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I think coaching has had something to do with it. Hopefully this new coach can do something. After all, he does have connections in IC and those powerful Eastern Iowa players.Over the last 25 years, UNI has been the superior volleyball program in the state. That trend was already underway when Kate and Kara Galer from Iowa City West played in Cedar Falls in the mid 90's. Iowa State really stepped it up not long after the turn of the century. The Cyclones went toe to toe with national powers Nebraska and Texas in conference (back when Nebraska was a conference foe). ISU was one win away from making the Final 4 in the last five years, and has been the best program in the state for the last decade.
I'd estimate Iowa has had 5 coaches in the last 20 years, more than UNI and ISU, combined.
Perhaps no state produces more volleyball D1 talent, per capita, than Iowa. One of the best AAU programs in the country is in Iowa City. The Iowa Rockets practice in the North Dodge Athletic Club. They routinely win national titles. But, their players, all from Eastern Iowa, avoid Iowa City like the plague. Haley Eckermann from Waterloo was the star outside hitter as a Freshman for national champion Texas in 2012. Holy Trinity Catholic of Fort Madison's Mikaela Foecke is this year's USA Today and Gatorade National Player of the Year and will be a Freshman at Nebraska.
Iowa's problem is attendance. Volleyball is a great spectator sport, but Carver is simply too cavernous an environment. Until a volleyball specific arena is built, Iowa will lag far behind in a brutal league. Iowa football competes because it packs 77,000 into Kinnick, which isn't Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin numbers, but tops everyone else. Iowa's volleyball attendance is about 12th in a 14 team league. The top half of the league can routinely boast single matches of over 10,000 fans. 2,500 is Iowa's max, and the average is significantly lower.
Drain the Fieldhouse pool and put a volleyball court in the same spot, and they will come. Several dorms are right there, and student attendance would skyrocket. Get that place rocking, and the talent won't flee eastern Iowa. It will stay.
Iowa's volleyball problem isn't coaching (and hasn't been). It's been a lack of commitment to provide a fun and fan friendly place to watch a match. It's an embarrassment that so much talent comes out of Eastern Iowa, but never even considers playing in Iowa City. The athletic administration only seems to care every 4 years when it fires a coach for getting his/her head beat in by conference programs with enthusiastic fan bases that attract talent. Bowlsby and Barta have never done anything to legitimately assist the volleyball program. This is sad, because Iowa has been sitting on a powder keg of talent for quite a while, but a lack of imagination and attention by the administration is the root cause of the school's abysmal record. Tight confines, raucous fans on top of the action breeds a fun environment that players want to play in. Iowa high school talent doesn't want to play at Iowa, not because they don't like the coach. It doesn't like to play at Iowa because it doesn't like the building.
Records of our Non-Conference opponents.
Over half the games against teams that qualified for the NCAAs last year.
A little too much too soon?
South Dakota St. 6-27
Pacific 24-7 (should have qualified)
at Northern Illinois 21-10
at Hawaii 22-7 (NCAA Qualifier)
UCLA 22-12 (NCAA Qualifier)
American 26-7 (NCAA Qualifier)
Milwaukee 17-14
Iowa St. 19-10 (NCAA Qualifier)
Texas A&M 20-10 (NCAA Qualifier)
Gardner Webb 12-21
Coastal Carolina (2) 25-7 (NCAA Qualifier)
Drake 11-18