In his first season at Xavier, head volleyball coach Mike Johnson led the Musketeers to a 20-10 overall record (12-3 in the Atlantic 10) and reached the A-10 Championship game.
This season he adds a nationally acclaimed recruiting class and two new coaches on his staff, while also returning a group of experienced players from last season’s team.
The A-10 coaches picked Xavier to finish second again this year, but Johnson expects more.
“I don’t put a lot of stock in those polls. It’s nice to think that some coaches think we could be pretty good, but we worry more about what we think. We can think we can win the league this year, and that’s really the goal. Anything short of that will be a bummer,” Johnson said.
Johnson pointed out that this team is miles ahead right now compared to where they were a year ago in his first year on the job.
“The difference between this year and last year is monumental,” Johnson said. “When I came in last year, we overhauled the entire system of play. Last year was like going through a mini-camp, teaching how to play a different style for the first time ever. This year, the majority of the group has a pretty firm grasp of how we want to play.”
Xavier lost three seniors and their associate head coach from last year’s Atlantic 10 runner-up team, but brings in a talented four player class and two new assistant coaches to the staff.
Aubrey Smith, sister of redshirt sophomore Alex Smith, will lead the group of three incoming freshman, which was rated as “high honorable mention” by prepvolleyball.com.
The Musketeers also add Meliamé (Amé) White, a transfer from Salt Lake Community College. White, a 5-9 outside hitter, played the past two seasons in Salt Lake City, UT and arrives to Xavier as a junior.
This season, however, Johnson adds two full-time paid assistant coaches to his staff, instead of just one.
New assistant coaches Sammi McCloud and Claire Paszkiewicz both bring A-10 experience to the program. McCloud, a 2010 graduate of Saint Louis University, was a former All-American and Atlantic 10 Player of the Year.
This will mark her first year of coaching after playing professionally in France last season.
Paszkiewicz , also a first-year coach, remains in the program after graduating from Xavier last May.
She finished her playing career as one of only two Musketeers to surpass the 3,000 assists-1,000 digs mark and ranks fifth on XU’s all-time assists list with 3,303.
Replacing Paszkiewicz at the setter position will be one of the biggest tasks for the Xavier staff, and she will play a role in working with and developing her successors at the position that she previously held on the team.
Another issue for the Xavier coaching staff will be determining the starting six players.
“We easily have 9-10 kids who can all start for us and be very successful,” Johnson said, who called his team’s depth a “great problem to have.”
Xavier will open the season on Friday against Lipscomb and Central Arkansas before facing the University of Houston on Saturday.