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As we all head to Columbus for this week’s NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship, we recognized there is only one team that played all four teams in the national semifinals: Purdue.
So veteran Boilermakers coach Dave Shondell joined Salima Rockwell, Jenny Hazelwood, Emily Ehman, and me for our weekly NCAA volleyball visit and it’s all you could ask for and more. You don’t want to miss him not only talking about his tough matches, the four teams left — Wisconsin, Nebraska, Louisville, and Pitt — but also what he had to say about the young Kelly Sheffield while they were growing up in Muncie:
Salima Rockwell is the former national-team player who was an assistant at Penn State and Texas and now is a TV analyst calling volleyball matches on the Big Ten Network, ESPN, and more.
Jenny Hazelwood, an ESPN analyst, is the former Mississippi State coach, and her club, Infinity in Jackson, Mississippi, is setting new girls club-volleyball standards in the Southeast.
Emily Ehman, a former Northwestern player and regular contributor to VolleyballMag.com, is a Big Ten Network analyst.
It will be a good thing for Texas to move the SEC in two years or three (by 2025?), because they will then have more teams to expose their weaknesses. When they have to play Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and now Mississippi State or other up and coming programs in conference play, they will be challenged. Texas has had good teams that have gone down in the round of 16 and the round of 8 because they were surprised or overwhelmed with the competition. The Big XII had all their teams except Texas out before the round of 8, and let’s face it, Kansas probably would not have been in the 16 this year if not for circumstances. (Kansas might be back next year, however, no disrespect intended.) People are talking about this move of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC in NCAA football, but it has big consequences in volleyball as well.
Great video, like Salima I loved the part when Dave Shondell reminded everyone that in terms of recruits Nebraska is to volleyball as Alabama is to football. Preach!! LOL!