Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: After long, long wait, Herd volleyball eagerly returns to play
1/29/2021 11:38:00 PM | Volleyball, Word on the Herd
Marshall opens the season Sunday at Xavier
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – By the time the Marshall volleyball team steps on the court at Xavier on Sunday afternoon, it will have been 435 days since the program's last match.
Second-year head coach Ari Aganus call tell her team is eager about the opportunity.
"Since they came back there's something different about them," Aganus said. "They're just ready."
The Thundering Herd ended Aganus' first season 18-10 overall and finished fourth in Conference USA – four spots better than the team's 2019 preseason poll ranking of eighth. The inaugural season splash by Aganus and her team has not gone unnoticed. When C-USA unveiled its 2021 preseason poll – the coronavirus pandemic forced the usual fall season back by a semester – Marshall was picked to finish second among East Division teams behind defending league champion WKU. The Hilltoppers spent nine weeks in the national rankings that season.
It is obvious the league's coaches see Marshall as an emerging contender.
"We understand we have a lot of things to tweak," Aganus said. "We've got things to get better at because we had a shorter preseason. There's a lot of things you could see as a negative, but what we see in the gym is this huge energy of being ready to play. We have a thankfulness and a gratitude."
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on collegiate athletics, leaving no one untouched by its fallout. The volleyball season was shifted from the fall to a late January start, and Aganus' players spent a lot of time away from campus. Aganus broke the team into smaller groups and had student-athletes lean on each other for motivation and accountability. It was difficult for players to get into gyms and practice, so some resorted to at-home training programs and hitting in the backyard with relatives. Others found places for individual lessons. Overall, players found out how much the sport meant to them.
"More than anything, we've seen a different type of leadership come up because seniors and juniors understand how fast it can get taken away from you," Aganus said. "That has helped them push underclassmen through things a little harder."
Since the team returned to campus, Aganus said the only missing beat was the speed of the game. That's normal, she said, and even in a shortened preseason her players have adapted.
Although schedules are fluid during the pandemic, Marshall is scheduled to play 14 matches between Sunday and March 22. The Herd will play at Xavier and host the Musketeers on Feb. 14. Otherwise, all matches will be in league play, starting with hosting Charlotte on Sunday, Feb. 7, and Monday, Feb. 8.
It is obviously an abnormal season, but Aganus is simply grateful to have meaningful matches again.
"I missed it," she said. "I missed competing. We get into practice and I feel myself getting 10 times more excited. It solidified that this is what I'm meant to do for my entire life and I'm blessed and lucky enough to do it."
In the preseason poll, WKU and Marshall paced the East Division, followed by FAU, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, FIU and Old Dominion. In the West, Rice was selected as the top team, followed by North Texas, UTSA, UTEP, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss.
Coaches have a way of managing expectations, and some might seek to stymie the hype that can come with lofty expectations. Aganus, however, embraced the Herd's place in the preseason poll.
"We're here for it," she said. "There's no negative to it. It means that there's people out there who respect us. We did a great job in 2019 to finish fourth in the conference and this is a fair assessment of what has happened.
"We look at it as a privilege that people see this and they respect us and now it's our turn to go out there and show what we have. It's not a reason to fold; it's not a reason to get nervous. It's a ranking and we hope by the end of the year we're one spot above that."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
