By many standards, Illinois volleyball’s 2022 season was as even as it gets. The Illini, led by head coach Chris Tamas, finished their 30-game season with a record of 15-15, complimented by a 10-10 record in conference play. This was good for seventh place in the Big Ten, an appropriate continuation of Illinois’ even trend.
As middling as the end results were, the American Volleyball Coaches Association actually voted Illinois as the No. 17 team in the nation in early August. Going from the lower half of the preseason poll to splitting your schedule in half is by no means a free fall, especially considering the extenuating circumstances placed on Illinois this season.
“It takes a lot to find yourself in a good spot (of the conference), you need to have a healthy season,” Tamas explained. “Last year I don’t think … I don’t think, I know we didn’t have a healthy season. It was just kinda some random injuries that we took on and I had to move some players around, maybe not the best design as you would have it in your head, but that’s just how it works.”
On top of there, hopefully, being a healthier season in store for the Illini, a fair number of fresh faces will be present and able to bring new life to a team that has finished seventh in the Big Ten for three years straight. Maya Imoto-Eakin, Lily Barry, Taylor de Boer and Gabby Dean make up the 2023 freshman class, complemented by graduate transfer Vanessa Pan. It is early, but each of the five appears to have made positive impressions on their peers.
“I think all the freshmen … and the one transfer, Vanessa (Pan), they’re awesome,” said senior hitter Raina Terry when asked what she is looking forward to the most next season. “They’ve done a great job, they’ve worked so hard in the summer and I think you can anticipate a really competitive season. We have a lot of fire, we compete with each other every single day … no matter how small the competition.”
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Illinois also redshirted three freshmen last season and while that may seem like an indictment of the immediate value of the 2023 class, it simply means Illinois will have eight new pieces to work with as Tamas looks to break into the upper echelon of Big Ten volleyball once again.
Rounding out Illinois’ offseason changes was Jen Tamas, seven-year volunteer assistant coach and wife of Chris Tamas. This summer, Jen Tamas was officially promoted to assistant coach following an NCAA rule change that increased the coaching spots. A former player herself and a longtime affiliate of Illinois volleyball, the two have coached together for a decade, beginning in 2013 at Cal Poly.
An increased role for a beloved volunteer assistant coach, coupled with five brand new faces that contribute to eight new skill sets for Illinois to shuffle minutes between, have been brought to the table. With a little less bad luck on the injury front, Illinois could very well snap its three-year stretch in the middle and that goal could not be any clearer for Chris Tamas.
“We’ve made it to several tournaments and done much better than seventh place in the conference (in tournaments),” Chris Tamas said. “I think at the end of the year that’s what you’re aiming for, right? With that being said, we’re not happy that we finished in seventh place. I told the team in the spring, I didn’t sign up to come here to hope for seventh place and then do damage in the tournament. We want to know that we can place well in the conference.”
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