Photograph of: Kansas Athletics
The brand new KU volleyball coach, Matt Umer, speaks at his introductory press convention on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at Horejsi Household Volleyball Enviornment.
The volleyball coach of Kansas, Matt Umer, isn’t new to interchange fulfilled veterans.
Seven skilled gamers, together with six Starters, changed into Professional on its 2023 season at Oregon, by which Geese left on an eight elite working.
“It was the identical as the entire turnover of the checklist, by way of what you noticed on the sphere, however I had a number of an excellent younger expertise, which they merely haven’t had their likelihood,” Ulmer mentioned on “Hawk Speak Hawk Speak Present Radio Monday. “Then I added a number of grade transfers to solely a sort of plow in holes.”
The renewed checklist in Oregon made it again to Candy 16 and went away from the number one common Pittsburgh seed earlier than falling in 5 units.
Now, Ulmer, who has been at work for a month after the retirement of the principle coach Ray Bechard for a very long time and is at two weeks of spring follow, is going through an identical being pregnant at KU.
Jayhawks misplaced seniors Caroline Bien, London Davis, Ayah Elnady, Bryn McGehe, Toyosi Onabanjo and Camryn Turner after leaving Florida within the NCAA match. :
Ulmer inherits a heavy group on subclassists, even when he acknowledges that some gamers nonetheless within the crew, resembling Libero Raegan Burns and Center Blocant Reese Ptacek, the Nice 12 Boboc of the 12 months and, to a lesser extent, outdoors the barking Rhian Swanson and Center Center Blocker Aisha Aiono, obtained time to play.
“However for probably the most half, they haven’t but had their likelihood and I feel for them, they’re going on with their alternatives,” he mentioned. “So, (we’re) to do our greatest to organize for this chance that can come and are available shortly and be in opposition to an excellent competitors – however then including a number of items, I feel solely to assist Our crew to be the perfect rounded might be. “
The remainder of the returning expertise contains free -dens, blynn kirsch and mccarthy defensive specialists; The center block Ellie Schneider; Housing outdoors Kenzie Dean and Grace Nelson; and Setters Katie Dalton and Ellie Moore.
Freshman, reverse Kate Hayhurst, signed by Bechard, was registered earlier; Setter Taylor Cook dinner had to do that, but it surely ended up going by way of Missouri.
Now, the work of including the elements is underway for Ulmer and his workers. Already on Campus and practising with the crew is Cristin Clim, a rising crimson sophomore set, which has recorded a median of 10.26 assistants per 2024 at Oregon, whereas Jayhaws appears to fill the purpose left by Turner.
“I believed he did a fantastic job,” Umer mentioned. “It was all-region and it was an All-Rookie crew within the Massive Ten Convention. I even thought he entered it because the season progressed. It is onerous to be a bud setter, you realize, within the first 12 months, however he did a really stunning job for us.
“He instantly entered the portal after which mentioned” can I include you? “And I mentioned,” Sure, you possibly can. ” That is how that went. “
Ulmer failed to debate intimately as a result of they haven’t signed but, however, as he did in Oregon, he works to attach the holes with commencement transfers.
Libero/DS Ryan White, the previous Oregon state, introduced the dedication to KU on February 9; She has beforehand signed to play for Ulmer at Oregon on November 30. Here is what he mentioned in a press launch on the time: “The addition of Ryan to our crew is a significant victory. It brings a number of expertise and power to our locker room. It is usually somebody that our groups have revered and I do know, for the primary time, the optimistic influence it could make in a match. Ryan is an elite and defender passenger, with the need to be elite to the whole lot he does. “
White, initially from Richland, Washington, didn’t play in 2024, however in her three -year -old profession with Bevers performed largely in 86 profession matches; As a junior in 2023, she recorded a median of three.73 excavations per set.
Two days after successful White’s pledge, Umer obtained one other dedication from a former PAC-12 (and Massive Ten) opponent, outdoors the hitter Wilmes in Washington. After Redshirting in 2021, Wilmes recorded a median of two.08 killings per three seasons.
Photograph of: Kane Nguyen/Osu Athletics
Oregon States Libero Ryan White performs for the beavers on this unwavering picture in Corvallis, ore.
Photograph of: Photos with crimson field
Audra Wilmes (1) in Washington serves in opposition to Nebraska on Saturday, November 9, 2024, in Seattle.
TESSA DODD won’t attain Lawrence by 2026, however Gatorade Wyoming’s Gatorade Wyoming participant, a 6-meter-Four reverse, has been dedicated from Oregon to Kansas.
On Monday, Ulmer teased a “really fascinating” recruit, who employed a number of days in the past, that I feel everybody will prefer it, followers and workers included “and added,” and I have never completed “.
He mentioned that, past sure key bodily skills, he’s in search of an archetype of participant who “is only a chilly aggressive prison on the ground, however then he can snort at themselves once I make a mistake or one thing enjoyable has occurred.”
It was a crowded interval for recruitment basically, and particularly for not too long ago named Ulmer’s recruitment coordinator, Arica Nassar, who made the transfer from Oregon. (The remainder of his workers consists of one other assistant in Oregon in Erika Dillard, former male Grand Canyon, Matt Werle, and Holdovers of Bechard, Maggie Bowen and Tori Miller-Hohlios.) Ulmer has estimated to have 11 athletes on campus over the course of two weeks and added that the Triple Volleyball Crown in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, who ended on Monday, made for the busiest highschool weekend.
The whole lot is a part of staging for a program that he thinks could be a competitor of the title.
“I actually do not assume there’s a restrict on what we will do,” he mentioned. “… I solely assume, on a nationwide stage, a nationwide picture, I have no idea why we can not compete for the championships within the 12 months and the 12 months. So, I feel the assist is there, I feel the assist of the followers is there, I feel (the sports activities supervisor Nicole Corcoran and the athletic director Travis Goff), the imaginative and prescient they’ve for volleyball is simply “to go. Let’s do it.'”
He mentioned that the exterior reply was simply as optimistic: “I feel this has most likely been probably the most encouraging factor to date, it’s simply the emotion from recruits, membership coaches, administrators. Are prepared for it. We’ll construct. “
Followers can have the possibility to see the primary phases of the Ulmer period in April. The crew is anticipated to host spring exhibition matches on April 5 and 19 with a match in Kansas Metropolis, then journey to deal with Nebraska on April 26.