As recently as last Saturday’s Red-Blue game, Arizona head volleyball coach Rita Stubbs seemed to be leaning towards the Wildcats continuing with the traditional 5-1 offensive system that the program has run for most of its existence. That has changed.
The Wildcats held their annual local media day on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for Wednesday’s exhibition against the GCU Lopes. One of the biggest pieces of information Stubbs shared was that Arizona would likely start the season in a 6-2 offense.
“Six-two is something that plays to the advantage of who we are as a team,” Stubbs said.
One of those advantages is the use of both setters, who have different strong points.
Junior setter Maria Olga Siapani had the most success setting balls that turned into points at the Red-Blue scrimmage last Saturday, but the big disadvantage is her size. As a shorter setter, teams could try to take advantage of her when she’s in the front row.
Fifth-year setter Harmony Sample is a taller setter who spent time playing in a 6-2 at Notre Dame. At 5-foot-11, her size is more typical for the position at the Power 4 level than Siapani’s listed height of 5-foot-8.
It’s not that smaller setters can never have success. Arizona’s best setter in recent memory if not program history was Penina Snuka, who was listed at just 5-foot-6. Snuka is the only Wildcat setter to ever be named conference setter of the year. She also earned All-American honors. Current UA setting coach Jhenna Gabriel was the Big 12 Setter of the Year and an All-American at Texas despite being listed at 5-foot-8.
That said, putting any smaller player in the front row will always provide a tempting target for opposing attackers.
What changed that made the coaches reconsider the 6-2?
“Everyone has a different philosophy on a 6-2,” Stubbs said. “Some will say it’s because you have two great setters. I don’t think that’s the reason why. Your biggest question is, can you pass? Do you have enough bodies that can pass to run the 6-2? And then, do you have two great bodies on the right side? And the answers to all those questions were yes.”
There’s always a chance that things will change, though. Stubbs said players will have the biggest say in that based on how they compete.
“Who’s to say we won’t go to a 5-1 at some point, just depending on what the competition does to us or what we need to plan against, but I like the fact that we are able to incorporate more players,” Stubbs said. “I think that helps with the morale a lot.”
Up next for Arizona volleyball
Who: GCU Lopes @ Arizona Wildcats (exhibition)
When: Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. MST
Where: McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
Stubbs also said that the use of the 6-2 will allow her to use her pins in ways that take some pressure off them and gets more of them on the floor. Outside hitter Destiny Ndam-Simpson may not be called upon to pass as much, which is something that both Ndam-Simpson and Stubbs said she is still working on. It would also allow more playing time for the three opposites on the team.
“We have two, three phenomenal opposites, and you know any one of them can play at any given time, which will then free her up a little bit,” Stubbs said. “But when you know you have to pass a great ball and then go score, that’s a lot of work.”
Ndam-Simpson was fairly effective at both serve receive and scoring in the Red-Blue game. She received 21 serves without an error, although Arizona didn’t serve particularly well that day. Her receptions tied Carlie Cisneros for the match high. Passing scores are not part of the box score, so the quality of the passing isn’t available from a statistical point of view.
The transfer from Creighton showed that she will definitely be Arizona’s primary scoring option, though. She led the match with 24 kills. She had 17 in the first two sets when on the Red team with Siapani setting. She switched to the Blue team with Sample for the final two sets and added seven more kills.
Stubbs said that the senior was primarily “relegated to just the back row” when she was at Creighton, and that some people told her that Ndam-Simpson couldn’t be effective unless she was the primary option. The Arizona coach said that she has seen nothing to indicate that her new outside hitter can’t be a team player and do whatever is asked of her.
“She embraced it, and that’s something that’s very valuable,” Stubbs said. “It’s like you accept the role you have, and then you make a decision to do what’s best for you afterwards. But she never complained along the way, so I really appreciated that.”
Regardless, there’s every indication that Ndam-Simpson will be the primary option at Arizona. The team needed to replace the scoring of Jordan Wilson. While Arizona got scoring from all seven pins, all four middles, and both setters, the only other pins to come close to or exceed 10 kills were freshman OH Hayden Reeder (12) and junior OPP Kennedy Osunsanmi (9). Fifth-year OPP Britt Carlson and Cisneros each had seven kills.
The development of all of Arizona’s options is important for this year if the Wildcats are to make their second straight NCAA Tournament, but it goes far beyond that. The 5-in-5 rule means that players who thought they were entering their final year now have two to play if they choose.
Ndam-Simpson is one of those. She was supposed to have just one year as a Wildcat. She could have two if she and the coaching staff choose.
Another important player who is now looking at an extra year at Arizona is middle blocker Journey Tucker. She is very excited about the option to play another season. While many players will hem and haw when asked about future plans in similar situations, she didn’t hesitate when asked if she’d given thought to returning.
“100 percent,” Tucker said. “I think just continuing to grow and gain more experience in this sport, I think it will be great. And I’ve always talked to my mom and my family about pursuing higher education after I get my bachelor’s degree. So being able to do both, get my master’s while also playing volleyball, I think it would be amazing. So, we—Rita and I—talked about it during the summer because they did vote vote for it over the summer. So that is something that I would love to pursue doing to take my fifth year.”
Stubbs is looking beyond next year. She was especially excited about the prospect of keeping her current junior class for two more years beyond this season. That group consists of Cisneros, Siapani, Osunsanmi, and libero Brenna Ginder. Cisneros and Ginder are entering their third season as starters for Arizona.
“While there are five years you compete, it doesn’t mean you’re going to compete five years at that particular school, and so we want to bring in the best athletes every single year to be able to compete,” Stubbs said. “And I shouldn’t say every single year. I should say every single semester, the way that the transfer portal works, and to just put the best foot forward that we have. And so, we just will watch it each day as it comes. You know, there’s a couple players we’ve already talked to to kind of say, ‘Hey, what are you thinking? You know, how do you feel?’ But with the group that we have, our junior class, my goal is to keep that class as long as I can because they’ll be the backbone of our program…So my goal is to be able to retain them and then see how we fit in the extra pieces with…the five-year rule.”
