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How college baseball learned to stop worrying and lean into the long ball

College baseball has spent much of the last three decades bouncing between offensive extremes, from the gorilla ball to the dead ball and back to a bombs-away mentality. The latest swing in the state of play has produced an unprecedented four-year run of power hitting. Unlike some of the other recent fluctuations, the latest uptick […]

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How college baseball learned to stop worrying and lean into the long ball

College baseball has spent much of the last three decades bouncing between offensive extremes, from the gorilla ball to the dead ball and back to a bombs-away mentality.

The latest swing in the state of play has produced an unprecedented four-year run of power hitting. Unlike some of the other recent fluctuations, the latest uptick in offense has those in the game less worried about the balls and the bats and more focused on the guys using the equipment and how.

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“I just think teams are a lot bigger and a lot stronger than they used to be,” said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, who has led his teams to nine College World Series appearances in 36 years as a head coach. “They’re a lot older than they used to be.”

According to NCAA records dating back to 1970, there have been four seasons in which Division I teams averaged a home run per game: 1998 and the past three seasons. Heading into the NCAA regionals, this season is on pace (1.06 homers per team game) to be the fifth overall and fourth straight.

Instead of fretting about the abundance of dingers, the game’s leaders see it as a natural evolution brought about by a combination of mostly positive developments.

“I think the college game’s in a great spot,” UC Irvine coach Ben Orloff said.

Homer history

The college game’s first brush with the outer limits of recognizable baseball came in 1998, the same year the pursuit of the MLB single-season home run record captivated the big leagues. Division I records for runs (7.12) and home runs (1.06) per team per game were set. Former LSU coach Skip Bertman was credited with coining the term “gorilla ball” to describe the state of the college game at the time.

The punctuation came at the College World Series, when USC beat Arizona State 21-14 in a championship game that featured nine home runs. At least one team reached double-digits in runs scored in seven of the 14 games in Omaha.

The NCAA and college baseball leaders decided it was time to cool off the bats, in the name of bringing balance back to the game and protecting the players most likely to be injured by close-range line drives. Working with sports scientists, they sought to devise a way to measure how fast the ball was coming off the bat and ensure non-wood bats performed no better than the best-performing wood bats.

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“(Non-wood bats) have what is known as a trampoline effect,” said Alan Nathan, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois who has done extensive research on bat-to-ball physics. “So when the ball hits the surface of the bat, the bat itself, which is hollow, the surface of the bat can compress and then spring back much, much like a trampoline, and you get a bigger kick to the ball. So you get higher exit velocities that way.”

Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR) testing was introduced after the 1998 season, and home runs and runs steadily dropped for about 10 years, but they ticked up in 2008. By 2010, home runs were again approaching one per game, and runs were up near 7.0. Again, safety became part of the conversation. A new standard for measuring how the ball comes off the bat called the Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) was implemented in 2011.

Again, adjusting the bats worked — too well.

Offense cratered. In 2014, home runs were down to 0.39 per team per game. Runs per game hit levels last seen in college baseball when wood bats were still being used in the early 1970s. The switch to aluminum bats came in 1974.

At the 2014 College World Series, UC Irvine coach Mike Gillespie told The Associated Press the bat change was a “nightmare.” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle added, “It’s just a travesty what we’ve done to college baseball.”

Only three home runs were hit over 16 CWS games. Vanderbilt won it, with a homer in the deciding game providing the winning run in a 3-2 victory against Virginia. The Commodores finished that season with 22 homers over 72 games.

This time, the ball took the fall. The next season the NCAA began using a ball more similar to what is used in the Major Leagues, with flattened seams that allow it to cut through the air with less drag.

“When you lower the seams on the ball, the ball isn’t coming off the bat any faster,” Nathan said.

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Once again, the adjustment worked. Long balls increased immediately and steadily climbed for a few years. In 2019, Vanderbilt won another national championship, and Commodores outfielder JJ Bleday blasted 27 homers by himself.

In 2022 there was another surge in homers (1.03 per game) to near 1998 levels. That set the stage for a record-breaking number of homers in 2023 (1.14 per game) and another in 2024 (1.16).

This time, though, no adjustments were made. And things have already ticked back down, though compared to historical norms, home runs are still flying out of college ballparks at a rate akin to the gorilla ball days. There is a distinct difference between the two eras.

“The home run was prevalent by those that could really hit them,” said ESPN college baseball analyst Chris Burke, a former major leaguer and 2001 first-round draft pick out of Tennessee. “But nobody was necessarily teaching the (swing) path that produced that result. There was still a lot of old-school teaching around that era of the game, and so while the equipment was really designed for a bunch of home runs the instruction was not nearly as intentional as it is today.”

The rise has been driven by the top conferences.

Homers per team per game

League 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

SEC

1.29

1.47

1.62

1.68

1.54

ACC

1.25

1.56

1.46

1.68

1.32

Big 12

1.11

1.22

1.28

1.34

1.21

Big Ten

1.03

1.19

1.19

1.23

1.27

Pac-12

0.96

1.07

1.4

1.19

N/A

The bats

While the ping of a metal bat making contact was once a trademark of college baseball, carbon-fiber composite bats are now far more common. Generally, composite bats offer larger barrels while feeling lighter when swung because of how they are proportioned. They can crack and break like wood bats — though not as easily — and unlike aluminum bats, they perform better when broken in.

Composite bats can also be altered to improve how the ball springs off them (the so-called trampoline effect) and surpass the NCAA standards that have been established (and re-established) over the past 25 years. The most common ways are called shaving and rolling, and a simple online search will produce plenty of bat doctors, selling services and bats that will supposedly put some extra juice on your fly balls.

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Shaving requires removing the end cap of a bat, which can be difficult to do, and shaving down or thinning out the inner wall of the barrel. That makes the bat more springy.

Rolling is less involved and is designed to replicate heavy usage. A rolling machine breaks down the bat evenly and produces an accelerated break-in.

Getting doctored bats into a game, though, is not so easy. NCAA rules require bats to be tested using a three-step protocol that includes the use of a bat compression tester. Bats that pass are labeled with a tamper-proof sticker. and only stickered bats can be used in games.

This season the NCAA changed its rules to require bat testing before every game. Previously, bats were tested before every series, though the ACC and SEC both switched to day-of-competition testing last season.

Is the system foolproof? Is anything?

There have been no verified cheating scandals in college baseball recently, and coaches don’t seem to be particularly worried about an epidemic of doctored bats undermining their sport. But baseball being baseball, skepticism and suspicion come with the territory.

The Vanderbilt-Tennessee rivalry got spicy in 2022 when Vols slugger Jordan Beck had a home run against the Commodores waved off by umpires because it didn’t have the appropriate sticker. Vandy coach Tim Corbin implied that it might not have been an innocent mistake.

Sometimes suspicion can lead to teammates accusing teammates.

After the 2024 college baseball season, a player at a Power 4 school alleged some of his teammates were using — for at least part of the season — doctored bats, attorneys working with the player have told The Athletic. The attorneys brought the allegations and supporting evidence to the conference office, which directed attorneys to share what they had with the school. A few months later school officials told the attorneys they had found no wrongdoing in their baseball program. A school official told The Athletic a thorough investigation was done that involved interviewing players and coaches.

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“The only reason you could slide an illegal bat under the radar is because you have humans testing them,” Clemson coach Eric Bakich said. “And those humans are usually representative of each institution, so it’s not like a neutral third-party, like an umpire is testing. But I think that’s probably the next evolution of bat testing. But I don’t think it’s a problem. I haven’t seen it be a problem.”

Bakich added, “My assumption is that that feels pretty reined in just the amount of testing that goes on with those bats every day.”

Nick Smith, deputy director of Washington State’s sports science lab, which has worked with the NCAA on setting the standards for non-wood bat performance, said the lab will send bats out to rolling services and test them. What they generally find is the bats still remain within the testing standard upon return. Charging customers for bats that can’t pass inspection is probably not great business, Smith said.

So if a bat is doctored to accelerate the break-in period and improve its performance, but that performance still falls within the rules, is it cheating?

Smith also said bat manufacturers are now designing bats in ways that mitigate the effects of rolling.

“That’s a form of bat doctoring that’s very easy for us to replicate, and it’s now part of our standard test. So I think there are probably other ways people can cheat and gain an advantage,” said Smith, whose father Lloyd invented the compression testing device used by schools to measure the BBCOR of bats. “I think rolling is one where they’re unlikely to gain any advantage beyond placebo.”

The offensive uptick hasn’t prompted calls for change or increased scrutiny because there are plenty of organic contributing factors. Wake Forest coach Tom Walter, whose program has been at the forefront of the long-ball craze with 465 homers over the past four seasons, said baseball has a long history of players looking for any advantage they can find.

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“Do I think there are programs out there that are probably pushing that envelope there? There are, I’m sure they are,” Walter said. “And if they’re not doing it as a program, there’s probably individual kids that are trying to figure that out and figure out how to beat the system. I think that we’re always going to be dealing with that. And I think college baseball has done a good job of reacting to the times.”

Shrinking minor leagues and paying college players

In 2020, as the pandemic disrupted high school, college and professional baseball seasons, MLB shortened its draft to five rounds from its usual 40. The next year, in conjunction with the contraction of Major League-affiliated minor league baseball, the draft was permanently cut in half to 20 rounds.

Meanwhile, the NCAA chose not to count 2020-21 participation toward athletes’ eligibility clocks, creating a horde of fifth-, sixth- and even seventh-year college athletes in recent years.

Add those two pandemic ripple effects together, and it’s been a crowded few seasons in college baseball.

“We’ve got a couple guys on our team that are 24, about to turn 25,” Bakich said. “Just having a lineup with 22-, 23-year-old guys in your lineup is the new normal for a lot of programs. There’s less and less 18-year-old, 19-year-old freshmen. As kids continue to develop, power is usually one of the things that comes last.”

And while baseball players aren’t generally receiving the high six-figure or even seven-figure deals football and basketball players are getting, there is money to be made in college, and the quality of life is often better than in the minor leagues.

“College baseball is the best farm system for Major League Baseball,” Bakich said. “The tippy-top of college baseball usually has a Double-A or Triple-A facility and is giving these kids the big-league treatment in terms of travel, accommodations, food, et cetera. So these kids, they go to summer ball, it’s a letdown. They go to Single-A and it’s a letdown.”


Tennessee, which used a deep stable of power hitters to win its first national championship in 2024, is third in D-I in home runs this year.

Style of play

Just like in 1998, the offensive environment in college baseball echoes what is happening in Major League Baseball.

Strikeouts have been steadily climbing against pitchers who have more tools, technology and data at their disposal than ever before to improve velocity and movement. Depending on a team to string together hits — or even contact — to score multiple runs in an inning against pitchers with nasty stuff is a hard way to win.

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It’s all about launch angle and exit velo. Lift the ball and hit it hard.

“The data shows that we want our guys kind of living in that 12- to 18-degree launch angle range,” Walter said. “And I get why, because some of your misses are home runs, and then some of your misses are hard ground balls, right? So you want guys to live a little bit higher launch angle because your misses are more productive.”

Walter, whose program has prided itself on being at the cutting-edge of baseball’s tech and data revolution, also said the strike zone is shrinking because of ball-tracking technology used to evaluate umpires. Pitches barely on, or in many cases slightly off, the outside part of the plate that were frequently called strikes aren’t anymore.

“These umpires are getting evaluated on TrackMan every single game, and I think they’ve learned that if they want a good score, they’ve got to keep it on the plate,” he said.

Add in an uptick in hitter-friendly parks around the country and sprinkle on top of that a little climate change — warm temperatures help baseballs fly farther — and conditions have never been more conducive for homers.

And these days, that’s just fine. Ratings for the last two College World Series have set new highs for ESPN and the college game is continuing to fill in the developmental gap left by minor-league contraction. While scoring remains high compared to historical norms (teams are combining for a little under 14 runs per game overall), why mess with a seemingly good thing?

“I do think the best time for college baseball is ahead of us,” said Craig Keilitz, the longtime executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association. “As good as we are right now, I think we got a brighter future, so I’m really excited about the future of our game.”

(Top photo: Corey Perrine / Florida Times-Union via Imagn Images)

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COLLEGE SPOTLIGHT: Morningside’s Draper praised for academics

Open Audio Article Player Five Mustang women’s track and field student-athletes honored SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Morningside University sophomore sprinter Meredith Draper recently earned another academic distinction. College Sports Communicators released its academic all-district list for women’s track and field on Tuesday, June 24. Morningside University’s Meredith Draper was recognized for her academic work from […]

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Five Mustang women’s track and field student-athletes honored

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Morningside University sophomore sprinter Meredith Draper recently earned another academic distinction.

College Sports Communicators released its academic all-district list for women’s track and field on Tuesday, June 24.

Morningside University’s Meredith Draper was recognized for her academic work from College Sports Communicators. (Contributed photo from Morningside University)

Draper, an elementary education major, was among five Mustangs on the list.

Teammates Courtney Sporrer, Jolee Mesz, Nicole Zuehl and Kinsey Alt all joined Draper.

The CSC Academic All-American program recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for a combination of success in competition and in the classroom.

Student-athletes must maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or better and rank in the top-25 in the conference in a single individual event.

Draper mainly runs and focuses on 100- and 200-meter dashes for Morningside.



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Prince George’s Tyler Dahl ready to go for volleyball gold

Sixteen-year-old Tyler Dahl stands five-foot-nine in her bare feet. By most comparisons, that’s considered quite tall for a girl her age. But not in volleyball — and not compared to her teammates on the BC 18U provincial volleyball team, which will represent the province at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L. “I’m […]

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Sixteen-year-old Tyler Dahl stands five-foot-nine in her bare feet.

By most comparisons, that’s considered quite tall for a girl her age.

But not in volleyball — and not compared to her teammates on the BC 18U provincial volleyball team, which will represent the province at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L.

“I’m the shortest on my team, other than our libero,” said Dahl. “A lot of them are six-footers. One of them is six-foot-three and one is six-foot-two. It’s hard for me to block sometimes because my arms are half the length.”

The BC 18U team will tune up for the Canada Summer Games at the Canada Cup tournament in St. Catharines, Ont., July 22 to 27. Dahl leaves Prince George on Sunday, July 6 to begin two weeks of training in Kamloops before the team flies to Ontario.

“I’m expecting a lot of hard work, especially because a lot of the girls on our team just won club nationals with one of the Vancouver teams — at least three that I know of played on that team,” said Dahl, who turns 17 in December.

She earned her spot on the provincial team after a three-day tryout in late May. Dahl was on the drive back to Prince George when she received the email confirming she’d made both the Canada Cup and Canada Games rosters.

“Crazy me, I did not think I was going to make it because I was one of the shortest and one of the youngest girls trying out,” she said. “So I was really surprised.”

Based on her track record, she shouldn’t have been.

At the 16U Canada Cup in Calgary, Dahl helped Team BC win gold while playing alongside Prince George teammate Delaney Turner. Dahl was named the tournament’s most valuable player. She was also MVP for her Prince George Kodiaks 16U club team that won the Best of the West tournament in 2024.

An offside (left-side) hitter, Dahl just completed Grade 11 at Prince George Secondary School and has been on the provincial team’s radar for several years.

“Her speed on defence is ridiculous,” said Polars head coach Jasen Florell. “She gets to balls you wouldn’t think anybody’s getting to. She’s not a big kid, but on offence her speed and transition going to the ball gives her so much power. Her jumping and speed make up for what she’s lacking in height.”

Dahl was one of three club volleyball players on the PGSS senior team last year and was a major factor in the Polars’ strong showing at the Quad-A zone tournament at PGSS. The team pushed the North Peace Grizzlies of Fort St. John to five sets in the final. North Peace went on to finish sixth in the province.

Dahl started playing volleyball six years ago when she joined the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club. She’s had the same club coach, Mark Lafleur, for the past five seasons.

Before discovering volleyball, she spent a decade in gymnastics. Those years helped develop her strength, flexibility, agility and body awareness — all skills that now make her a standout defensive player. She trained with the Prince George Gymnastics Club and competed at the second-highest level for her age group before quitting at age 12.

“I think it really helped my athleticism. I loved it — it made me really flexible for volleyball and I’m not afraid to throw my weight around,” said Dahl. “In gymnastics they teach you a lot about how to be safe and land safe — it’s the most important thing. I tell my sister, you can get any ball if you just go for it. I never miss a ball I’m really committed to. I just tuck my head in and roll.”

Volleyball runs in the family. Her second cousin, Chris Dahl, is a former coach at Kelly Road Secondary School who led the Camosun Chargers women’s team to a Canadian college national championship in 2017. He also coached the 16U national team for Volleyball Canada. Her grandfather, Glen Dahl, is a Kelly Road graduate who played for the College of New Caledonia.

The Canada Games run Aug. 16 to 25 in Newfoundland, and Dahl said she’s excited to learn more about the game while competing against the country’s top under-18 players.

At the last Canada Summer Games in 2022 in Niagara, Ont., Macyn Unger of Prince George — a Duchess Park grad now playing at Simon Fraser University — helped BC win bronze in women’s volleyball.

Dahl hopes her parents and two siblings will be able to travel to St. John’s to watch her compete. But it’s a costly trip, and accommodations and rental vehicles are hard to find with thousands of people descending on the city in August.

Her father, Cassidy, is still amazed at how far his eldest daughter has come. College scouts are already talking to Tyler about scholarships that could help her pursue studies in kinesiology after graduation.

“I feel like she’s an anomaly — competing against the top players in Canada. Who gets there?” said Cassidy Dahl. “What amazes us about her is the average hitter at this level is six-foot or six-foot-one — minimum.”





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Lane Kiffin’s wife Layla charms in chill beach selfie with USC-bound daughter Presley

Layla Kiffin enjoyed a beach day on Fourth of July with her and Lane Kiffin’s 18-year-old daughter Presley. Presley is enjoying her summer before heading to the University of Southern California to play volleyball. She’s spending time with mom in Cali beforehand, and before mom heads to Oxford, Mississippi, to be with the Ole Miss […]

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Layla Kiffin enjoyed a beach day on Fourth of July with her and Lane Kiffin’s 18-year-old daughter Presley.

Presley is enjoying her summer before heading to the University of Southern California to play volleyball. She’s spending time with mom in Cali beforehand, and before mom heads to Oxford, Mississippi, to be with the Ole Miss Rebels coach and their son Knox, 16, and daughter Landry, 20.

RELATED: Lane Kiffin’s daughter Landry flexes epic black cowboy fit on Nashville July 4th trip

Presley Kiffin and Layla Kiffin

Presley Kiffin and Layla Kiffin / Lane Kiffin/Instagram

Lane, 50, and Layla, 51, have reconciled after being married for 12 years and divorced since 2016. He’s posted them celebrating an anniversary and her checking out “home” in Mississippi. They have the three kids together. Knox moved a few months ago from California to attend Oxford High as a quarterback, while Landry is a student at Ole Miss.

Presley, meanwhile, just graduated high school and the whole family came out for the ceremony where dad wore his favorite Rebels fit game-day fit.

RELATED: Lane Kiffin shows off incredible ‘record’ catch with strange-looking sea creature

Lane Kiffin with Presley (left)

Lane Kiffin with Presley (left) and friend / Lane Kiffin/Instagram

Layla just took Presley to USC orientation, and then had a beach day for 4th of July together where a happy mom and daughter had a big smile together.

Layla and Presley

Layla Kiffin/Instagram

While Layla will be rooting on Lane and Ole Miss come football season, no doubt, she’ll be back to root on Presley at USC come volleyball season.

Presley Kiffin

Presley Kiffin/Instagram

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Mississippi State track and field star Peyton Bair transfers to Oregon

Mississippi State track and field star Peyton Bair will transfer to Oregon for his senior season. Oregon track and field announced the signing on the social media platform X on July 3. Incoming🦆 Peyton BairKimberly, IdahoPrevious: Mississippi State Bair PBs + Highlights👀Heptathlon – 6,104 pointsDecathlon – 8,323 pointsSwept 2025 NCAA indoor, outdoor titlesTop-20 all-time collegiate […]

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Mississippi State track and field star Peyton Bair will transfer to Oregon for his senior season.

Oregon track and field announced the signing on the social media platform X on July 3.

The announcement came three weeks after Bair won the NCAA Division I decathlon on June 12 in Eugene, Oregon. Bair scored a program-record 8,323 points, which is the 14th-highest total in NCAA history and the 10th best in the NCAA championships.

He won the 100- and 400-meter runs, placed fourth in the long jump and javelin and fifth in hurdles.

Bair also won the heptathlon at the NCAA indoor championships in March. Bair is the seventh male in NCAA history to win both in the same year.

In addition to Bair transferring to the Ducks, his younger brother, Gatlin Bair, will join the Oregon football program in 2026.

Gatlin Bair committed to Oregon in February 2024 but delayed his enrollment to 2026 to serve on a Latter-day Saints mission, according to 247Sports. Gatlin Bair, a wide receiver, was a five-star recruit coming out of Burley (Idaho) High School, according to 247sports.





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U.S. Girls U19 National Team Drops Thriller to Poland at 2025 World Championship

Colorado Springs, Colo. (July 4, 2025) –In a match befitting two undefeated teams, the U.S. Girls U19 National Team fell just short to Poland, 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 25-27, 16-14), on Friday at the 2025 FIVB Girls U19 World Championship in Osijek, Croatia. The U.S. (2-1) will return to the court Sunday, July 6, at 12:15 […]

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Colorado Springs, Colo. (July 4, 2025) –In a match befitting two undefeated teams, the U.S. Girls U19 National Team fell just short to Poland, 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 25-27, 16-14), on Friday at the 2025 FIVB Girls U19 World Championship in Osijek, Croatia.

The U.S. (2-1) will return to the court Sunday, July 6, at 12:15 p.m. PT against Bulgaria (2-1).

The match was as close statistically as the final score would indicate with Poland holding a narrow margin in kills (64-62), the U.S. leading by one in aces (6-5) and each team totaling eight blocks.

Outside hitter Cari Spears scored a team-high 21 points, 13 of which came in the fourth and fifth sets, with 16 kills, a match-best four blocks and an ace. Opposite Henley Anderson paced the team with 19 kills.

Setter Genevieve Harris was all over the court setting, playing defense and contributing seven points with two kills, three blocks and two aces. Outsider hitter Kelly Kinney (seven kills, one ace) and middle blocker Gabrielle Nichols (six kills, one block, one ace) each scored eight points.

Middle blocker Abbey Emch finished with five kills and outside Lameen Mambu added four.

“Congratulations to Poland on a well-fought match,” U.S. head coach Keegan Cook said. “This is the exact match we hoped for this group to experience in pool play. We will be better for it. We will also need to learn some lessons quickly as Bulgaria and Türkiye are both strong opponents. I’m looking forward to seeing our USA team respond.”

The U.S. scored five of the first seven points of the match, but Poland responded with a 7-2 run to take a lead it would not relinquish in the first set. The lead grew to seven, 22-15, before a huge U.S. rally (8-2) made it 24-23 but Poland was able to get a kill to end the set.

Nichols scored five points on four kills and a block that finished a 4-0 run to cut the deficit from seven to three. Kinney and Spears each had three kills and four points.

A Kinney kill on an overpass in set two gave the U.S. its first lead, 7-6, since leading by the same score in the opening set. A Harris block and a Poland timeout evened the score at 14 and led to a Poland timeout. Kinney scored on a kill off a block and Spears followed with two aces, the second dribbling off the tape, for a three-point U.S. lead.

Back-to-back aces by Harris gave the U.S. a 21-17 lead. Poland scored the next three points and had a swing to even the set but a great dig by Harris led to an Anderson kill. Poland did eventually tie the set at 23 but Anderson put a ball down and an opposing hitting error gave the U.S. the set to square the match at one set apiece.

Anderson scored five points on kills, while Harris scored four points on a kill, a block and her two key aces.

With the U.S. leading 8-7 in the third set, Poland scored six of the next seven points to take a 13-9 lead. The U.S. pulled within three points on another Harris block, 15-12, but Poland went on a 5-1 run lead to take control of the set. Anderson produced four kills in the set.

The fourth set was close throughout with the U.S. denying two match points. Spears scored the team’s last five points. The first tied the set at 23 and the second staved off the first match point after Poland could not convert a free ball. Her kill off the block again saved match point and this time tied the set at 25. Spears recorded a block to give the U.S. its first set point and send the match to a fifth set with her 10th point and seventh kill of the set.

An Anderson kill gave the U.S. a 3-2 lead in the deciding set but it would be its last lead of the match. Poland led 13-10 before a kill by Emch and a hitting error brought the U.S. within a point. A tough Anderson serve led to a kill by Mambu to even the set at 13 apiece. Service errors on the last two U.S. serves opened the door for Poland to seal the match. Spears recorded three more kills in the set and Emch added two.

2025 U19 National Team Roster for World Championship

(Name, Pos., Birth Year, Height, Hometown, School, Region)
3 Jordan Taylor (MB, 6-5, 2007, Houston, Texas, University of Minnesota, Lone Star)
5 Lily Hayes (L, 5-9, 2007, Tampa, Fla., Berkeley Prep HS, Florida)
6 Suli Davis (OH, 6-1, 2007, Euless, Texas, Brigham Young University, North Texas)
8 Abbey Emch (MB, 6-3, 2007, New Waterford, Ohio, University of Pittsburgh, Ohio Valley)
10 Isabelle Hoppe (S, 5-8, 2008, Gibsonia, Pa., Pine Richland HS, Ohio Valley)
11 Kelly Kinney (OH/OPP, 6-2, 2007, West Palm Beach, Fla., The Kings Academy, Florida)
12 Genevieve Harris (S, 5-11, 2007, Raleigh, N.C, Cardinal Gibbons HS, Carolina)
13 Gabrielle Nichols (MB, 6-3, 2007, Winston Salem, N.C., Penn State University, Carolina)
16 Cari Spears (OH, 6-3, 2007, Dallas, Texas, University of Texas, North Texas)
17 Lameen Mambu (OH, 6-0, 2007, Chantilly, Va., Georgia Tech, Chesapeake)
19 Henley Anderson (OPP/OH, 6-3, 2007, Dripping Springs, Texas, Dripping Springs HS, Lone Star)
20 Devyn Wiest (OH, 6-3, 2007, Peoria, Ariz., University of Utah, Arizona)

Alternates
1 Izzy Mogridge (S, 5-11, 2007, Lutz, Fla., Berkeley Prep HS, Florida)
2 Charlotte Vinson (OPP, 6-2, 2007, Muncie, Ind., Yorktown HS, Hoosier)
4 Kalyssa Blackshear (MB/OPP, 6-4, 2007, Torrance, Calif., University of Louisville, Southern California)
7 Ayanna Watson (OH/OPP, 6-3, 2007, Henderson, Nev., Bishop Gorman HS, Southern California)
9 Natalie Wardlow (MB/OPP, 6-5, 2007, Lincoln, Neb., Lincoln Southeast HS, Great Plains)
15 Logan Bell (L, 5-11, 2007, Beech Grove, Ind., Roncalli HS, Hoosier)
18 Aniya Warren (L, 5-8, 2007, Lockport, Ill., Benet Academy, Great Lakes)

Coaches
Head Coach: Keegan Cook (Minnesota)
Assistant Coach: Alyssa D’Errico (Utah)
Assistant Coach: April Sanchez (New Mexico)
Performance Analyst: Jon Wong (Florida State)
ATC: Cherryl Bueno (Coast to Coast AthletiCare)
Team Lead: Courtney Smith (NTDP)

2025 FIVB Girls U19 World Championship Schedule
All times Pacific/Osijek, Croatia
Matches live on VBTV and Volleyball World YouTube

July 2: USA def. Spain, 3-1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-12, 25-23)
July 3: USA def. Peru, 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-18)
July 4: Poland def. USA, 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 25-27, 16-14)
July 6: 12:15 p.m. USA vs. Bulgaria
July 7: 12:15 p.m. USA vs. Türkiye
July 8: TBA Round of 16
July 11: TBA Playoffs/Quarterfinals
July 12: TBA Playoffs/Semifinals
July 13: Finals



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Summer Spotlight: Marjorie Johnson, Volleyball

Story Links Waterville, Maine – Introducing Colby Athletics’ summer spotlight series, where we take a look into what Colby student-athletes are working on over the summer break. Up first is rising junior Marjorie Johnson of Colby Volleyball. This summer Marjorie has been partaking in an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) at Bigelow Laboratories […]

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Johnson, Marjorie - Summer Waterville, Maine – Introducing Colby Athletics’ summer spotlight series, where we take a look into what Colby student-athletes are working on over the summer break. Up first is rising junior Marjorie Johnson of Colby Volleyball. This summer Marjorie has been partaking in an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) at Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine.

Bigelow is an independent, non-profit research institute whose mission is to use innovative approaches to study the foundation of global ocean health and unlock its potential to improve the future for all life on our planet. At her REU there are 18 other interns who are spending the summer at a beautiful residence hall located right next to the state of art laboratory. Each one of them, including Marjorie, are working in different areas of specialties from using code to study and track jellyfish populations to researching oil spill emulsification. They are all getting hands-on experience conducting their own research with a senior research scientist as our mentor. Marjorie has been working in Christoph Aeppli’s lab studying the current and historical trends of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in marine sediment cores in midcoast Maine.

Johnson, Marjorie - Summer“It has been such an inspiring experience to be able to do hands-on research on a topic that has such important health and environmental implications,” said Johnson. “It is such an amazing experience to be interning at a laboratory that is working to solve some of the world’s most complex issues. It’s also not too shabby spending my summer on Maine’s coastline and getting to not only explore Maine but experience a Maine Summer.”

Be on the lookout for more of our summer spotlight series. 

 



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