College Volleyball Should Have an All-Star Game
And yes, Pitt would be *very* well represented on the team this season
All-Star Games: Most of them are forgettable, but some of them can provide pretty cool moments.
One of those for Pittsburgh sports fans would be the 1992 NHL All-Star Game at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Penguins, fresh off the franchise's first Stanley Cup and headed for the second, had four starters among the five skaters: Paul Coffey, Kevin Stevens, Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.
Add in commissioner's selection Bryan Trottier and you have an indelible moment worthy of an eBay listing for a commemorative photograph.
I bring up 1992 not just because it’s a cool year to be born ((wink)) but because Pitt Volleyball would be worthy of a similar achievement as the ‘92 Pens — rolling out an All-Star lineup with mostly blue and gold.
That’s not simply my Pitt fandom talking. Volleyball coach and data analyst Chad Gordon, who does an amazing job running metrics and presenting them online, has Pitt players at the top of many of his value-added categories, including:
Outside Hitters (as of Nov. 4) - Torrey Stafford #1, Valeria Vazquez Gomez #9
Right-Side Hitters (as of Nov. 6) - Olivia Babcock #1
Servers (as of Nov. 8) - Rachel Fairbanks #1, Valeria Vazquez Gomez #6, Cat Flood #8
Middle Blockers (as of Nov. 5) - Bre Kelley #1, Ryla Jones #5
Chad was kind enough to allow me to re-post his middle blocker chart for this story.
What's notable for Pitt is that both Kelley and Jones boast attack efficiencies well above .400, they're both getting their hands on a lot of opposing attacks, and Kelley in particular is forcing bad shots from opponents even when she doesn't get a block.
Let’s (mostly) use Chad’s metrics, with the help of the AVCA Division I Player of the Year Watch List, to assemble some potential East-West rosters for an All-Star Game.
EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI
Outside hitters: Torrey Stafford (Pitt), Lexie Almodovar (Dayton), Sarah Franklin (Wisconsin), Kaylee Cox (Western Kentucky), Valeria Vazquez Gomez (Pitt), Jess Mruzik (Penn State), Eva Hudson (Purdue)
Right-side hitters: Olivia Babcock (Pitt), Anna Smrek (Wisconsin), Kennedy Martin (Florida), Amanda Rice (N.C. State)
Middle blockers: Bre Kelley (Pitt), Taylor Trammel (Penn State), Khori Louis (Florida State)
Setters: Rachel Fairbanks (Pitt), Izzy Starck (Penn State), Camryn Haworth (Indiana)
Liberos/defensive specialists: Elena Scott (Louisville), Emmy Klika (Pitt), Ava Falduto (Penn State)
WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI
Outside hitters: Norah Sis (Creighton), Ava Martin (Creighton), Caroline Bien (Kansas), Lindsay Krause (Nebraska), Claire Little (BYU), Julia Hanson (Minnesota), Melanie Parra (TCU)
Right-side hitters: Brianna Ford (UT Arlington), Jordan Iliff (Missouri), Merritt Beason (Nebraska), Naya Shime (SMU)
Middle blockers: Kaya Weaver (UTEP), Andi Jackson (Nebraska), Claire Jeter (Arizona State)
Setters: Bergen Reilly (Nebraska), Kami Miner (Stanford), Melani Shaffmaster (Minnesota)
Liberos/defensive specialists: Lexi Rodriguez (Nebraska), Elena Oglivie (Stanford), Mary Shroll (Arizona State)
Again, if any non-Pitt volleyball fans are reading this, the teams are mostly based on Chad Gordon’s metrics. If you have angry feedback, direct it toward his spreadsheets!
As you watch the last few regular season matches the Panthers have this season, just appreciate the fact that: holy crap, we’re basically watching an All-Star team out there wrecking ACC foes (Pitt fairly easily beat #25 UNC and Duke this weekend, otherwise I’d be writing more about those matches). I’ve called it the Pitt War Machine, and boy do we have our strongest soldiers operating the Machine at the moment.
But the title of this post was “College Volleyball Should Have an All-Star Game,” and I’d like to use the rest of this space to explain why.
Starting last year, the NCAA and ESPN moved the National Championship from Saturday night on ESPN2 to Sunday afternoon on ABC in order to attract a larger TV audience. That’s great for the sport, but it also creates two off-days at the Final Four arena. There are press conferences and (closed) practices in between, but otherwise the venue is just there waiting for the National Title to be played.
As fan interest in the sport grows, the NCAA should take the opportunity that these two off-days present to put on an All-Star Game. If they can grab an ESPN2 timeslot on a Friday or Saturday night in the heart of college football bowl season, they should absolutely take it.
Volleyball is one of the rare sports where most of the All-Stars would be in the Final Four host city anyway. The AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Assocation) always has its annual convention in tandem with the Final Four, and that includes the All-America/Players of the Year banquet. The best players are already in town to get their awards!
In addition, a volleyball All-Star Game could have ripple effects of fan interest throughout the season, especially if you let everyday people vote on the starters. MLB teams certainly market their top players to try to get fan votes and keep people interested during the less-exciting months of the season. Even if Nebraska fans swamp the results with their own athletes, hey, that’s half the fun.
You could throw in some halftime skills challenges (Fastest spike? Serve target practice?) and some NIL money for the athletes who appear, but overall just make it a celebration of the sport’s best best players — we need more of that.
Of course, just like when the Pro Bowl moved to the week before the Super Bowl, you would need the rule that players on the two teams competing in the National Championship wouldn’t be in the All-Star Game. I think for Pitt fans, that’s a sacrifice we’d be willing to make.