The starting and back-up setters, a starting defensive specialist and the team's top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
These are all the holes that Ball State University women's volleyball coach Dave Boos will have to fill heading into spring as three members of the team confirmed with The Ball State Daily News Monday night that they will not return for the 2010-11 season.
The three players — starting setter Brittany McGinnis, starting defensive specialist Christie Waters and backup setter Andrea Felton — were all in Boos' 2008 recruiting class. Felton redshirted for the 2008 season.
Multiple attempts to reach Boos on Monday were unsuccessful.
Barring any unforeseen injuries, McGinnis, a sophomore, was well on her way to becoming one of the top setters in Ball State history. She was on pace for 4,552 career assists as a four-year starter for Ball State, which would've placed her second all-time in the school record books. She only would've trailed 2000 graduate Emily Sallee, whose 6,408 assists are the most in Mid-American Conference history.
McGinnis was selected to the 2008 MAC All-Freshman team when she totaled 1,245 assists. McGinnis had 1,031 assists in 2009 and even started a match at attacker when injuries to the Cardinals forced Boos to temporarily move McGinnis to the outside. McGinnis totaled 11 kills and 16 digs in that match against Coastal Carolina University.
Waters, also a sophomore, started 26 matches in her two-year Ball State career. She started 15 matches in the back row for Ball State in her freshman season when she totaled 249 digs, placing her fourth on the team.
Waters, a four-time Indiana High School Athletic Association Class 2A state champion at Burris Laboratory school, was slowed at the beginning of the 2009 season due to complications with compartment syndrome, a condition in which muscles and nerves are compressed into a closed space. However, she rebounded to start 11 matches and rank third on the team with 240 digs.
Felton started in one career match during her redshirt freshman campaign when McGinnis temporarily moved to outside hitter. She played in three matches and ranked second on the team with 68 assists.
With McGinnis, Waters and Felton now out, four of the six players from Boos' 2008 recruiting class are now no longer with the program, joining former defensive specialist Emily Fisher, who left the team at the conclusion of the 2008-09 season. Only defensive specialist Kaylee Schembra and middle blocker Jennifer Boyd remain with the team.
The three losses for Boos are in addition to the loss of top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Hugh Hernesman, who accepted the position of co-head coach at Northwestern State University with his wife, Stephanie, in December.
Boos will most likely have to rely on incoming freshmen to replace the void left at setter and in the back row. Class of 2010 high school seniors Jacqui Seidel, a setter, and Catie Fredrich, a libero, signed national letters of intent in November and could fill in those spots.
Junior Karin Caudill could also see time at setter for Ball State. Caudill was a setter in high school at Burris and has 42 assists in 45 career matches for the Cardinals.
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