I am not a VB expert. I leave that to my sister, the world's biggest non-alum, non-parent Penn St. fan.

I am perplexed, though, at we saw this year, how it compares to the past, and what it means going forward.

Was this year a bit of a blip, and we will soon return to the dominant position we claimed going back to the Carlston years? Or are we settling into a new era, where the league is more competitive, with Ohio simply being in the mix more often than not?

Has the caliber of player coming to campus slipped a bit? I remember when Chelsea Bilger and Kelly Lamberti were recruited, looking at their H.S. credentials and being wowed. I was hopeful about our last two top 100 recruits, Jaime and Carley. Jaime has been good, maybe very good, but never dominant. Carley has been here two years and for the most part, been hurt for two years.

Abby graduating obviously hurt--one of the best every to play in the MAC. Karin Bull, too. I think the coaching staff was also perplexed. They seemed to spend the season looking for combinations and players that could consistently deliver. But clearly, there was no one on this year's squad ready to step up into that dominate role.

While the staff has gone to twitter to announce next year's signings, there has been no release that we can go to for details. Only one girl sounds interesting, and that's Dahlias Bouyer. She apparently has moved around a lot and at one point, if the 'Net postings are correct, was committed to Michigan State. How did she land with us?

Contrast this lack of info with that put out by women's hoops. Bob Bolden, who is not one for overstatement, was quoted as saying this is his most talented recruiting class.

Finally, the participation on the part of fans in the volleyball message board is at an all time low. It seems to have been slowly moving that way every since Carlston announced he was heading to that school up north...

It is too bad that there's not more activity on these threads given how great of a sport Vball is and OHIO's fine record in the Vball over the years.

I'm far away from our team and don't know any details except what I read here, but I'm inclined to give Coach Webb some latitude based on his record at OHIO. A fine record.

If this year was a 'down year' then we have high expectations for the program.

A blip year, along with a more competitive conference. No need to panic, believe in what the staff is doing. This team just needed experience, they got it and they'll be better next year. Miami and NIU will be losing key pieces, (NIU: Radtke, Kelly, Horwath, Zielinski, Miami: Hill, Below, Brakauskus). Although BG will be better. Kent State fell off and will lose their setter Kojic and MB Norberg.

The team showed growth, and that's what matters since this year was going to be about that. We knew it from the start. It's a bummer they went out the way they did, but it'll provide the motivation needed to succeed next year. I'm curious as to who will step up as leaders. Next year the titles will be toss ups. NIU/Toledo in the West, BG/Miami/Ohio in the East.

An 11-5 MAC record is better than most people thought. Be optimistic about next year.

I share the same concerns as Brucecuth. For the last 10 years plus, we have been a top 50 school, which wins a lot of MAC titles. This should have been quite apparent to Coach Webb, when he took this job. Next year I can't imagine that the preseason rankings will have us in the top 50. Is it Coach Webb's goal to get us there?

There was one high school honorable All American in this years recruiting class.

There are 12 teams in the MAC and we ended up 3rd, higher than many predicted. It was evident this would be a down year as we lost 3 All-Mac players including the POY. Freshmen need time to develop and gel, and that was shortchanged early due to injuries and illness. A number of players who were playing early in the season ended up sitting most of the year. NIU and Miami had their best teams in a long time and were better than us. NIU won the tourney and Miami, ranked 42nd should make the dance too. As mentioned above, many of the key players on both teams will be gone. We lost Brooke and Mal, arguably our best player, but everyone else is back. With a year under their belt and hopefully their injuries in the past, along with some solid recruits, Ohio will move forward.

Go OHIO

Monroe, I too wish there was more activity here, but it's never be that evident, at least since the Carlston era. Attendance of course is your primary indicator of interest, and that remains strong. I noted the ESPN announcers at the NIU/Miami championship game were commenting positively about the large crowd for the MAC championship game, over 1000. Given that's what it holds, It must have been loud in that bandbox. But we more than double that attendance on a typical night. We were 15th in the country last year in attendance and this year we’ll be right up there too, despite an off year for us.

p.s. I know one way to up board activity-you can post more.

Consider this a post that adds to the total, stub. I'm sure that this team will gel for next year and the serve-receive and setting issues will no longer be a question.

What about Ali Lake, she still has a year of volleyball and was not presented with Mal and Brooke as being done. The blocking this year was down about 15 to 25% over the past 3-5 years.Two 6'4" girls on the team that were works in progress and were both red shirted with little or no volleyball IQ. Deane has little to no interest in being a blocking team it seems to me. If Ali is out we are right back to square one. Spring season with one MB no RS holes in the DS position and 1 truly known Outside.

Stub--that's a good one about the volume of activity going up here if I post more.

It's certainly true that Coach Webb is a coach who's shown that he can win a MACC in less than 12 years.

This is really Coach Webb's first recruiting class. These girls were freshman when he was announced. There is no real time to recruit that spring as he moves, fills a staff, tries to sort through the roster he inherited, evaluate girls who committed to the previous coach, etc. For the type of girls OU wants, sophomore year is when the real push to recruit them would have started.

Heres the other thing about this year, how is it Miami gets in as an at-large yet Ohio couldn't get in in 2013 even though they only lost 5 matches?

The selection committee goes almost exclusively by RPI. For bubble teams, it depends how many small conference high RPI teams win their conference tournament. This year most of the conference tournaments were won by the favorite so teams like Cleveland State and Dayton won and didn't use at-large bids to get in the tourney. When that happens, that extends how far down at large bids go. Miami's RPI was 40 this year.

Edit - just checked and OU's final RPI that year was 39 (could have been slightly worse at tourney selection time). Either there were some upsets in conference tournaments or the strength of schedule wasn't there.