Asked for a big-picture view of his team’s eighth NCAA championship, Stanford volleyball coach Kevin Hambly was at a loss for words. “I’m too tired,” he said, “to think about what this means.”
Hambly knew it would take some time to fully appreciate the exhausting, exhilarating match he had just witnessed Saturday night. The top-seeded Cardinal beat Nebraska 3-2 at Target Center, prevailing in a back-and-forth, 2½-hour thriller that broke the Huskers’ hearts and an NCAA record. With the 28-26, 22-25, 25-16, 15-25, 15-12 victory, Stanford now has more NCAA women’s volleyball titles than any other team, breaking a tie with Penn State.
The nation’s top-ranked team at the beginning and end of the season, Stanford won its final 32 matches, the longest win streak in program history. The Cardinal finished 34-1, while seventh-seeded Nebraska ended 29-7.
Stanford libero Morgan Hentz, with 28 digs, and outside hitter Kathryn Plummer, with 19 kills and 10 digs, shared the most outstanding player award. Nebraska outside hitter Mikaela Foecke finished her college career with a bravura performance, with a match-high 27 kills on .296 hitting, plus 11 digs and two blocks.
The Cornhuskers, the defending champions, clawed back from a poor third set to dominate the Cardinal in the fourth. Stanford got the final punch, though, as two Nebraska serving errors and one Huskers blocking error in the fifth set helped the Cardinal win.
“It was an all-out battle,” Nebraska senior Kenzie Maloney said. “I thought both teams played really well. I really felt like we had the win, and we didn’t.”
The match featured the two most successful teams in NCAA tournament history. Stanford has won 124 tournament matches, the most ever, and Nebraska is second with 113. The two schools also are 1-2 in Final Four appearances; Stanford made the field for the 22nd time, and Nebraska was at its 16th Final Four.
Nebraska outhit Stanford .271-.250 and had 73 kills to the Cardinal’s 64. Stanford had 11.5 blocks to the Huskers’ nine.
“I don’t know that I’ve been part of a match that was more interesting, more hard-fought,” a hoarse-voiced Hambly said. “We have a lot of respect for [Nebraska], how hard they play, how they defend and how they scrap. We knew we had to match that from the beginning.
“That was the difference in the sets that we won and the sets that they won. I’m really proud of our young women for the turnaround after the fourth [set] and staying together. It could have been easy for us to fracture.”
Though the hometown Gophers were not there after losing in the regional semifinals, Nebraska fans traveled en masse to give Target Center a home-court feel. The crowd was announced at 18,113, a sellout, and it was a roaring sea of Huskers red.
Plummer was off her game early in the title match, as Nebraska sprinted to a quick lead. The Cardinal stormed back to go ahead 19-18 and won the set after the Huskers fended off three set points to tie it at 24.
The teams swapped the lead in the second set until Nebraska went on a 5-1 spurt, capped by two Foecke blasts. Stanford was able to climb within two points, but a Cardinal net violation gave the set to Nebraska, 25-22. Foecke had eight kills in the set, including three of the Huskers’ final four points.
In the third set, Stanford got five blocks and rolled to a big early lead that held up. Nebraska committed several costly errors to contribute to seven consecutive Stanford points. But they turned things around completely in the fourth set. Behind six kills from Lauren Stivrins, the Huskers raced to a 9-1 lead and led the set the entire way.
Nebraska held a 3-1 lead in the fifth set before Stanford scored four in a row. The Huskers were able to tie the score but never took the lead.
“Going into the fifth set, we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to lay it all out there, give it everything we have,” Stanford’s Hentz said. “It took us a while to get there. Nebraska kept coming back. They put up an amazing fight, but we were able to fight back.”
(Andy Clayton-King/AP) MINNEAPOLIS -- The "ghosts" of volleyball greats are always there in the locker room back home, reminders of how incredibly high the bar is set at Stanford. It would be easy for those pictures to just blend into the woodwork, which is why Stanford's Morgan Hentz sometimes reminds herself to really see them. "We have pictures of every team that's been at Stanford, and on the walls the names of the players," Hentz said. "Sometimes when I'm sitting in the lounge area, I'll get up and look at everyone's pictures. It is quite amazing to see how many great women have gone through the program." Hentz, a junior, is not done yet, but she and her teammates are already embedded forever in the Stanford volleyball legacy. With their thrilling 3-2 victory Saturday night over Nebraska, the Cardinal became the leader in women's Division I volleyball titles with eight, breaking their tie with Penn State. They had to work extra hard for this one. For the first time since 2009, and the 10th time overall, the NCAA final went five sets. Nebraska got off to a 9-4 lead in the first set, but Stanford rallied. Then the Huskers saved five set points before falling 28-26. Nebraska prevailed 25-22 in the second set, then Stanford controlled the third 25-16. The Huskers got off to a 5-0 start in the fourth set, extended it to 9-1 and never looked back in winning 25-15. That set up the pressure-cooker fifth set. Nebraska had more experience with those this season, going 3-2 in five-setters, including its victory over Illinois in Thursday's semifinals. Stanford was 1-1 in its five-setters in the regular season. But Stanford prevailed 15-12 on Meghan McClure's back-row kill, which Nebraska challenged to no avail. Kathryn Plummer finished with 19 kills, and Holly Campbell had 15. Nebraska's Mikaela Foecke finished her brilliant career with 27 kills and 11 digs. Plummer and Hentz, who had 32 digs, shared the most outstanding player honor. "Everyone talks a lot about chemistry, and I think this team has the best chemistry in the country," Hentz said. "It makes you just want to work harder for your teammates every day." In a sport often defined by momentum shifts in matches, the momentum in winning volleyball championships is back with Stanford, which has taken two of the past three. There was a lengthy stretch before their 2016 title, though, in which Stanford couldn't break through after winning the 2004 title. In 2006, '07 and '08, the Cardinal fell in the NCAA final. In 2010 and '13, they lost five-set matches in the regional final. In 2014, Stanford lost in the national semifinal to Penn State. And in 2015, the Cardinal were swept on their home court in the second round by Loyola Marymount, one of the lower points in Stanford volleyball history. But help was on the way. A fantastic recruiting class would change everything in the fall of 2016. In came outside hitter Plummer, a two-time national player of the year who at 6-foot-6 can -- and frequently does -- dominate matches with her power and precision. And setter Jenna Gray, the leader who so effectively uses all of the Cardinal's weapons. And Audriana Fitzmorris, another 6-6 player who started as a middle blocker but transitioned to a right-side hitter this season and remains important in Stanford's block. And Hentz, the defensive genius who covers the floor like a tarp. They helped Stanford win the national championship as freshmen, make the final four last year and win another title this year. Kathryn Plummer (2) directs the ball around the block of Jazz Sweet (Andy Clayton-King/AP) Could they do it again in 2019? Don't bet against them. But like former players such as Bev Oden, Kristin Folkl, Kerri Walsh, Logan Tom, Ogonna Nnamani and the current junior Cardinal's 2016 teammate Inky Ajanaku, the group is firmly etched in Stanford lore. "This is one of the great classes we've had," said Denise Corlett, in her 30th season as an assistant coach with the Cardinal. "We knew we had all the pieces with them." Plummer is a California native. Hentz is from Kentucky, and Gray and Fitzmorris from Kansas. Nebraska coach John Cook said he recruited Hentz, Gray and Fitzmorris but "once a student-athlete has a shot to go to Stanford, it's tough to recruit against that." Plummer, Gray and Fitzmorris are human biology majors, while Hentz is majoring in psychology. Coach Kevin Hambly didn't bring them to Stanford; he took over there when John Dunning retired after the 2016 championship season. But Hambly definitely appreciates how much this group has meant to the Cardinal. "They obviously are really bright," Hambly said about his squad, which includes senior starter Tami Alade, who is majoring in human biology who hopes to become a doctor. "You better know what you're bringing to the table if you're going to talk about anything that has to do with science. "I would also say because of how fast these guys learn things, I had to mix up things and change the way I went about practice. I've tried to come up with as many drills as I can to keep them interested, because they get bored easy." The transition between Dunning and Hambly went smoothly. The Cardinal lost in the national semifinals last year in five sets to Florida and learned from that. "When the new staff came in, they did a good job of integrating into the program and connecting to each of us individually," Fitzmorris said. "They showed a lot of trust in us, as well." This 2018 final four could have been a hometown celebration for Minnesota, but the Gophers were upset in the regional semifinals. It could have ended with a repeat title for Nebraska, playing in its fourth consecutive final four. Or maybe a school like BYU or Illinois could have won the NCAA title for the first time. But what happened was the team with the target on its back all season claimed the championship at Target Center. Stanford was the preseason No. 1 pick, but a five-set loss at BYU on Aug. 31 dropped the Cardinal from the top spot. They spent most of the season ranked No. 2 behind BYU, then moved back to No. 1 when the Cougars lost their regular-season finale. But all season long, it felt like Stanford would be the team to beat in the NCAA tournament. No one did. Stanford swept BYU in the semifinals, putting aside that August loss once and for all. Then the Cardinal beat the defending champion Huskers, claiming the title with their 32nd consecutive victory. "They've been different experiences each year," Fitzmorris said. "We're not trying to recreate the past, but take a different approach each year. Freshman year, we had some of the advantages of not really knowing all that's going on, just that you have to play volleyball. "Now, as juniors, we've learned from positives and negatives. At the end of the day, it's about just coming out and relying on your teammates the way you have all season." Fitzmorris finished with 14 kills and five blocks. Gray had 57 assists. Sophomore Meghan McClure, who had the match-winning kill, is thankful to have these juniors to play with. "They're the core of our team," she said. "They set the tone their freshman year, and I came into that team that had won a national championship. We were set on doing it again last year, and we didn't. But they led us through that, and then they led the way for us to win it this year." Mechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women's college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women's basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
By Christian Red http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ June 24, 2017 Rick Butler running a volleyball camp in Nebraska in 2014. (Stacie Scott/Lincoln Hournal Star) The mental anxiety and dread she experienced from seeing her alleged abuser on the opposing sidelines this past week were no less severe than what Florida volleyball coach Sarah Powers-Barnhard endured a year ago at the same junior national championship tournament in Orlando.
“The anxiety was still big. It’s like Groundhog Day,” says Powers-Barnhard, a Jacksonville, Fla., volleyball club director whose teams played in the nationally-televised Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) girls’ volleyball tournament in Orlando, which ends Monday.
But while Powers-Barnhard had to brace herself for the uncomfortable moment when she would again be in the same arena and on the same court as Rick Butler, her former volleyball coach and the man Powers-Barnhard and several other women say sexually abused them when they were teenagers in the 1980s, Powers-Barnhard says she was buoyed this year by an outpouring of support on numerous fronts. That includes an online grassroots movement in which a Denver attorney is making sure the public knows about Butler’s past.
Butler, the owner of the Illinois-based Sports Performance Volleyball Club and an influential figure in the sport, received a lifetime ban from USA Volleyball (the sport’s national governing body) in 1995 after Powers-Barnhard and two other women testified against him before a USAV ethics panel that same year. However, Butler was reinstated by USAV only five years later, in 2000, in an administrative role. Butler acknowledged to the ‘95 ethics panel that he had sex with the three women who testified against him, but Butler said the relationships were consensual and that they began after the women had turned 18. The legal age of sexual consent in Illinois is 17.
Powers-Barnhard last year filed a lawsuit against the AAU in Florida state court, and the amended complaint accuses the organization of violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by allowing Butler to coach in AAU events (like the one in Orlando), even though the AAU’s policies bar membership of those accused of sexual misconduct. The complaint also accuses the AAU of negligence.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) said in 1995 that it found “credible evidence” that the allegations against Butler were true, but Butler has never faced any criminal charges.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the CEO of Champion Women, an advocacy organization for girls and women in sports, launched an online petition earlier this month demanding Butler’s lifetime ban be enforced. So far, there are more than 2,200 signatures and counting.
“Our petition, our letters to the AAU, USA Volleyball and their sponsors is bigger than removing a single coach from contact with athletes. It is about getting sport governing bodies like the AAU to abide by their own rules regarding sexual abuse, to prioritize athlete safety over finances,” says Hogshead-Makar.
And Powers-Barnhard says she helped hatch the idea of making teal-colored T-shirts with the phrases, “We Stand With Them” and “Ask Me Why” emblazoned on the front and back, so that volleyball players, coaches and attendees to the AAU event in Orlando could sport the shirts during the tournament.
Butler continues to deny the abuse allegations, and his attorney Terry Ekl calls the amended complaint “baseless,” while predicting it will be dismissed in court.
“Rick Butler has never sexually abused any individual and the allegation made by “change.org” (petition) that he did so over 30 years ago is absolutely false. Rick Butler has never been accused by USA Volleyball, AAU, or law enforcement of illegally abusing any player or committing any crime, and there is no factual basis for “change.org” to make such a defamatory allegation,” says Ekl’s statement.
Meanwhile, Denver attorney Emily Swanson, who is also a volleyball coach and is a member of the USAV Rocky Mountain Region board of directors, is determined to make sure that the past accusations made against Butler are fully transparent. Swanson has posted on her Facebook page, transcripts from that ‘95 ethics panel, letters allegedly written by Butler, and numerous other documents pertaining to Butler. The Facebook posts have generated much discussion -- some of it contentious -- among Butler opponents and supporters.
“There has been a lot of information out there. I wanted all the documents in their entire glory for people to read and form their own opinions. I wanted to give people all the information and if their reaction happens to be outrage, and there’s a desire to incite change, then great. This is an issue we need to be fully transparent with,” says Swanson. “I want Butler out. That’s part of my ultimate goal. My other goals are to not have these types of people in coaching, to have associations and organizations stand up to this behavior, and to help communities understand that it is OK to stand up when something is wrong.”
Related:
She Says She's Haunted by Coach's Misconduct : Volleyball: Julie Bremner took six years to come forward with her story of sexual abuse. -
John Dunning hadn’t seen his Stanford women’s volleyball team since the Cardinal celebrated winning the NCAA championship the night of December 17. They hauled the trophy out of the arena in Columbus, Ohio, about 1:30 in the morning and then most of them headed to the airport a few hours later.
School was out, it was the holiday season, and everyone went in different directions.
So there was a lot to catch up on when they gathered in Palo Alto on Monday afternoon for the first team meeting of 2017.
And the coach for the past 16 years at Stanford told his staff and players, “We’re going to add new recruits to our team, there are people who are not going to be with our team, and I’m not going to be with our team, either.”
He had to pause while recounting the moment.
“Then it was really hard. I’m an emotional person but I’d like to be a little more in control than I was, but I didn’t do a good job of that today,” Dunning said Monday with a laugh.
“I really like the people who were sitting in the room with me today. It was really, really hard and now I’ve got to deal with what’s next. We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow.”
Among other things, one of the top programs in the sport will have to find a new coach because Dunning ended his 32-year career by announcing his retirement just three weeks and two days after winning it all with a team that had a magnificent run the second half of the season.
“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was go in and talk to the team,” Dunning said. “That means I’ve had a blessed life because I haven’t had to tell a lot of people in my life a lot of hard things. That was really hard and had I had to do some calling and had to make sure everyone who needed know first-hand knew and then came home to my wife and she was in tears and it was a hard day, but it’s not confusing.“
Soon after that meeting, Stanford sent out a news release.
“Not a lot of people in any vocation get a chance to go out on top, so it’s special,” said Penn State coach Russ Rose, college’s all-time winningest coach who has had some epic battles with Stanford over the years. “In addition to the fact that he’s a great coach and family man and terrific friend, he had the ability to go out on top.”
Dunning won NCAA titles in 1985 and ’86 as the coach at Pacific and then three at Stanford, in 2001, 2004 and the four-set victory over Texas last month.
The 2011 AVCA hall of fame inductee never missed the postseason in 32 years as a head coach.
Dunning, who turned 66 in November, will retire with a record of 888-185 — 451-83 at Stanford — and leaves the school tied with Penn State for the most NCAA titles overall, seven.
The AVCA national coach of the year said he’d been thinking about retirement a while and recalled his own father, who worked hard, did well, and retired at 59.
“And he lived in retirement for 34 years until he died at 93.”
Dunning and Julie have two daughters, Lisa and Lauren, both of whom played college volleyball, and Lisa and husband Matt have two children.
“My life has been around working hard and having my family be taken care of and creating opportunities for them and after working having the where with all to enjoy it in a different way, where you’re not going to work every day. And my job is not a job you can do half time. My job, if you take it seriously, which I do, is not a job where you can have friends for half the year because you’re just too occupied.
“So I’m looking forward to a time where Julie, who’s been aside a coach for 43 years, since 1973 when I started coaching boys basketball at Fremont High in Sunnyvale, she’s my wonderful partner in life and has been with me that whole time and I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon, I’ve never seen Yellowstone, I’ve never seen a lot of things and she hasn’t either. And we’d like to see a lot of things that are different than going to the gym every day, which I absolutely love coaching and I love volleyball.”
Not that he’s getting out of the sport. Dunning, who likes to play golf, is a big part of the Art of Coaching with Rose and another retired coaching legend, Terry Liskevych, who wrote this piece about his friend.
“I love the Art of Coaching and I love working with Russ and Terry and the people included beyond that and I love the idea that there are really experienced old-ish people who are involved in that who are very different who are just wanting to share experience and provide a resource for any coach that is different from when I was growing up.”
Dunning replaced Don Shaw at Stanford, who stayed another five years as the Stanford men’s coach and does some volleyball TV commentary.
“We played against basketball each in junior college,” said Shaw, who’s also 66. “I have the program from the Christmas tournament from Santa Monica College and De Anza College was in that tournament and the team picture is in there and Dunning’s in that picture.
“John is a class act and a great guy. He’s a teacher first and foremost. He was a math teacher who learned how to coach volleyball. Didn’t play volleyball. And I can recall when he was teaching at Fremont High School and Fred Sturm and I coaching both the women and the men at Stanford and we did some exhibitions at De Anza just to generate some interest in volleyball. So I go back to those days with John and he’s just one of the best guys ever. And that’s the first thing that comes out of anyone’s mouth when you ask about John Dunning, what a great guy.
“But he’s figured it out and he’s a great teacher and he did a great job of continuing the success that Fred and I had.”
Pac-12 rival and USC coach Mick Haley, 73, laughed at a guy retiring so young.
“It was always fun to compete against him because his teams were always competitive and always well prepared,” Haley said. “And we will sure miss that. He was a credit to Stanford because he maintained the tradition and we had many good battles.”
The dean of Pac-12 coaches, Dave Rubio of Arizona, was also taken aback by his friend’s announcement and praised the job he did this year, especially with so many freshmen.
“That was an unbelievable run at the end,” Rubio said. “I thought for sure he would finish out the next four years with that group, but if you’re going to go out, now that I think about it, why not go out with that finish he had? But I’m surprised.”
AVCA executive director Kathy DeBoer knows the profession is losing a great coach.
“A friend of mine used to say, ‘I can’t define class, but I know it when I see it.’ This would be my description of John Dunning, a man with class who ran a program with class.” DeBoer said. “We all knew it; we could all see it.
“I want to be more happy for him than I am sad for us, but I’m struggling to get there. John was one of those coaches that you listened to, even when he was upset with you, because his point or complaint was never about him, it was always about others and what was good for the sport.
“Success has ruined a lot of coaches and even worse ruined a lot of relationships between coaches. John Dunning handled immense success as well as anyone; if he ever felt paranoid or arrogant or just like a major, big shot, he never let us see it. He took his role seriously but managed to take himself lightly.”
Dunning had three Stanford Olympians in Logan Tom (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012), Ogonna Nnamani (2004, 2008) and Foluke Akinradewo (2012, 2016), and many others who played on USA national teams.
“I joined Stanford with only three years of playing the sport under my belt,” Akinradewo wrote by email from Switzerland. “I was tall, athletic and highly unskilled. John coached me with an immense amount of determination, patience and care which I believe are a few of the many qualities he possesses that has allowed him to lead a successful and storied career. His presence on the sidelines will be greatly missed.”
Nnamani — now Silva — played on Stanford’s 2001 and 2004 title teams.
“I am so fortunate to have had John Dunning as my coach,” said Nnamani now an M.D. candidate at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. “His kindness, patience and approach to the game made a lasting impact on my life.
“He always has been there for us and his leadership during my formative years played a huge part in making me the person I am today. He’s had a great career and deserves to go out on top as one of the sport’s greatest.”
This year’s VolleyballMag.com national player of the year, Stanford’s Inky Ajanaku, had high praise for her former coach, whom she credited for not only helping her become a better player, but getting her through missing the 2015 season with a knee injury and coming back strong in 2016.
“As a coach for me, with all the pressure and the history that Stanford has with its athletic greatness, he kept the players‘ development as a person at the forefront of all of his goals,” Ajanaku said.
“For him to be able to do that in such a challenging job with the pressure to win and pressure to achieve that excellence and the athletic side of what he was graded on, it didn’t matter to him. He wanted to develop great players and great people and that’s not your average big-time college coach. I know a lot of people who will look back at what he did for them — and it might not have been on the court — and realize a lot of things that John taught them were more valuable off the court.
“That he could keep that the focus the calling of his career for so many years is remarkable in a world that wants you to focus on the things that are going to give you accomplishment and accolades. You might not hear a lot about those little things, but I think that was the biggest success of his career.”
Madi Bugg was a four-year (2012-15) starter at setter for Dunning.
“College is hard. Stanford is a wonderful place, but it is HARD. My senior season was ugly. There’s no denying that, especially after going to the final four the year before,” Bugg emailed Tuesday from Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where she plays for Viteos NUC.
“I will never forget a meeting I had with John in the lobby of our hotel after we lost to North Carolina (my hometown trip). I was frustrated and I was trying so hard to shut everyone out because I knew was going to lose it big time if I showed how upset I was. I missed having my best friend on the court with me and life was hard in that moment.
“And John held me back after everyone left to shower and just asked me what was up. And I tried SO HARD to not let him in. But, as per usual, twenty minutes into the meeting I ended up crying and pouring my heart out. And the thing I’ll always remember is that he cried with me. My pain was his pain. He cared that we lost, but the tears were for me. He cared. He always cared. That is his superpower. It’s his legacy. Not the numbers, but the people that he cared for and how much we love him for it.”
And beach superstar Kerri Walsh Jennings, who play at Stanford just before Dunning arrived, said Dunning was a key part of her love for the sport.
“When I was 10, I went to his setters camp at Pacific and from then on it was over for me,” said Walsh Jennings, who played for Shaw at Stanford and was part of the 1996 and 1997 NCAA title teams. “I was a lifer in the sport.
“John made the game extremely fun and was genuinely enthusiastic about the athletes in his camps and in their individual progress. He made a huge impact on me and I will be forever grateful. I am proud of John and all he has accomplished in our great sport. His teams always were contenders and that doesn’t just happen. Consistency is a sign of greatness in sports and coach Dunning has been nothing but consistent throughout his coaching career. I’m so happy he is retiring at the very top of his game. What a special place to finish and what a special career.”
Dunning said he went to Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir, who in turned told him to think about for a couple of days, just as Dunning said he has always done with recruits after they commit. Dunning was certain.
Muir, of course, now needs to hire a new coach and the Stanford news release said he will conduct a national search. Dunning leaves behind a veteran and talented staff, including one of the most well-liked and respected coaches in the sport in associate head coach Denise Corlett, and assistant coach Cassidy Lichtman, a former Stanford player. He also leaves behind a team that won the title with four freshmen, so the new coach won’t inherit a bare cupboard.
“He deserves it,” Ajanaku said. “Coaches never get time off. He deserves some time to go golfing and hang out and hang out with Julie and spend time with his kids and his grandkids and I’m really thankful he stayed this past year, because everybody knows we couldn’t have done it without him.”
Dunning knows the 2016 season was special and not a bad one on which to go out, but said that didn’t influence his decision.
“This decision was hard and didn’t have to do with anything. I love the team I had this year, I loved our staff, it was as good or better than any staff I’ve ever coached with in terms of how worked together. So what a joy. I’m a lucky guy,” Dunning said.
“I’ve had three jobs, starting after the 7-Elevens and the jobs in college. A high school teacher for a period of time, was the coach at two different schools and all three jobs have been amazing.”
