By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The No. 17-ranked Washburn University volleyball team will begin its 2023 season with three matches at the Florida Southern College Volleyball Classic Friday and Saturday.
Junior Jalyn Stevenson (10), a first-team All-MIAA pick last season, returns to lead No. 17-ranked Washburn this fall. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
After schedule changes caused adjustments, Washburn will now face Flagler at 11 a.m. and Florida Southern at 6 p.m. on Friday before finishing the tournament against No. 6 Barry at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Friday's scheduled match against Grand Valley State was cancelled, with the Lakers not making the trip due to incoming inclement weather anticipated in Florida. The change resulted with Barry being added to the Ichabods' schedule and the match against Florida Southern being moved up to Friday evening.
After reaching the Division II national championship game in 2021, the Ichabods finished last season 24-8 with a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearence while also capturing the first MIAA Tournament Championship in program history.
Washburn went through an up and down campaign early last season before catching fire late and veteran coach Chris Herron thinks a faster start could be in store this fall.
Junior Jalyn Stevenson returns to lead the Ichabods after earning All-MIAA first-team recognition and All-America honorable mention as a sophomore.Stevenson registered 386 kills in 2022 while hitting .214 from the outside. Stevenson alos made 392 digs with 41 combined blocks while starting 31 of 32 matches.
"Because we graduated so many the year before last year was getting acclimated to new leaders and how everybody was going to react to how they were and all of that stuff,'' Herron said. "We don't have that now. Jalyn is our leader. Jalyn has been the leader all summer and some of the other kids have done a great job to help her.''
Stevenson said she's ready to embrace her role as one of the team leaders as the Ichabods' most experienced player.
"I think it's a lot of pressure but I think that I'm OK with it because knowing the success we've had, and I've been a part of that, it helps me think, 'OK, let me help the younger kids and the freshmen and the sophomores who aren't sure yet,' '' said Stevenson, a Spring Hill product. "I can help them because I had a really great group of seniors and juniors when I was a freshman and sophomore so I want to be that for them, too.''
This weekend's event will be made up of four teams from three conferences after forecasted severe weather caused the tournament to shrink in size.
Host Florida Southern and Barry both come from the Sunshine State Conference and Flagler from the Peach Belt while Washburn is the MIAA representative.
The Ichabods begin the 2023 season one spot above in the national rankings here they ended the '22 season as they are ranked No. 17 in the AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll.
Washburn has started the season ranked in the AVCA Top 25 18 times in Herron's 22 official seasons as head coach.
The Ichabods were picked to finish fourth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll, just behind Central Oklahoma and one spot ahead of Central Missouri. WU finished fifth in the 2022 MIAA regular season standings.
The Ichabods return 10 players from 2022 after losing 10 student-athletes from last year's roster.
Cair Paravel Latin product Taryn Pridgett begins her junior season after recording 32 kills and 13 digs last season while Seaman product Maddie Steiner is back for her senior season after transferring from Johnson County Community College and appearing in 45 sets last season while making 49 digs with four assists.
Sophomore setter Corinna McMullen averaged 6.55 assists per set for 806 on the season while also making 289 digs en route to earning All-MIAA honorable mention.
Sydney Conner completes the return of both halves of last season's setter duo. Conner had 561 assists in her freshman campaign with 219 digs.
The 2023 roster includes six true freshmen and a graduate student transfer.
Shawnee Heights product Taylor Rottinghaus, joins the Ichabods as a freshman defensive specialist/libero and is the younger sister of former Ichabod All-American and all-time digs leader Faith Rottinghaus.
Rachel Schwensen joins the Ichabods as a graduate student transfer The right side hitter and Lawrence native spent her freshman season at Kansas before spending the next three at Division I Northern Colorado where the Bears have won two Big Sky regular-season and tournament championship titles.
She was the 2020 Big Sky Newcomer of the Year with second=team all-conference honors. In her final two seasons she was a All-Big Sky first-team selection each time and received AVCA All-Region honorable mention after recording 309 kills and 69 blocks.
The Ichabods return to Topeka for the Washburn Invite Sept. 7-9 where they will play four matches before beginning MIAA play against Nebraska-Kearney in Lee Arena on Sep. 15.
