In its third year under head coach Luka Slabe, the NC State volleyball team will look to continue its upward trajectory of the past two seasons in 2022.
The Wolfpack went 8-9 in Slabe’s first season in 2020, a season which consisted of only conference matches and was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, NC State improved, going 16-13 for the team’s first winning season since 2018, and the Pack will look to improve once again this season.
NC State will first have a lot to replace as it lost an extraordinary senior class to graduation last year — Melissa Evans, Jade Parchment, Taylor Rowland, Kaylee Frazier and Pam Chukwujekwu. Evans was one of the best players in program history as she holds the school record for kills in the rally scoring era, Parchment had over 1,000 kills in her career, and Rowland, Frazier and Chukwujekwu were all significant contributors in their times at NC State.
Among the returning members of the squad are senior setter Kristen McDaniel, junior middle blocker Riley Shaak, sophomore middle blocker Jada Allen, sophomore opposite hitter Amanda Rice, senior defensive specialist Hannah Wander and sophomore libero Saskia Hernandez. Allen is the team’s leading returner in kills and blocks, while McDaniel is the team’s leading returner in assists and digs.
To fill the void left by last year’s senior class, the Pack adds a number of talented incoming freshmen and transfers. Joining the team as transfers are graduate libero Priscilla Hernandez, graduate opposite hitter Vanja Bukilic, junior setter Naomi Cabello, sophomore outside hitter Martyna Leoniak and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Madison Williams.
Hernandez is a transfer from Miami, where she recorded over 1,000 digs in four years and was named to the All-ACC Second Team in 2021. Bukilic is a transfer from Ohio State, where she also played four years and was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team in the 2020-21 season. Leoniak played on the Polish under-21 national team in the 2022 European Volleyball Championships and is a transfer from Hawaii, and both Cabello and Williams are transfers from Texas.
Also joining the team is a talented freshman class, which includes middle blocker Gabriella Karman, outside hitter Ava Brizard, libero Savannah Woods, outside hitter Courtney Bryant, middle blocker Lily Cropper and libero Elaisa Villar. Brizard was a standout in high school, winning both the 2020 and 2021 Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year Award and is the No. 8 recruit in the country, while Cropper is the No. 148 recruit in the country, giving the Pack two top-150 recruits for a top-20 recruiting class.
NC State opens the season with three matches on the road in the Kansas State Invitational before returning for a six-match home stand, which includes matchups against Tennessee, Indiana and TCU. After the ACC-SEC Challenge on the road against Georgia and Arkansas, it’s nothing but conference matchups the rest of the way. Some of the notable matchups are road contests against Pitt and Louisville, two of last season’s national semifinalists, a home matchup against No. 9 Georgia Tech and a home matchup against rival UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday, Oct. 21.
This season will reveal how far the program has come under Slabe. The ACC is one of the toughest conferences in the country for volleyball, and if the Pack wants to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, it won’t be easy. But if anyone can lead a team there, it’s Slabe, who has a gold medal to his name as part of the coaching staff for the U.S. women’s volleyball national team in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
