2022 Women's Volleyball Season Preview

SMITHFIELD, R.I.- The Bryant women's volleyball team returns to action this week, embarking on a 2022 season that features both great promise and new challenges. The Bulldogs are entering their first campaign as members of a new league, joining the America East after thirteen seasons in the Northeast Conference.

Bryant bid the NEC farewell with a dominant 2021 season that saw them go 21-11 overall, including a 12-2 record in conference play, and host the conference tournament for the first time. Despite a third-place ranking in the America East preseason poll, the Bulldogs' talent, experience, and veteran leadership give Coach Theresa Garlacy belief in her squad:

 "The outlook for this season is really positive. I know we're picked tied for third but the expectation as a team is much higher than that. We really want to prove people wrong and show them that we're going to be contenders in this league."

While last season's success gives the team confidence, falling to Sacred Heart in the NEC Championship gives them a chip on their shoulder. Senior Alysa Wright mentions how that loss resonates with the team today. "Each step we're walking with more intent because we know what it feels like to get to that point, to host, and to lose on a home court, and it makes winning all that more of a challenge we want to accomplish."

So who are the players that will hit the court this season? A myriad of all-conference performers and program history makers will make up an impressive roster for Coach Garlacy in her 27th season at the helm.

Blockers

Bryant ranked second in the NEC with 241.5 blocks last season, and the starting tandem of Wright and Haley O'Brien will return to the front line in 2022. Both players eclipsed 100 blocks on the season, with Wright leading the conference with 119 rejections. O'Brien, a grad student, ranks fifth in Bryant's D-I history with 282 career blocks while Wright ranks seventh with 224. Senior Maggie Ryan, sophomore Morgan Smith, and freshman London Hunt round out the front side core for the Bulldogs

Outside Hitters

The Bulldogs' lone All-NEC first-team selection last season, Riley James will return to help power an offense that led the conference in kills in 2021. The senior was ninth in the conference with 319 kills, posting six matches with fifteen or more. Emma McGovern will also be back this year after ranking third on the team with 283 kills in 2021. A fellow senior and 2020 All-NEC first team selection, McGovern set career highs in kills, assists, blocks and total points in 2021. Sophomore Aubrey Lapour, who posted 14 kills in her first career start last October, rounds out the outside trio for the Bulldogs.

Opposite Hitters

Grad student Caroline Kennedy returns as the team's leading opposite hitter after garnering her third career All-NEC selection in 2021. Kennedy posted 303 kills last season, becoming the fourth player in Division I program history to eclipse 1000 for her career. She set a single-match career-high with 22 kills last October, and her .231 career attack percentage ranks fourth in Bryant D-I history. She will be joined by junior Fabi Castro, sophomore Miranda Jantzen, and freshmen Lea Mackey and Ana Fuertes.

Setters

Senior Mia Cergol returns to lead the passing game for the Bulldogs after earning her first career All-NEC selection last season. She recorded 40+ assists ten times in 2021, and her 1,031 assists were third most in the NEC and third most in a single season in Bryant's D-I history. Cergol is closing in on more history, needing just 117 assists to become the fourth Division I Bulldog to notch 2000 for her career. Sophomore Carolina Camacho, an NEC Rookie of the Week selection in 2021, and freshman Melis Isik will be joined by sophomore Carolina Camacho, who earned an NEC Rookie of the Week nod last year, and freshman Melis Isik.

Libero

Senior Abby Rae is entering her second season as the starting libero and defensive anchor for the Bulldogs. She finished 2021 with the fifth most digs in the NEC (465) and was named to the conference's All-Tournament team. Junior Josie Deluga and sophomore Gianna Grigaliunas return as well.

Service

Bryant was second in the NEC with 159 aces last season, and the quartet of Cergol, Rae, James, and McGovern is back to lead the Bulldogs' serving. All four recorded at least twenty aces in 2021, with Cergol and Rae finishing the season in the conference's top ten. James put together one of Bryant's all-time serving performances in just the team's second match of the season, as her seven aces were the second most in a single match in program history.

This group will usher in a new era of Bryant volleyball this weekend as they take part in the Hofstra Invitational, their first competition as members of a new conference. Their six seniors and two graduate students have led the program to some of its most successful seasons in history, and, as Wright points out, their resumé has them believing they can do big things in 2022 as well. "Goals would be, obviously, to bring home a ring, put a banner in the gym. A huge goal of ours is to host the conference tournament, and I think as a new team in a new conference that would be something really big, really cool to make that statement."