If you were to ask me to grade volleyball’s offseason at the beginning of March, I would have given it an A-. However, a lot of things have changed since then.
The team lost some of its top players in middle blocker Lucie Blažková and libero Tinons Munar Galmés. At the same time, head coach Korey Schroeder rounded out his coaching staff by adding Keith Saito and Jeff Ross.
Given that there have been some major changes since the last time I analyzed its offseason in March, it is time to reanalyze the good, bad and the new overall grade I would give the Cougs for how they have handled things since the end of last season.
The Good:
The most important thing Schroeder did this offseason, particularly since March, was hiring two new coaches after losing Jason Ruppelt and Kristin Watson. He signed two strong options to assist him for the foreseeable future.
The first of which was Keith Saito. He is an assistant coach who will be in charge of overseeing and analyzing the team statistically, alongside working with the setters. This is a perfect fit as Saito has crunched numbers for two other teams before WSU, dating back to 2022.
While I was personally a bit critical of this hiring originally, I have come around to realize he should help Schroeder analyze the game on a statistical level, which is becoming more and more useful as technology advances in sports.
The other coach hired, who will be Schroeder’s associate head coach, was Jeff Ross. Although Ross is coming off two of his worst seasons at Douglas College, that does not take away from the fact that he still managed a 122-69 overall record during his tenure. He was also a three-time PACWEST Coach of the Year, all while simultaneously coaching at the University of British Columbia.
He has the experience and the accolades to be a head coach. Schroeder landed himself an amazing associate head coach.
The other important thing to mention is how much better the Cougs have become on the outsides with the signings of Madyn Cervellera and Emerson Matthews.
In the three matches I attended for the spring season, both played in two, Matthews had 19 total kills and Cervellera recorded nine.
Matthews is extremely patient and accurate with where she hits the ball. This allows her to find gaps and rack up kills.
As for Cervellera, when she gets hot, she is practically unstoppable. She had eight kills and three service aces in the first preseason match. She can be inconsistent, though, and is not the best at the service line; she had eight service errors across those two spring season matches. But if setters Livia Ward and Audrey Hollis can feed her often on the pins, she should have a great year.
And while WSU lost Melina Christodoulou and Taryn Vrieling, they still upgraded overall. Matthews and Cervellera are both better on the attack than Vrieling. The main problem with Vrieling’s attack was that it was boom or bust: you either got an automatic kill or an automatic error.
There is an argument for both, especially Matthews, being better than Christodoulou. This mainly comes down to Matthews being more patient and Cervellera being extremely difficult to slow down once she gets on a roll.
The Bad:
The biggest and really only problem with the offseason since March has been how two of the top three players from last year left. This is a big blow to the Cougars’ front and back ends of the court defensively. Blažková held down the fort in the front middle, tallying 121 total blocks, while Munar Galmés recorded 332 digs in the back. Not to mention that Blažková led the team in kills (280) and hitting percentage (.443).
Both earned All-West Coast Conference honors last year.
This offseason, the Cougs signed a few middle blockers: Naomi White, Ella Smith and Kryssa Moerman. White and Smith were likely signed as replacements for Camryn Lingenbrink, while Moerman was added right before Blažková left. None of them will be as good as Blažková.
White is a solid replacement for Lingenbrink. She recorded 16 kills and six blocks in the three spring season matches I have statistics for. She is due for roughly five kills and two blocks each match. This is solid, but not Blažková-level.
Smith and Moerman are question marks. Smith, the Fresno State transfer, only appeared in one set last year as a junior. When she played this spring season, she was better on defense, putting up eight blocks and four kills in the two matches I saw her play.
Moerman was signed after the spring season. While she is an NCAA Champion, she won it at the DII level.
Schroeder brought in libero Kambree Rodriguez as a possible replacement for Munar Galmés. She only played 75 out of 119 sets and recorded 111 kills. That stat line is not very impressive; however, she may put up better stats if she receives more play time.
The other options to step in for Munar Galmés are Chloe Heimlicher and Maddy Joswick. Heimlicher finished last season with 167 digs at Idaho State, and Joswick had 131 as Schroeder’s second option.
They are all solid, but that is about it, which is not as good as Munar Galmés. The biggest hope for Schroeder is either that some of the pin hitters can become six-rotation players, so he does not have to rely on a libero or defensive specialist as much, or that one of the replacements becomes what Munar Galmés was.
The Cougars were in the bottom four in digs in the WCC and the bottom five in total blocks last season. Overall, I see those rankings being worse as a result of the loss of Blažková and Munar Galmés.
Although those departures are really the only major knock I have on the Cougs’ offseason, both were pivotal players who would have made WSU top contenders in the new Pac-12 and NCAA overall had they stayed.
New Grade:
I would drop the Cougars’ overall offseason grade to a B- because of the events that have unfolded since March. The offense and coaching staff are set up well. The defense, however, is not.
WSU’s defense was not great last year, often allowing teams to go on long runs and dominant outside hitters to record double-digit kills rather consistently. With Munar Galmés and Blažková out, their defense will be even weaker, and it now has bigger holes than before the offseason began.
Although the offense was addressed well, it was not as big a concern as the defense heading into the offseason, given WSU was top-five in kills and hitting percentage last season in the WCC. The coaches were strong signings, but not massive enough to make up for how the team’s grade was impacted by the departures of Blažková and Munar Galmés.
But the Cougs went 6-0 in the spring season, and some of their new players showed they can be stars. So not everything may not be as bad as I have made it seem.
How good was the Cougars’ offseason really? Only time will tell. But currently, I would say it was okay.
