Blakemore tabbed head coach at Knox

Maliah Blakemore was announced as the new head coach at Knox on Dec. 18. Blakemore was most recently an assistant coach at Kansas Wesleyan.

-Ricky Nelson

Taylor in at Franklin

Dillon Taylor is the new head coach at Franklin. Taylor was most recently an assistant coach at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

-Ricky Nelson

Becker steps down at Augsburg

Jane Becker is resigning at Augsburg after 14 seasons at the helm. Becker, who took a leave of absence in 2023, won three conference regular season titles at Augsburg and guided the Auggies to four NCAA tourney berths.

-Ricky Nelson

Rueffer resigns as head coach at Lake Forest

Lake Forest is seeking a new head coach following Katie Rueffer’s resignation. Rueffer helmed the Foresters for five seasons.

-Ricky Nelson

Nichols moves up a chair at Millikin

Whitney Nichols will take over the Millikin volleyball program. Nichols was the associate head coach at Millikin last season.

-Ricky Nelson

Catching up on coaching news

Stephanie Schmidt resigned at Wheaton (Ill.) earlier this week.
Tyler Wills stepped down at Marian in late November.

Expected Region VIII/IX head coach announcements so far this offseason:
Augsburg [Hired: April Elsbernd]
Blackburn [Hired: Shannon Bishop]
Defiance [Hired: Jeremy Thornburg]
Dominican [Hired: Olivia Kofie]
Dubuque [Hired: Karrah Davis]
Franklin [Hired: Dillon Taylor]
Illinois College [Hired: Claire Scully]
Knox [Hired: Maliah Blakemore]
Lake Forest [Hired: Melanie Hughes]
Lawrence [Hired: Jeff Van Lannen]
Maranatha Baptist [Hired: Lindsay Lawson]
Marian [Hired: Noah Ray]
Millikin [Hired: Whitney Nichols]
Mississippi Women (added 3/7)
Mount Mary [Hired: Maida Wolff]
MSOE [Hired: Kristina Susak]
North Central (Ill.) [Hired: Ray Gooden]
St. Olaf (added 4/3)
Wheaton (Ill.) [Hired: Eric Plunkett]

-Ricky Nelson

AVCA 2023 final poll: Juniata, Hope and sort the rest

The top two teams met in the final, and eight of the top 11 made the national quarterfinals, so the AVCA final poll didn’t require much adjusting from the previous one Nov. 14.

National champion Juniata and runner-up Hope are followed in the final poll by No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 4 NYU — both of which advanced to the national semifinals.

Rounding out the top 10 are the remaining teams that reached the Elite Eight in No. 5 Wisconsin-Oshkosh, No. 6 Northwestern, No. 7 Johns Hopkins and No. 8 Trinity (Texas) along with regional finalists Emory and Wisconsin-Whitewater at Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.

Other Region VIII and Region IX programs in the final top 25: No. 11 Transylvania; No. 14 Washington-St. Louis; No. 16 Gustavus Adolphus; No. 21 North Park; No. 22 Mount St. Joseph; No. 23 Wisconsin-Stevens Point; No. 25 Cornell.

Region VIII/IX receiving votes in the final poll: Millikin; St. Olaf; Wisconsin-Platteville.

My final top 10 had the same teams in a similar order (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Wisconsin-Oshkosh flipped in the third and fifth spots in addition to Emory and Wisconsin-Whitewater swapped at nine and 10).

-Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson’s 2023 final top 10

The AVCA poll comes out Tuesday.

My rank, (My Week 11 rank, AVCA Week 11 rank), record, season finish
1 (1,1). Juniata 35-0 National champion.
2 (3,2). Hope 32-3 National runner-up.
3 (2,3). Wisconsin-Oshkosh 37-2 National quarterfinalist.
4 (7,6). New York University 33-5 National semifinalist.
5 (10,8). Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 26-6 National semifinalist.
6 (5,5). Northwestern 32-5 National quarterfinalist.
7 (9,9). Johns Hopkins 28-5 National quarterfinalist.
8 (NR,11). Trinity (Texas) 31-5 National quarterfinalist.
9 (6,4). Wisconsin-Whitewater 28-5 Regional finalist.
10 (4,7). Emory 26-3 Regional finalist.
Dropped out: No. 8 North Park (25-7).

-Ricky Nelson

12/2/23: Juniata claims second straight, 4th overall title

National Final
#1 Juniata 3, #2 Hope 0 JC’s Christy: 9 kills, 12 digs, 8 aces.

-Ricky Nelson

2023 AVCA DIII awards

The AVCA concluded its Division III awards today as Juniata’s Olivia Foley and Hope’s Addie VanderWeide were tabbed 2023 Co-Players of the Year, Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s Jon Ellmann the Coach of the Year, and Juniata’s Casey Dale the Assistant Coach of the Year.

-Ricky Nelson