Throughout the 2017 preseason, VolleyMob.com will be joined by guest writers from last year’s Top 25 teams as well as other award winners and All-Americans. These bloggers will give you an inside look at their teams, preseason training, team leadership and much more.
First up, is Taylor Hughes, a junior setter/hitter from Ohio State. The Carroll, Ohio, native was an honorable mention AVCA All-American in 2016, while also garnering All-Mideast Region and All-Big Ten honorable mention accolades. She enters the 2017 season ranked sixth all-time in Buckeye career lore in assists per set (9.42), 11th in assists (2,241) and tied for 17th in aces per set (0.27). She ranked fifth in the Big Ten with 0.32 aces per set.
All told, as a sophomore, Hughes tallied 1,263 assists, 241 digs, 227 kills, 81 blocks and 42 aces, while also chlaking up 12 double-doubles and two triple doubles.
The Buckeyes reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2017 and wound up with a 22-13 record, including a 10-10 mark in the ever rigorous Big Ten Conference. OSU, which ranked 18th in the final AVCA Poll, welcome four freshmen and two transfers to the program, but must replace All-American middle blocker Taylor Sandbothe, who graduated.
Read Taylor’s camp update below.
Hello Buckeye fans!!!
Day One of fall camp was the calm before the storm. It started out getting glamorous and heading to the Thompson Library to take our team and class pictures! It’s always so much fun taking class pictures because you get to make it your own wherever and however you want to. The junior class added a plus one this year with Jasmine (Koonts). In the past Audra (Appold) & I did jumping ones; we added a third in the middle this year 🙂
After the library we headed back to St. John Arena where we did our headshots. After pictures we sat down for some lunch and meetings. We had meetings with our athletic trainers, sports psychologist, compliance and reviewed our schedule for preseason. Buckeye fans should be excited about all the new young talent we have this year! We’ve welcomed six new teammates and each bring their own personalities to the court that will help us compete. Buckeye Nation should also be excited about the fight and grit our team has shown in summer open gyms. We have a very competitive gym and it’ll be super exciting to have a different team across the net!
Being an upperclassmen entering preseason has been a different feeling than I’ve had the past two years. I’m excited to show and lead everyone with how our standards are set in the gym. I’m excited to also help them each find their own voice since they are new this year and bring them on board with our culture pretty fast. I think every upperclassmen can agree to this; it’s awesome to be the ‘older’ one and have people look up to you.
During preseason I’m most looking forward to our retreat at Lake Hope! We go there every year, but each retreat somehow gets better than the year before. We get to do a lot of team bonding/activities for us to really get to know each other. We stay in log cabins, cook our own meals and have fires! The retreat is an awesome break to have during preseason to stop and just appreciate each other and where we all come from.
We’re all looking forward to home matches this season in St. John!!! Go Bucks!
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