To say the Marquette women’s volleyball team has some new faces would be a gross understatement. With only six of 14 players returning from last year’s squad, it is safe to say this is a completely different team.
As new coach Bond Shymansky put it, “At one point during the weekend I turned to my assistant coach and said, ‘Wow, take a look out on the floor, we have one returning player from last year’s program.’”
Shymansky is one of those new faces that came in after a rocky 2008 campaign. Making the move from Georgia Tech, the 2004 ACC Coach of the Year is looking to build off what he knows.
Shymansky has implemented a new style of offense for this season.
“Where I have built my success in the past as a head coach is in running an extremely fast offense,” he said.
Describing it as the equivalent of the West Coast offense in football, he noted that in order to play this style, there has to be great fluidity.
“We’re not there yet, we have the right components to build it, we just need to have it stressed and tested and practiced,” Shymansky said.
A big key to the success and fluidity will lie on the fingertips of a new addition to the Golden Eagles, setter Nikki Klingsporn.
“Probably the most exciting part for me, as a coach, is that we want to run this style of offense and that we have a great setter in Klingsporn who has the capability,” Shymansky said. “She has the physical capability and the mental capability. She understands the how, and she has the heart and the guts to take the risk to pull it off.”
Klingsporn, a transfer student from Wisconsin-Madison, proved those capabilities when she recorded 112 sets over the weekend at the Loyola Invitational en route to being named to the all-tournament team.
“It’s been an awesome process so far,” Klingsporn said. “I’m very happy with my decision to come to Marquette.”
There are some important pieces returning from last year, however. Junior Leslie Bielski had last year’s second-highest kill total and is another key component to the revamped offense.
“One of the player’s that really impressed me was Bielski,” Shymansky said. “She did a really nice job of stepping up her game against Iowa this past weekend.”
Her 33 kills in the tournament led to her selection to the all-tournament team along with Klingsporn.
“I think we can do very well this season if we fix a few things in practice,” Bielski said.
Her one goal for the season is simple: “Big East Champions.”
While Shymansky was not so outright in his declarations, he did state his goals for this season are to win 20 games, have a hitting average above .300 as a team, and compete for the title in the Big East Championship Tournament contending for the title.
The Golden Eagles look to continue preparation for the Big East season with the Marquette Invitational this weekend.
Marquette will take on Texas State and Butler on Friday then Binghamton and Austin Peay on Saturday at the Al McGuire Center.