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It's about equal to just below my personal expectations. Most of the starting lineup is the same with tweaks. Two key defensive players are gone which is my biggest factor for their struggles along with relatable factors out of Shane and Co's control. The two graduating backrow passers comprised of 2/3 of the Serve Receive at least half of the time. Can't pass, can't hit, can't win. Loyola men's basically won two National Championships by being pretty much one of the best if not best Serve Receive team in the nation. NU has a new Libero and new Defensive Specialists to try and replace the seniors. The libero has one year of playing DS last year. Their star outside hitter is a mediocre passer. Their other outside is okay and she recently had to switch to libero because of an injury to the starter I assume. Simply put, NU can't pass this year.
The NU squad can probably win 7 or 8 out of 10 matches against LUC in most years but the Big 10 is the toughest conference. Without passing, there is no variety to the offense and the Big 10 defense is like a brick wall. Hence, NU is usually only a .500 team at best with a few really good years under predecessor Keylor Chan who was the head man for 16 seasons. This comes down to recruiting also. While I've been watching NU volleyball since 2011, they've needed one more good hitter every year to get to into contention for the National Tournament. That is the really challenge Shane has faced and will face in the offseasons. As he mentioned recently at the season ticket holder function, he has to recruit five classes... high school and 8th grade. Women's volleyball recruiting is a different beast. To put this in perspective, I believe Thomas Jaeschke didn't start playing volleyball until high school. Shane and Co. are trying to predict what girls will be like 5 years later when they get to NU. And he really doesn't have a better choice. It will take a couple of seasons at least to see the effects of recruiting by the new staff.
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