Young YSU volleyball team seeks wins

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown State volleyball program is going through a change of identity, but coach Krita Burrows isn’t considering it a crisis.

Only one of the 16 players has been with the program for more than two years. But Burrows hopes a difficult off-season program produces the desired results.

“We’ve worked hard throughout the offseason on instilling a winning attitude,” said Burrows, in her first season at YSU after six seasons at Walsh University, where she averaged more than 27 wins per year.

“We just can’t think about volleyball when we’re in the practice gym for two or three hours,” she said. “We need to start thinking about volleyball 24 hours a day. We’ve got to have the mindset of ‘I’m a Division I athlete, and we’re here to build a program.’”

The Penguins have adopted the motto “Climb the Mountain”, which is the name of a team drill centered around finishing toward the end sets. Burrows, who said she doesn’t employ mottos regularly, said it fits too well in the larger sense of trying to build a program to ignore.

For the second straight year YSU will have eight new players on the squad after a season that produced just two wins.

Burrows sought recruits with winning backgrounds and said she focused on newcomers who could contribute immediately.

“We also needed to find players with the no-die attitude,” she said . “We’ve added that for sure.”

The Penguins open the season this weekend at the Big Orange Tournament at Syracuse University.

YSU’s setters are sophomore Casey D’Ambrose and freshman Brianna Bartlett. D’Ambrose played setter for only six matches last season. She moved to defensive specialist and averaged 1.95 digs per set over the final 17 matches. She posted 50 assists for the season, with a high of 12.

There are six defensive specialists who could all see time. Senior Bri Kern is the most-experienced player on the squad. A transfer from Centenary who moved to libero toward the end of last season, her 3.31 digs per set in league play last year ranked ninth in the conference. Sophomore Chelsea Guerrieri, the other returner in the back row, led the team with 0.23 aces per set last season.

Two transfers and two freshmen are also among those contending for time in the back row. Rachel Gambow is a junior who played her first two seasons at Towson, and Erika West is a sophomore transfer from Edinboro. Freshmen Sam Diebold and Erica Hozeska will also contend for action.

Sophomore Missy Hundelt will lead a young and talented group of outside hitters.

Hundelt led the Penguins in kills, attempts and points as a freshman last season while also ranking third in digs.

She will likely move to the right side to take advantage of her ability to hit quick sets and block.

Senior Brittany Grove is the only fourth-year member on the squad.