Before the Virginia volleyball team practices at Memorial Gymnasium, players often get to work in the gym for about 15 minutes. The first players assemble the volleyball net. Other players run through a few dozen repetitions setting or hitting the ball.
To an outside viewer, these pre-practice activities might seem meticulous or slow, but the process shows some parts of the game that coach Lee Maes — who just finished his first year — emphasizes. Players should take accountability for themselves and the team, and the development of proper technique requires diligent conditioning. Success does not come just from showing up with the most talent.
Though Virginia (17-15, 9-11 ACC), which finished ninth out of 12 teams in the ACC, did not translate Maes’ approach into the immediate success for which it had hoped, players said Maes is taking the team in the right direction.
“The changes he’s brought within his first year — it’s just mind-blowing,” senior outside hitter Beth Shelton said. “I can’t wait to see where the program is in three years.”
With Maes came an all-new coaching staff, including assistant coach Ted Wade, whose connections to premier youth teams in Texas have helped Virginia gain the attention of some top recruits from Texas.
Apart from the coaches, the team’s solidarity and toughness down the final stretch of the season also was boosted by leaders on the team, particularly the team’s three seniors — Shelton, middle and captain Shannon Davis, and setter Marlow Bruneau.
Freshman middle Hillary Trebels called Shelton an “optimistic leader” and noted Bruneau in particular “was very welcoming to us first-years.”
It was not only on the court that the seniors stepped up and to help other players on the team.
“I would not have survived my first year full of hospital visits [and] a booted foot complete with crutches ... without Marlow,” sophomore middle Sydney Hill said.
The graduating seniors will leave a hole not easily filled, players said. It’s not just big things, like communication and consistency, that will be missed, but many of the little things.
“Who will I borrow extra socks from?” junior outside hitter Tara Hester said of Shelton. “Whose gum will I steal now? Hopefully she doesn’t mind that she’ll probably never get all the shirts she has loaned me over the years back.”
As close as the players were off the court, their relationships on the court kept the team fighting until the end of the season, including in a close 3-2 victory against Virginia Tech, the final match of the year.
“It’s always emotional when you know it’s your last match here in Memorial Gym,” Maes said. “It’s special that we finished their career with a win, especially since they’ve contributed a lot.”
The match against the Hokies was a satisfying way to end the season and should be something for the team to build on next year, Shelton noted.
“I think we finally put it together,” Shelton said.
The Cavaliers never achieved a stable level of play this season: From the preseason tournaments through the end of the conference schedule, the Cavaliers’ performance ranged from poor to outstanding. During the offseason and into the start of next season, the Cavaliers will look to take Maes’ system to a more consistent level with new leaders.
For Shelton, who will experience the volleyball season as a spectator for the first time in five years next fall, the question is not whether the team will perform better but how fast all the components will come together.
“I’m sure that it’s going to continue just improving,” Shelton said. Maes “wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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