THE YEAR IN VCU ATHLETICS, FROM A TO Z

Wrong A-B-C…whatever, close enough.

June marks the conclusion of the college athletics calendar, and July’s arrival effectively signals the beginning of the 2013-14 season, at least for those of us in the biz, anyway. It all makes this week a good time to reflect back on the year that was in VCU Athletics.

A – is for Atlantic 10 Conference, in which, according to our slogan, the Rams were ‘all-in’. We were also all-in for another season of “Arrested Development” and Pop Tart ice cream sandwiches, so we’re having a good year. VCU competed in the A-10 for the first time in 2012-13, a move that has elevated the program’s national profile. The Rams’ first A-10 title came via the women’s tennis squad, followed by a men’s tennis crown days later. Meanwhile, several other sports (men’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer) reached the league’s championship final.

B – is for the Ball family, one of the driving forces behind the VCU Golf program. They’re like the Kennedy’s of VCU Golf, but with a better short game. Matt Ball may have just completed his 14^th season with the Rams, but this one was surely different than the others. That’s because 40 percent of his starting lineup was occupied by sons Adam and Matt Jr. Son Adam, a freshman, led the Rams in scoring average (73.53) this year, while Matt Jr., a junior, placed seventh at the A-10 Championship and was named to the league’s All-Academic Team.

C – is for Courtney Conrad, the alliteratively named star of the women’s soccer team. Conrad led the Rams with 11 goals, including five game-winners, and received All-Mid-Atlantic by the NSCAA.

D – is for Daniels, Troy. If you are a fan of basketball players who score three points at a time (and the signed, obscure Mark Price picture in my dining room proves I am), then you would’ve enjoyed Daniels’ 2012-13 season. In 36 games, Daniels bombed a school-record 124 three-pointers, including games of 11, nine and eight.

NEW CHALLENGE SPARKS ROGERS

RICHMOND, Va. – Jody Rogers doesn’t have to be here, sloughing through paperwork and compliance meetings with her assistants, Kyleigh Gerlach and Chad Gatzlaff. She didn’t have to spend the spring zigzagging the country, feet pounding the pavement of an unending recruiting trail.

Her University of Indianapolis program stood among the Division II volleyball elite. The Greyhounds were coming off a dream season, a 31-win campaign that included the school’s first Final Four appearance. Her next two recruiting classes were already locked in. The incoming class, she says, was her best ever.

So what is she doing in Richmond on a Monday afternoon, combing over recruiting boards and evaluating the state of the VCU program?

At UIndy, she was an institution of 400-plus wins and 16 years of success. Last year she was two wins away from a national title. Now she’s at square one. VCU isn’t a rebuilding project by any means – it was 25-6 last year – but the Rams have also won one conference title in 28 years. Rogers is used to, and demands, more.

“People were very surprised, but excited for me when I took the job, to be honest with you,” Rogers says. “Because I had such a good situation at UIndy, and people thought that I was going to retire there. Certain opportunities arose, and I felt that at this time, it was a great move for me professionally and personally.”

***

Decanting Rogers’ motivations for leaving Indianapolis and jumping at the chance to take over the VCU program probably requires a walk down the streets of her hometown of Newton, Mass.

Rogers and her sister Wendy, 13 months her senior, grew up in a three-story (three-decka, by her parlance) house in Newton, a charming Boston suburb on the city’s western outskirts. Although Newton is relatively affluent, Rogers and her family were anything but well off. They lived on the first floor of a house owned by their grandmother, who took up shop on the second story. The third floor was rented to tenants.

FARKAS BREAKS OUT WITH ‘FRESH’ FASHION

Former VCU Volleyball standout Anett Farkas is trying to crack into the world of fashion with FRSHSqueezed.com.

RICHMOND, Va. – While senioritis crept in on her peers, Anett Farkas chose to finish her college career with style.

Farkas, a three-year volleyball standout for VCU, graduated Saturday with a degree in Fashion Merchandising, but not before she got a head start on her career. In January, Farkas and friend Carlos Funn, a professional photographer, founded the fashion blog FRSHSqueezed.com. Farkas writes and edits the blog, while Funn’s photography gives the site a refined visual edge.

When the curtain fell on Farkas’ volleyball career in November, she looked to occupy her time with new projects. When she returned from winter break this year, she and Funn launched FRSHSqueezed.

“The blog is a really good place to channel my energies,” Farkas, who calls her personal style sort of an American-European fusion, says. “I didn’t think it would be this much work, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Online, Farkas models some of her favorite styles, provides fashion tips and reports on local fashion fare. She does so while appealing to more than just a Richmond audience. A native of Budapest, Hungary, the site is written in both English and Hungarian, which Farkas hopes will invite readers from her native country.

“I thought it would be a good idea because I didn’t want the Hungarian aspect to be lost,” Farkas, 21, said. “I’m actually very excited that I’m building my Hungarian followers, and I’ve had quite a few likes on Facebook that are from Hungary and people that I don’t know, and that’s what gets me super excited.”

Although still in its infancy, Farkas and Funn have already seen modest success. Earlier this year, they struck a partnership with Dillard’s in Short Pump which allows Farkas to choose styles directly off the retailer’s floor and model them on FRSHSqueezed. Recently, Richmond, Virginia Fashion Bloggers (RVAFB, for short) featured FRSHSqueezed on their “Saturday Spotlight”, which casts a light on local fashion bloggers. FRSHSqueezed’s Facebook page has already accumulated nearly 3,000 “likes”.

A 6-foot-2 outside hitter, Farkas averaged 2.33 kills per set in 2012.

Farkas also worked as a runway model for VCU Catalyst, a show featuring clothing by VCU Fashion Design and Merchandising students, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on May 5. Not only did Farkas model at the show, but she was able to report on it for FRSHSqueezed.

Now that she’s graduated, Farkas says she plans on investing herself in the site even further. There are a number of plans in the works, she says, and she and Funn hope to monetize the site in the near future.

“It’s definitely evolving,” Farkas, a two-year starter at outside hitter for the Rams, says, “But I’m excited that school’s ending because I can really dive into it.”

While it’s a labor of love for Farkas, she says there are other motivations for the blog. Farkas, who recently completed a marketing internship with Sue Williams and Colleagues in Church Hill, says she’d like to find a job in the fashion industry in the United States, and the blog could help her stand out. What better way to market yourself than with a successful blog that incorporates modeling, writing, marketing, fashion forecasting, social media saavy, smart aesthetics and a heap of initiative? It’s like a LinkedIn profile meets Vogue.

“I can kind of have that as a reference, [and say] ‘This is my thing, I built it from zero to here in this much time. I think I can do that for your company, and I do have ideas.’”

Click to follow FRSHSqueezed on Facebook or Twitter, or search FRSHSqueezed on Instagram.

HERE’S THE (POSTSEASON) SITUATION…

VCU’s last fall sports conference championship came in volleyball in 2005. The Rams have four chances to end that drought this fall.

VCU sports are enjoying a record-breaking fall, and for the first time since 2000, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and volleyball will all play in the conference tournament in the same year. A couple of them have legitimate NCAA at-large shots as well. Here’s a quick look at the postseason prospects of VCU’s fall athletic programs.

FIELD HOCKEY (13-5, 4-3 A-10)
Remaining Schedule: Regular season complete
Atlantic 10 Tournament: The Rams are the No. 4 seed and will meet top-seeded Richmond in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m. in Amherst, Mass. Click HERE for the A-10 Championship page.
Conference Championships: None
NCAA Appearances: None
Current NCAA RPI: 30
The Skinny: If this were hoops, VCU’s 30 RPI would be a sure ticket to the NCAA Tournament. However, the NCAA Field Hockey Championship is 16 teams, which means the Rams need to win the A-10 Tournament to dance. It won’t be an easy task. The Rams are 0-3 against the A-10 Tourney field (Richmond, Temple and UMASS) this season.

FALL SPORTS, SUMMED UP IN ONE PLAY

It was another banner weekend in VCU Athletics. Fall sports were unbeaten (again). Volleyball and field hockey swept a pair of matches, women’s soccer beat Richmond, men’s soccer picked up a draw and a win. Nice, tidy 6-0-1 weekend. Heck, for good measure, 17-year-old freshman Jake McNulty fired a 69 in the first round of the OBX/ODU Collegiate Sunday morning for the VCU Golf team.

VCU fall sports (volleyball, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer) have a combined record of 50-14-7. If the regular season ended today, all four would qualify for their respective conference tournaments for the first time since 2000.

Below is a great example of how we roll at VCU. Redshirt freshman Uzoamaka Ibeh is a great kid from Jersey. Works hard. Great teammate. But she hasn’t played much as a Ram. Saturday’s match with Duquesne marked the seventh appearance of her career. That didn’t stop her from diving headlong into the scorer’s table to make this save. I was practically on top of the play and it was much better in person. All hustle.

STATE OF DENIAL; RAMS BLOCKING AT ELITE LEVEL

Elite blocking has become a VCU trademark in recent years. The Rams (19-3) are currently ranked sixth nationally in blocking.

RICHMOND, Va. – Volleyball players say there’s a special emotion that comes from blocking an opposing hitter and halting the enemy’s offense with a demoralizing thud.

“You feel like you’re on top of the world. You feel strong,” says VCU freshman middle blocker Martina Samadan.

“I think that’s the most exciting way to get a point for me,” adds senior middle Jasmine Waters. “You just kind of feel like you shut down the other team.”

If that’s the case, it’s been a joyful season for the VCU Volleyball team. The 19-3 Rams lead the Atlantic 10 Conference and rank sixth nationally in blocks per set (3.13). They’ve outblocked their opponents 260-137 this year and have been outblocked in a match just two times. Samadan, a 6-foot-5 rookie from Croatia, ranks fourth in the country in blocks per set (1.64). With numbers like those, VCU should have smiles to spare.

VCU didn’t transform into the Great Wall of China overnight. It takes a lot of work to be this stingy.

DESPITE VOW, LOW COULDN’T WALK AWAY FROM VOLLEYBALL

Marisa Low had had her left knee surgically repaired twice in 11 months.

By her own admission, Marisa Low probably shouldn’t be here. Nobody would’ve blamed the senior from San Diego if she called it a career. The first grueling knee rehabilitation almost broke her. That was enough, Low said. She swore she’d quit volleyball before she relived that pain.

She lied.

Six months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee for the second straight spring, Low jogged onto the court midway through a tense match with Virginia Sept. 7 and recorded two digs in a VCU victory.

“I went down to the end of the bench and asked her if she was ready,” recalls VCU Head Coach James Finley. “She said, ‘I guess we’ll find out.’”

While the dark, three inch brown scar is a conspicuous reminder of the toll she’s paid, the early returns say Low was ready. In 11 matches since returning to the lineup, the 5-foot-5 defensive specialist is averaging 2.41 digs per set, second most on the team. It’s a major feat that Low is playing at all, let alone at a high level.

TRANSFERS’ CAREERS INTERSECT, STEER VCU IN NEW DIRECTION

Jasmine Waters (front) and Anett Farkas (back) transferred to VCU in 2010 and are two of the driving forces behind VCU’s 13-2 record.

RICHMOND, Va. – The volleyball careers of Jasmine Waters and Anett Farkas have been similarly important to the revival taking place at VCU this year. Both transferred to the school three seasons ago and have become integral parts of a team that has chugged to a surprising 13-2 record.

Farkas, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, is third on the team in kills and digs, and fourth in blocks. Waters, a 6-foot-4 middle blocker, is second in blocks and hitting percentage. Farkas was the MVP of the VCU/Third Degree Sportswear Invitational earlier this year, while Waters earned similar honors at the season-opening Active Ankle Challenge at Ball State.

Although their volleyball careers have serendipitously intersected to lift VCU, their journeys to this place and this period in program history contrast dramatically.

A native of Budapest, Hungary, Farkas started playing volleyball when she was eight years old and trained under Hungarian legend Kotsis Attilane, who led the country fourth place finishes at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games.

Farkas attended an English-speaking school in Budapest until the fifth grade. When tuition became too expensive, she moved to an Austrian-speaking school, where she stayed until graduation. Meanwhile, Farkas excelled at volleyball and earned a spot with Hungary’s Junior National Program.

A Landover, Md. native, Waters didn’t play organized sports until a classmate all but dragged her to volleyball practice during her junior year of high school. She played on the jayvee team that first year and moved up to varsity for her senior season.

BATTLE-TESTED RAMS SET HISTORIC PACE

After years of tough scheduling, the 2012 Rams have looked composed and experienced on the way to a 12-1 record, the best start in school history.

RICHMOND, Va. – August and September haven’t always been friends to VCU Volleyball. In recent years, the Rams have been pinned with some ungainly non-conference records during those months.

But after years of bruising gauntlets during the early weeks of the season, VCU is reaping the benefits. On Sunday, the Rams completed a sweep of the field at the West Point Challenge to improve to 12-1 for the first time in school history. VCU has played four non-conference tournaments this season and won each one. On Friday, Sept. 21, the Rams will begin Atlantic 10 Conference play at Duquesne. They hope their gaudy record is evidence that VCU is ready to chase down its first league championship and NCAA bid since 2005.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Head Coach James Finley, 138-111 in eight seasons with VCU. “It’s so exciting to start like this. I think it allows the girls to have a great level of confidence going into conference.”

Finley firmly believes in challenging non-conference schedules, even if the payoff is years down the road. In 2010, the Rams played six ranked teams. Four core members of this year’s team were either freshmen or sophomores on that squad, which VCU limped to a 2-14 record before winning 11 of its last 17.

Last season’s schedule was similarly tough and included matches with Purdue, Baylor, Xavier, Michigan State and others. The Rams were 4-11 at one point, but won eight of nine down the stretch to reach the Colonial Athletic Association Championship match.

If there was a turning point for VCU, that was it. The Rams are 18-4 since Oct. 22 of last season.

GOLD MEDAL WEDNESDAY

The VCU Volleyball team got a nice surprise Wednesday when they met USA Men’s Volleyball captain Reid Priddy. A three-time Olympian who won gold with the U.S. in Beijing in 2008, Priddy was born in Richmond and lived here until his family moved in the mid 80s (His dad, Ken, is also a VCU graduate). He did have his gold medal with him, by the way.

Reid Priddy dropped by volleyball practice Wednesday.

NBC 12 was shooting an interview with Priddy yesterday and needed a volleyball backdrop on short notice, so they asked us to help them out. In the end, it turned out to be a win for everybody involved.

From left to right, Cecilia Aragao, Uzoamaka Ibeh, Reid Priddy, Megan Stumpf and Marisa Low.