Virginia has added another top coach to its list, hiring Dennis Hohenshelt to be the next Head Coach of the Volleyball program. Hohenshelt - whose name will undoubtedly cause me much aggravation over the coming years - replaces Lee Maes, who resigned after his fourth season at the helm.

Hohenshelt brings quite the pedigree with him to Virginia. Most recently he was Penn State's top assistant coach. For those of you unaware of how the volleyball world works, Penn State is one of the premier teams in the country. The Nittany Lions won four consecutive national titles from 2007-2010, all with Hohenshelt working with the team. This past season, PSU made it to the Sweet Sixteen before falling to eventual champion UCLA. The women's program had 199 wins to only 18 losses during Hohenshelt's time with them. That's very impressive.

In addition to working with the women's program at Penn State, he also spent ten years as an assistant to the men's program. Virginia does not currently have a men's program, nor does the ACC compete in men's volleyball as a conference.

On the surface, this appears to be a very solid hire. It continues the trend of Craig Littlepage and company bringing in rising head coaches or top assistant coaches to take over the helm of our non-revenue sports. Brian O'Connor (assistant at Notre Dame), Brian Boland (Head Coach at Indiana State), Steve Garland (assistant at Cornell). The list goes on. What Penn State accomplished with Hohenshelt helping guide them is unquestionable.

That said, one will have to forgive Virginia fans if they're a little hesitant to get too excited about the hire. Lee Maes arrived at Virginia with a similar set of credentials. He had been a top assistant at longtime volleyball power Nebraska before coming to Charlottesville. But that past performance never translated into successful seasons for the Wahoos at Memorial Gymnasium. Maes recruited well and several players received individual honors, but the Cavaliers couldn't make it to the top of the ACC.

Of course, its not at all fair to hold anything that happened during Maes's tenure against Hohenshelt. His credentials are superb and are exactly what I would expect Littlepage to find in a new leader for the program. So I, personally, am looking forward to seeing what he can do with the program.

Official Press Release from VirginiaSports.com

Following a disappointing 10-22 season - the worst record during his four years at the helm - Virginia Volleyball coach Lee Maes has resigned his position.

Virginia Director of Athletics Craig Littlepage made the announcement yesterday and a press release can be found on VirginiaSports.com.

Prior to coming to Virginia, Maes was a well-respected assistant coach at Nebraska, a team commonly found in the top 10 nationally. He quickly gained notoriety as a head coach by bringing in a talented set of recruiting classes. His 2009 recruiting class was ranked 15th nationally and the 2010 class was ranked 9th nationally. Those were Virginia's first-ever nationally ranked classes.

Unfortunately, those recruiting classes did not turn into success on the court during his four year tenure. His best season was the first, when he guided the Cavaliers to their only winning record during that span. They finished 17-15 that year with a 9-11 record in the ACC. Overall, Maes compiled a record of 53-70, 28-52 in ACC play.

There's no word yet on where Lee Maes is headed next or who Virginia will find to replace him. But given the success Littlepage has had with his hires so far, you can bet we'll be looking at some promising targets.

The Virginia volleyball team (6-5, 0-1 ACC) hosts two top-25 ACC programs this weekend at Memorial Gymnasium in Charlottesville.

It's been a bit of a disappointing season so far for Coach Maes and the players. While I don't think anyone expected them to beat top-ranked California this year, some of the other losses have been unexpected. The other four losses were to Western Michigan, Louisville, Virginia Tech (ugh) and Connecticut (in Blacksburg).

Tonight, the Cavaliers host #23 Florida State at 7pm. The Seminoles are 7-4 on the season and 1-0 in the ACC. Their one conference win being over Miami in a match that was televised on ESPN-U. I have to assume that winning over a ranked opponent on TV is what pushed the 'Noles into the rankings themselves, because their record is otherwise unimpressive. All of their losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 20. However, Miami is their only win over another top-25 program.

On Sunday, the ladies get to face the other part of the ranked Florida combo when Miami visits Mem Gym at 12:30pm. The Hurricanes' resume is a lot more impressive than FSU's, minus the fact that FSU beat them. They are 9-1 on the season with wins over Pepperdine and Oklahoma, both of which are ranked.

I still expect some good things out of this team - and I'm a little baffled that they haven't been doing better so far. But I'm not sure this weekend is when we'll see those good things. Then again, what's a better opportunity? Let's hope we can steal a win this weekend to make up for the loss to the Hokies.

By the way, if you're looking for a little more info on the volleyball team, go check out today's Q&A with first-year Tori Janowski.

The Virginia Volleyball team welcomed three directional schools to Memorial Gymnasium for the 2011 Marriott Cavalier Classic. Which is not to be confused with the 2011 Holiday Inn Jefferson Cup, which is this weekend. How did we get two hotels to sponsor back to back volleyball tournaments? I have no idea.

Anyway, Western Michigan, Western Carolina and South Carolina Upstate (yes, you read that right - and they're coming to JPJ for basketball too!) were this years challengers in the Cavalier Classic. In the end, Western Michigan "won" (I don't think there's actually a winning team in this thing) by going 3-0. Virginia went 2-1, USC Upstate went 1-2 and Western Carolina went 0-3.

Virginia's first match of the weekend was on Friday at 7pm against Western Michigan. The Broncos won 3-1, but it would turn out to be a hard-fought match, going four sets and with only one of those sets being won by more than three points. When Virginia took the third set 25-23, they didn't know it at the time, but it would be the only set that WMU would drop the entire weekend.

Virginia's second match was Saturday at 1pm against USC Upstate. Upstate had beaten Western Carolina 3-0 the previous day, so they were riding the momentum. But that didn't matter for the Cavs as they took down the Spartans in straight sets. 

Virginia's third and final match was Saturday night at 7pm against winless Western Carolina. The Catamounts didn't fare any better against the Cavaliers than they did against the Spartans or Broncos, however. Virginia took the nightcap in straight sets to finish the tournament 2-1.

Virginia Juniors Jessica O'Shoney and Beth Wildermuth were named to the All-Tournament Team.

As mentioned above, Virginia next hosts the Holiday Inn Jefferson Cup. East Carolina, California and Long Island come to Charlottesville for that tournament, which begins with UVA and ECU at 11am on Friday. California is the #1-ranked team in the country, so the 'Hoos will have their hands full on Friday at 7pm. They finish off the weekend against the Blackbirds of Long Island at 3pm on Saturday. I'm assuming that the schedule for this event was moved up (as compared to the Cavalier Classic) due to the home football game at 6pm on Saturday.

MVP: McKenzie Adams

The outside hitter ended with 264 kills, placing her in the top 10 in program history for kills as a freshman.  Her efforts earned her the honor of ACC Freshman of the Year. 

Overview: The team struggled out of the gate, failing to win a set in a tournament in Long Beach, California, and losing its first 3 ACC games.  Dependence on young players that initially failed to gel resulted in a deep hole for the team to dig itself out of (pun intended, sorry).  A midseason turnaround, marked by the emergence of Adams and resulting increase in offensive efficiency, gave the team hope of a NCAA tournament berth that the Hoos fell just short of.

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While the season ended two weeks ago for the Virginia Volleyball team, the postseason accolades have continued to roll in. Junior Simone Asque was recognized named to COBRA Magazine's All-East Region Team, while McKenzie Adams was named the East Region Freshman of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Sophomore Jess O'Shoney also received an honorable mention by the AVCA.

Asque finished third in the conference this season with 3.77 kills per set, and 0.32 aces per game. The outside hitter finished the season with seven double-doubles, 20 double-digit kill performances and seven double-digit dig outings.

Already dubbed the ACC Freshman of the Year, Adams was the only freshman to be recognized on the AVCA's 14-member All-East Region team. Adams finished the season with 264 kills and holds the school freshman record for kills in a match at 29.

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