This year’s rendition of the Marist women’s volleyball will be vastly different than recent years.
Marist has finished among the top three teams in the MAAC Conference in the past three seasons. But each successful regular season results in the same postseason: an elimination in their first matchup. With nearly the bulk of the 2023 rotation gone, there has been a different energy in McCann Arena thus far.
“Truly, I think the vibe in the gym is very different because I think the overall level is higher,” said Marist volleyball head coach Sean Byron.
Though some prolific names are no longer with the team, the Red Foxes present a more well-rounded attack; which isn’t to say their stalwart pin hitters won’t be missed.
“I think it’s definitely a weird feeling, just because those people were so pivotal to our team and not having them has been really weird so far in our starting lineup,” said senior middle hitter Alyssa White.
Marist will be without its most familiar faces of years past; 2023 All-MAAC First Team outside hitters Sasha van der Merwe and Jordan Newblatt. The duo joined Marist’s 1,000-kill list last season, becoming the ninth and tenth Red Foxes to accomplish the feat in the program’s history. Coincidingly, van der Merwe ended the 2023 season with 458 kills, the second most in a season in Marist history en route to winning MAAC Player of the Year.
The duo of van der Merwe and Newblatt accounted for well over half of Marist’s 1,422 kills last season, but both exercised their fifth year of eligibility elsewhere: van der Merwe at Florida Gulf Coast University and Newblatt at Bowling Green State University.
Fellow outside hitters Emi Yakushev and Gabriella Heimbauer will also not return to Marist. All four players Marist lost made up the top four kills and attack attempts for the Red Foxes last year. Marist will also be without senior setter Claire Lewis, who suffered an offseason knee injury.
Due to graduations, departures and injuries, this year’s starting rotation will feature countless new faces, including graduate student Jamison White. White, a setter and right-side hitter from Nashville, joins Marist after spending the previous four years at the University of New Hampshire.
“I really wanted a team that I knew that would be welcoming because I don’t have four years to build new relationships,” said White. “I only have one year, so I wanted people that are really kind and welcoming.”
Her prior experience may have come from a different program, but White can be a reliable and stable presence on the young team.
“She’s really steady. She’s not going to hit a ball out of bounds then panic, or serve the ball into the net and panic,” said Byron. “She’s steady because she’s been through it.”
During the offseason, the graduate student has adjusted to the offense smoothly, and her teammates have taken note.
“I think [Jamison] very naturally picked up on our offense and has been doing a good job leading everyone,” said Alyssa White. “New people don’t always come in and immediately make an impact on the team.”
Jamison White has made an instant impression on her middle hitters, a valuable offensive position Marist has struggled to utilize years prior. Last season, Marist’s primary middle hitters Vanessa Zolg and Alyssa White converted on their attack attempts at an effective rate but averaged less than two kills per set combined.
“Jamison certainly connects with the middles better than anyone we’ve ever had,” said Byron. We haven’t really had a middle attack in my six years here and our middles are our best attackers pretty much every day.”
“I think the middles play a really important job in the offense,” Jamison White added. “When you do establish the middles, it makes it better for all the hitters because it makes the blockers have to think.”
Alyssa White, the primary middle hitter and the most experienced hitter the Red Foxes have to offer is also stepping into a leadership role this fall. Last year’s team included three senior captains, offering underclassmen plenty of upperclassmen to turn to for advice.
“At first it was more intimidating; I felt like it was going to be a lot of pressure and a lot of eyes on me,” said Alyssa White. “It still is a different level than what I used to, but it isn’t as intimidating.”
While Marist lost its fair share of hitters from last year’s squad, a new crop of front-row options have emerged. All six incoming freshmen are hitters, with five listed at six feet tall or higher.
Additionally, the Red Foxes added sophomore Sara Dasic, an outside hitter from Lazarevac, Serbia, who spent her freshman year at Indian River State College. There, she scored 107 kills in 15 matches.
“She may not be as physical as some of the players, but she can maneuver the ball around, she sees everything,” said Byron.
Bringing Dasic to Poughkeepsie involved a drastically different process than most other recruits, domestic or international. Byron and the Marist coaching staff only saw her play on film and only talked to her and her coaches on phone and Zoom calls.
Byron met with his other international recruits in person, freshmen outside hitter Eden Bristow and right side/middle hitter Sarah Bumstead, who Byron saw compete live in tournaments.
In an offseason highlighted by change, the one familiarity among the Marist roster is the libero position; four of last year’s five are returning for the 2024 season. While the faces will be similar, the position has been up for grabs heading into this season, similar to last.
In 2023, four players saw significant time at libero, recording over 25 sets played.
Byron expects the shuffling to continue this season, thanks in part to a new NCAA rule passed in the offseason that allows teams to dress two liberos for each set, rather than just one.
“We’ve got five playing [libero], and they’ve all rotated at some point between number one, number two, all the way down to number five,” said Byron. “We’re trying to get a broad base so we can stay wild and see where we’re at.”
Amidst massive roster turnover and a sluggish end to their 2023 campaign losing six of their last nine games, Marist lands sixth in the 2024 MAAC Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll.
“It makes sense given who we lost and how we ended last season,” said Alyssa White. “I think it’s definitely a driving factor, we want to prove them wrong, and just because we don’t have those people doesn’t mean we can’t finish well.”
In each of Marist’s previous three MAAC Tournament trips, the Red Foxes have been bounced in their first matchup. A new, deep rotation of Red Foxes set to play with something to prove may be able to change that.
“I would think it takes pressure off of them as individuals,” said Byron. “There’s not one or two people that need to have a good match. Last year, if one of the two of [Newblatt and van der Merwe] had a bad match, we were okay. If both had a bad match, we were tragic, whereas now it’s a broad spectrum of players.”
Alyssa White, a member of the Marist team in each of the previous three postseason early exits, knows it won’t come easy, but feels confident in this year’s group.
“Every year I come into the year like ‘oh this team I think can win’ but this team I have a really good feeling about because it’s so fresh and so new,” said White. “I think in a way we needed that.”
The Red Foxes will open their season this Friday at Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA, and their first match of MAAC play will be nearly a month later, on Sept. 28 at Niagara.
Edited by Dan Aulbach and Jimmy Tsiantoulas
Graphic Credit: Jaylen Rizzo
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