- Kaitlyn Burkett (right) sets the ball to Schylur Edelma (left) as she prepares for the hit at the volleyball game against Kansas State Nov. 12, 2008 at the Coors Events Center. (CU Independent/ Morgan Hofmann)
They are young. They have a new head coach. They are the 2009 Colorado Buffaloes volleyball team.
“I took this program over a couple of months ago and we hit the ground running,” head coach Liz Kritza said. “Going to our first season here at Boulder, we have really high expectations. Anytime you go through the rebuilding of a program, which I have done before, you have great, great challenges. It’s going to be a challenging season, but in every challenge lies great opportunity.”
What are the challenges Kritza mentioned? Whose opportunity is it to capitalize on those challenges? For a team picked 10th in the 2009 Big 12 Preseason Volleyball Poll, three key questions arise.
1. How will the team transition with a new head coach?
This issue is, without a doubt, the elephant in the room.
After compiling 199 wins with nine NCAA tournament appearances in 12 seasons, Pi’i Aiu is out and Kritza is in. Then again, when a coach concludes his last two seasons with a combined record of 19-38, change was in order.
Kritza arrived at CU from Tulane, where she spent 14 seasons first as a student-athlete and then most recently as the Green Wave’s head coach. She was 76-39 in her four seasons as the boss at Tulane, which includes a 41-21 mark against conference foes. Kritza said she knows what a challenge is since her first Tulane team went 5-16 and had to confront not one, but two hurricanes — Katrina and Rita — that caused the team to relocate to College Station, Texas and forced the cancellation of 10 nonconference games.
So far, as the team readies itself for the season’s first match on Friday against Valparasio in the Campus USA Credit Union Invite in Gainesville, Fla., the players say they have relied on each other to make the transition seamless.
“It’s definitely been an adjustment,” senior setter Kaitlyn Burkett said. “But I think our team did such a good job with it because we transitioned, we worked hard, and everybody came in everyday with an attitude of, ‘We’re going to get this done.’ I feel like the transition was easier because the coaches made it easy, and because I think we relied on one another to make the transition easier.”
Sophomore outside hitter Rosie Steinhaus agrees.
“You just go into practice knowing that it is going to be draining, both mentally and physically, but in the end it is all going to be worth it,” Steinhaus said. “It’s exciting.”
2. At Media Day three weeks ago, there were only 11 players on the roster. Isn’t that a small team?
There is no doubt the 2009 team lacks depth. Only eight of last season’s 18 players returned. It can either be a blessing or a concern. The answer is in the eye of the beholder.
Of last season’s top five offensive players, only junior middle blocker Schylur Edelman returns with 184 kills. Of the five defensive players with more than 100 digs last season, Burkett is the lone returning player.
There are 10 non-returnees but only five were due to graduation. However, the team added two freshmen and a junior transfer right before the start of camp to bring the roster total up to 14.
Even with the addition of last-second personnel, the coaching staff said they know they are an injury or two away from being in serious trouble.
“We need to make sure we are training them,” Kritza said. “We are pushing them well beyond what they thought their perceived limit was, but making sure it’s an intelligent approach. We want to stave off any injuries and make sure that we are training them on the right cycles.”
3. Not only does the team lack depth, they also lack experience. Will the inexperience show?
Burkett, Edelman, junior Ellen Henry and junior-transfer Sofia Lindroth make up the team’s upperclassmen.
Of the four, only Burkett is a senior with the rest of the team comprising four sophomores and six freshmen.
The player who could guide this team best just might be Edelman. In May, she was selected to represent the Buffs at the NCAA Student-Athlete Development Conference in Orlando, Fla.
Edelman said that at the conference, one of the most important elements she learned was working with different personality types.
“We did a test to break down our personality and everybody did the test, so we all knew the different traits we had,” Edelman said. “Then, we had to learn how to work with different people because some people are really aggressive and some people are really passive.
“I think it definitely applies just because we have such a young team. There’s definitely going to be some nervousness when playing and the experience isn’t always going to be there when you need it. That’s definitely something to fall back on in times of tribulation. I think it just helps because now, I can relate better to my teammates and helped them through that because I’ve had the experience where they might not have had as much.”
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Cheng Sio at Cheng.Sio@colorado.edu.
