SE: K-State Volleyball Chasing NCAA Tournament in Unique Spring Season
Feb 05, 2021 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
The best story in K-State Sports deserved a better ending. Suzie Fritz believes her team is ready to write it in 2021.
"We're going into this with the objective of being better than we were in the fall, making improvement and continuing to develop individually and collectively," she said. "I don't really think about how we win. I think about putting us in a position to do so."
To keep building their NCAA Tournament resume and to give a young roster more opportunities to compete, the Wildcats will play seven non-conference matches in February and March.
It's a chance for K-State to end a season that many thought wouldn't happen, and to reach a place where few thought the Wildcats would be able to go.
K-State Volleyball began the fall with a dozen underclassmen on the roster for the second season in a row, something that had never happened in the history of the program. In the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, the Wildcats were picked to finish second to last.
And after COVID-19 wiped out its non-conference schedule, K-State would play eight of its 16 matches against teams that qualified for the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
We can keep going, but the point is, Kansas State was a textbook, old-fashioned, Hollywood training-montage-where-the-team-comes-together underdog before this season began.
And then they just started winning.
The Wildcats reeled off a 10-win season and their best conference record since 2008, good for a third-place finish in the Big 12.
In a normal year, that would have been enough to score them an invite to volleyball's big dance. But with a smaller field in 2021, the NCAA Tournament has never been more exclusive. The tournament will take place in April at a single-site competition in Omaha.
Fritz believes the 'Cats have a shot at their first trip since 2016.
"Assuming we continue to progress and improve through the spring, this team deserves to be a tournament team based on our finish in the Big 12 and our performance during the fall," she said, after K-State announced its spring schedule earlier this week.
Many schools throughout the country are sticking with a conference-only schedule in 2021, ruling out a few opponents the Wildcats had hoped to schedule. So, Fritz got creative.
Kicking things off with a two-game series against Wichita State, the Wildcats will welcome Texas State, Saint Louis and No. 19 Creighton to Bramlage Coliseum, before wrapping up the spring with a two-game series against Wayne State.
"You make plans and then you make plans again," Fritz said. "That's how it works, right?"
Case in point: Some teams have already begun their spring schedule, since the Big Ten and Pac-12 didn't play volleyball at all in the fall. That's bumped K-State in the national rankings.
The Wildcats received votes in the latest AVCA Coaches' Poll, effectively putting them at No. 32 in the country - right on the bubble for one of the 18 at-large bids available in the NCAA Tournament.
It sounds complicated because it's never happened before – just like the task awaiting Fritz and her coaching staff as K-State Volleyball begins workouts ahead of their first match of the spring.
"We gave them two months off in between those seasons," Fritz said. "Our dependence on them taking care of their health, well-being and physical and mental preparation is higher than ever…Having them back in the gym for the first time [on Monday], they did an excellent job."
And if K-State qualifies for the NCAA Tournament in April, it would have just a few months away from volleyball before returning to Manhattan for summer workouts.
That means less training sessions where Fritz and her players can "attack improvement," since the Wildcats will be busy preparing for some of their biggest matches of the season.
"Those are challenges that we're working through, but I think we've got a good plan," she said. "We're trying to find ways to get better while we're in the heat of the battle."
The good news for K-State? Getting better in the heat of battle was kind of their thing in 2020.
Freshman Aliyah Carter powered the Wildcats on offense, with a team-leading 228 kills. She was joined by fellow impact freshmen Mackenzie Morris (the team leader in digs with 256) and Kadye Fernholz (second on the team with 44 blocks).
Jayden Nembhard wasn't even a regular starter for the Wildcats and still collected a pair of Big 12 Freshman of the Week honors when she was pressed into action at outside hitter.
Four players who were in middle school the last time K-State punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament will now be a big part of a team that hopes to make it back to the postseason.
That's not to mention returning veterans – a relative term, since the Wildcats don't have any four-year seniors – like Brynn Carlson, second on the team in kills, and senior transfer Shelby Martin, who recorded the only triple-double in the nation (11 kills, 38 assists, 10 digs) this fall.
Fritz said the key will be for K-State to establish its goals ahead of the nine-week season. That won't be easy, but it could be exactly what gets the Wildcats back to the NCAA Tournament.
"If players aren't mindful about it, they can focus more on earning a job and winning a match than making a technique change that might make them worse before they get better. That's a really difficult thing to balance," Fritz said. "You have to focus on improvement every day."
The best story in K-State Sports deserved a better ending. Suzie Fritz believes her team is ready to write it in 2021.
"We're going into this with the objective of being better than we were in the fall, making improvement and continuing to develop individually and collectively," she said. "I don't really think about how we win. I think about putting us in a position to do so."
To keep building their NCAA Tournament resume and to give a young roster more opportunities to compete, the Wildcats will play seven non-conference matches in February and March.
It's a chance for K-State to end a season that many thought wouldn't happen, and to reach a place where few thought the Wildcats would be able to go.
K-State Volleyball began the fall with a dozen underclassmen on the roster for the second season in a row, something that had never happened in the history of the program. In the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, the Wildcats were picked to finish second to last.
And after COVID-19 wiped out its non-conference schedule, K-State would play eight of its 16 matches against teams that qualified for the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
We can keep going, but the point is, Kansas State was a textbook, old-fashioned, Hollywood training-montage-where-the-team-comes-together underdog before this season began.
And then they just started winning.
The Wildcats reeled off a 10-win season and their best conference record since 2008, good for a third-place finish in the Big 12.
In a normal year, that would have been enough to score them an invite to volleyball's big dance. But with a smaller field in 2021, the NCAA Tournament has never been more exclusive. The tournament will take place in April at a single-site competition in Omaha.
Fritz believes the 'Cats have a shot at their first trip since 2016.
"Assuming we continue to progress and improve through the spring, this team deserves to be a tournament team based on our finish in the Big 12 and our performance during the fall," she said, after K-State announced its spring schedule earlier this week.
Many schools throughout the country are sticking with a conference-only schedule in 2021, ruling out a few opponents the Wildcats had hoped to schedule. So, Fritz got creative.
Kicking things off with a two-game series against Wichita State, the Wildcats will welcome Texas State, Saint Louis and No. 19 Creighton to Bramlage Coliseum, before wrapping up the spring with a two-game series against Wayne State.
"You make plans and then you make plans again," Fritz said. "That's how it works, right?"
Case in point: Some teams have already begun their spring schedule, since the Big Ten and Pac-12 didn't play volleyball at all in the fall. That's bumped K-State in the national rankings.
The Wildcats received votes in the latest AVCA Coaches' Poll, effectively putting them at No. 32 in the country - right on the bubble for one of the 18 at-large bids available in the NCAA Tournament.
It sounds complicated because it's never happened before – just like the task awaiting Fritz and her coaching staff as K-State Volleyball begins workouts ahead of their first match of the spring.
"We gave them two months off in between those seasons," Fritz said. "Our dependence on them taking care of their health, well-being and physical and mental preparation is higher than ever…Having them back in the gym for the first time [on Monday], they did an excellent job."
Less caption, more action.#KStateVB x Built Different pic.twitter.com/hMjrD33btJ
— K-State Volleyball (@KStateVB) February 4, 2021
And if K-State qualifies for the NCAA Tournament in April, it would have just a few months away from volleyball before returning to Manhattan for summer workouts.
That means less training sessions where Fritz and her players can "attack improvement," since the Wildcats will be busy preparing for some of their biggest matches of the season.
"Those are challenges that we're working through, but I think we've got a good plan," she said. "We're trying to find ways to get better while we're in the heat of the battle."
The good news for K-State? Getting better in the heat of battle was kind of their thing in 2020.
Freshman Aliyah Carter powered the Wildcats on offense, with a team-leading 228 kills. She was joined by fellow impact freshmen Mackenzie Morris (the team leader in digs with 256) and Kadye Fernholz (second on the team with 44 blocks).
Jayden Nembhard wasn't even a regular starter for the Wildcats and still collected a pair of Big 12 Freshman of the Week honors when she was pressed into action at outside hitter.
Four players who were in middle school the last time K-State punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament will now be a big part of a team that hopes to make it back to the postseason.
That's not to mention returning veterans – a relative term, since the Wildcats don't have any four-year seniors – like Brynn Carlson, second on the team in kills, and senior transfer Shelby Martin, who recorded the only triple-double in the nation (11 kills, 38 assists, 10 digs) this fall.
Fritz said the key will be for K-State to establish its goals ahead of the nine-week season. That won't be easy, but it could be exactly what gets the Wildcats back to the NCAA Tournament.
"If players aren't mindful about it, they can focus more on earning a job and winning a match than making a technique change that might make them worse before they get better. That's a really difficult thing to balance," Fritz said. "You have to focus on improvement every day."
Players Mentioned
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