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Rice Volleyball: Owls must replace important pieces

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It’s hard to accomplish all Rice Volleyball did in 2019 without a core group of experienced players. The Owls will have to replace several key seniors.

Rice volleyball had a delicate mix of experienced veterans and up-and-coming underclassmen on their 2019 team. They’re fortunate to only have to replace a few key pieces on a team poised to reload and seek another NCAA berth.

The outgoing seniors, although few in number, played huge roles in the Owls’ success on the court. Head coach Genny Volpe admitted it won’t be a seamless transition. “It’s hard [to replace those seniors],” quickly transitioning to those waiting in the wings. “We’ve got some really talented players coming in and we have some players that are currently on the team that maybe had smaller roles that are looking to fulfill bigger roles.”

Volpe and her staff had started to identify those players this spring before the coronavirus shutdown put an indefinite pause on their spring activities. There will be plenty of time to look forward to that future. Now is the time for an assessment of just what those reinforcements will be supplanting.

The most notable departing senior is setter Adria Martinez. She had more than half of the Owls’ assists on the season, sharing the setting duties with sophomore Carly Graham. Martinez was one of three players to never miss a set all season. The other two, senior Lee Ann Cunningham and graduate Tabitha Brown, have also played their final games at Rice.

Cunningham served as the team’s libero, leading the team in digs. Brown was an impactful outside hitter. That trio of Martinez, Cunningham and Brown combined for 1068 digs over the course of the season. Fortunately seven-time Conference USA Player of the Week Nicole Lennon will return in 2020, but that’s still plenty of defensive turnover.

Outside hitters Grace Morgan and Tori Woogk round out the outgoing collection of Owls. Both were contributors on the attack, racking up 193 and 116 kills respectively. Morgan’s 265 points were third-most on the team.

Those seniors played crucial roles in pushing Rice volleyball to its historic season, but they didn’t get the Owls’ there on their own. Rice has plenty of talent on the roster. The new faces just need their moment in the spotlight. That will come soon enough.

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Rice Volleyball: Owls’ soar to new heights in 2019 season

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Rice Volleyball soared to new heights in 2019, establishing themselves as a bonafide contender in the sport at the national level.

The 2019 Rice volleyball season was among the most memorable campaigns in school history. Program first’s were littered throughout the year. Rice earned its first Top 25 ranking in school history. They knocked off No. 3 Texas at Tudor Fieldhouse. They won their first-ever NCAA Tournament match. It’s hard to put such an incredible run into words. One video will have to suffice:

Yes someone with crutches is jumping for joy. Pure elation personified in 20 seconds of fervor.

“It was definitely a season that I’m not going to forget and I’m sure the players on the team won’t either, especially the seniors,” recalls head coach Genny Volpe, the winningest coach in school history. Rice has been a perennial power under Volpe’s direction, but the Owls took their success up a notch in 2019.

Rice has lost fewer than 10 matches six times in Volpe’s tenure, an impressive feat considering seasons average roughly 30 matches. The 27-4 record was Volpe’s best yet. 20 of their 27 wins were three-game sweeps. Of their four losses, three of them came down to the final game.

None of it surprised Volpe, who saw the focus in her team from the start. “When I saw that preparation, the expectation was to do a lot of things that we did.”

Expectation is one thing. Turning that into reality is a process that turns hope into the things of legend.

“To finally put our stamp on a couple of signatures wins [was huge]. We’ve been close so many times,” she said. “This year we were consistent in our execution, our practice, our approach to all the little things that matter.”

On some level, the 2019 season and win over Texas marked the arrival of the zenith of a decades-long journey for the Rice volleyball program. The Owls had been a local power, but things feel slightly different now. The top programs in the state and around the country must look at Rice as an athletic peer. For a university that boasts an alumni base smaller than the on campus population of other state schools, that distinction carries a weighty significance.

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Rice Baseball: Adding talent to a strong culture the key for 2021

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Rice baseball needs an infusion of talent. Combing a new recruiting class with better production from the existing roster gives hope for the Owls next season.

Weeks removed from an abbreviated season, Rice baseball is getting back to work. Head coach Matt Bragga and his staff are working the phones as best they can, trying to turn this difficult situation into growth on the recruiting front.

As things stand now the staff is excited about the next wave of Owls set to be on campus for the 2021 season. Normally there would be a real level of concern regarding an upcoming signing class arriving on campus. With the truncated MLB Draft structure, the odds of the Owls’ getting all of their guys to South Main should (theoretically) increase.

Current commit William Burbank is graded as a potential Top 10 round pick by Perfect Game. Several others can hit the 90s with their fastball. More than once, Bragga has mentioned this class as being the most talented he’s ever had. Reinforcements are coming.

More talent is half the battle. Bragga knows you can’t win without the players. But arranging those pieces into a cohesive unit takes time and deliberate influence. That’s piece is much harder to quantify.

“When you get chemistry, when you get culture built in the right direction, that’s when you can accomplish things that no one thinks you can accomplish. And and and that’s where we’re going. And I believe that with all my heart,” Bragga said, looking back at what the Owls were able to achieve this season.

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Culture, a buzzword of all buzzwords, is tested during hard times. A baseball team can’t find much more of a challenging environment that Rice did this season. When asked if the disappointing start slowed down the progress his team was making on the culture side, Bragga remained undeterred.

“For 2-14, Holy Smokes, I couldn’t ask for it to be better. It was fantastic. There was great chemistry and our players would say the same thing.”

Creating that engaged mindset through the midst of a ‘worst case scenario’ start is the baseball version of threading the needle. That Rice could hold constant through the storm, let alone come out ahead, could be evidence that Bragga’s roadmap to success is rooted in the right requirements. All we can do is take Bragga’s word for it. To this point, there’s been no evidence to the contrary.

Culture has been on his mind since he arrived, transitioning that intangible asset into black and white wins is the next step. One his team wasn’t able to take as often as they could have this season.

Thanks to recent NCAA legislation, the majority of those players are set to return to campus in 2021. Bragga’s perception will be put to the test. He’s not naive to that. He acknowledged “we’ve got work to do to get [this program] where it needs to go.”

Culture plus Talent equals wins remains the marching orders for Rice baseball. Thankfully, more talent is on the way.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 27 – Taylor McHargue talks 2013 Rice Football Championship

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Former Rice Football quarterback Taylor McHargue joins the show to discuss the 2013 Conference Championship team and the direction of the program today.

Rice Athletics has opted to bridge the sports void with re-airs of some of the program’s best moments. This past week they showed the 2013 Rice Football Conference Championship victory over Marshall at Rice Stadium, prompting a nice segue to our guest for this week’s show. Taylor McHargue, the quarterback of that team, joins us to relive those memories and discuss the latest happenings in the Rice sports world.

McHargue was mentioned in our prior episode (Ep. 26) with Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath as a candidate for the 2010’s Rice Athletics Mount Rushmore. If you missed it, make sure you give that discussion a listen and send us your thoughts. We’re aiming to air a new show every Saturday for the next several weeks.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 27.


Episode 27 Notes

  • Housekeeping — If you like the show, please don’t forget to rate and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Spreading the word helps and your voice matters!
  • Taylor McHargue joins the show — It was great getting to catch up with the most recent conference championship-winning quarterback at Rice. We discussed:
    • The 2013 team and the build up to the championship season
    • His potential punting competition with former Owls’ specialist James Farrimond
    • The transition from David Bailiff to Mike Bloomgren and the program today
    • Proper football scheduling and the right mix of nonconference opponents
    • How the coronavirus could impact college football in 2020

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Baseball: What’s next for Roel Garcia?

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Roel Garcia has the best arm on the Rice baseball pitching staff, but whether or not he ever pitches again for the Owls remains an unanswered question.

Rice baseball head coach Matt Bragga has coached many talented pitchers over his 20+ year coaching career. In terms of raw ability, few measure up to Owls’ hurler Roel Garcia.

Garcia had the best stuff on the Rice staff in 2020. The righty is unquestionably among, if not atop, the list of the best arms Bragga has ever worked with. That’s part of what makes the joint tenure of Garcia and Bragga at Rice disappointing. A player who had the potential to be the staff ace could leave south main without ever throwing a pitch for Bragga at Reckling Park.

An injury wiped out all of Garcia’s 2019 campaign. His recovery process bled into 2020, where he was expected to ease into a spot in the Rice weekend rotation. He threw two innings in a road start at UC Irvine, striking out three and allowing no runs. After the start, he was promptly shut down.

It’s possible he could have returned at the tail end of the season, but the chances of him becoming a weekend staple came to a screeching halt in February. A month later, the season was suspended, putting the end to any chance of Garcia pitching for Rice in 2020. The question hanging in the air is this: has Garcia’s Rice baseball career come to an end?

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There are several factors impacting where Garcia ends up in 2021. Health is first and foremost. If Garcia can get back to his usual self, his opportunities will increase significantly.

Then comes the MLB Draft, which will reportedly be shortened to as few as five rounds and pushed back to July. Even hurt, Garcia stands a decent chance to be selected. He was a 27th round pick last year without throwing a pitch. With the draft being trimmed significantly, the odds of Garcia elevating himself to that level seem less likely, but not impossible.

Should Garcia return, the NCAA’s proposed eligibility changes would make him a junior again. That would give him leverage in the 2021 draft, with the ability to return for another collegiate season in 2022.

Bragga has been an adamant supporter of Garciasince he arrived at Rice. “I want what’s best for Roel,” Bragga said, speaking of the junior’s uncertain future. There’s a real chance the Owls’ won’t see Garcia on the mound in Houston ever again. Or he could be their No. 1 for the next two seasons. There’s so much in the air right now.

No matter how things play out, Garcia’s talent and personality have made an impact on his teammates and the program. For now, we (and Garcia) just have to wait.

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