Primarily blocked by the play of Karly Basham the last three seasons, 2024 will be her final chance to prove herself a useful part of the rotation.
Wojdyla, a player expected to transfer on from the program, decided to return to the new leadership for her final year of eligibilty (eligibility) – JP. The fifth-year from Poland has 111 sets of experience, with 96 of those sets coming in the team-wide injury-riddled 2022 season. That year, she had 29 kills and 63 total blocks of contributions for a unit that made an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Barbero and Blažková were first-year players in 2023, but Barbero made appearances as a late-match rotational piece on many occasions. In a year that included two starts, she earned the trust of coaches and teammates with her efforts in multiple matches’ fourth and fifth sets.
Coach Schroeder’s staff built a three-player freshman class for their first batch of new athletes. Haumea Marumoto of Hawaii, Italia Bernal of Mexicali, Mexico, and Breccan Scheck of Illinois are the three newcomers who have the distinction of being the first recruiting class of the new regime.
For the final six roster spots, the Cougs enlisted the help of players from other programs, convincing the following players to come to WSU:
- Kylie Wong – junior libero from Arizona
- Taryn Vrieling – junior outside hitter from Idaho
- Jaden Walz – graduate setter from Bowling Green
- Sage Brustad – graduate outside hitter from Eastern Washington
- Keniya Cleveland – junior middle blocker from Feather River College
- Jade Warren – graduate middle blocker from College of Idaho
All six bring various levels of experience, both in on-the-court playing time and level of opposition, but all can contribute meaningful reps in a rotation that has to make up for a lot of lost numbers from the previous season. A total of 1,405 of the Cougs 1,686 kills last season are no longer on the team. More simply, 83.3% of the offensive production on paper is gone.
The first official contest of the season is not until Aug. 30 against Wyoming.
