St. John's University Athletics
2015 Red Storm Volleyball Season Preview
8/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
QUEENS, N.Y. (Aug. 24, 2015) - Entering her 22nd season at the helm, Joanne Persico, the only head coach in program-history, looks to lead a diverse roster of veteran experience back atop the BIG EAST Conference in 2015.
Persico, the winningest active coach in the BIG EAST with over 400 wins, is also the longest-tenured coach in the conference. She has led the Red Storm to 14 winning seasons, including back-to-back 30-plus win seasons in 2006 and 2007 for the first time in school history and set the school single-season record with 33 wins in 2007.
Since the team's inception in 1994, the Red Storm has been one of the premier volleyball programs in the conference, tallying 406 victories, 12 All-Americans, two NCAA Tournament trips, including one Round of 16 appearance, three BIG EAST regular season championships and one BIG EAST Tournament Championship.
St. John's finished the 2014 season with 19 wins and is coming off an undefeated spring campaign that saw the Red Storm win tournaments at Fordham and Rutgers. The Red Storm will be led by Preseason All-BIG EAST Team members Karin Palgutova and Shawna-Lei Santos.
Palgutova was one of five unanimous selections on this year's Preseason All-BIG East Team. The Bratislava, Slovakia, native has earned first team All-BIG EAST honors in each of her first three seasons, joining Hui Ping Huang as the only volleyball player in St. John's history to achieve this feat. Last season, Palgutova finished ranked second in the conference in four categories: total kills (523), kills per set (4.32), total attacks (1,366), and points per set (4.83). The 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter ranks third in program-history in kills (1,415), fifth in attacks (3,518), and eighth in service aces (111).
Santos, a defensive specialist/libero, joined Palgutova as one of five seniors to make this year's Preseason Team after finishing fourth in the conference with 524 digs and sixth in service aces with 28 in 2014. Santos is one of the Red Storm's more versatile players, as she also saw time as the primary setter last season. She finished second on the team in assists for the second-consecutive year. The Hawai'i native currently ranks fourth in program-history in digs with 1,447.
Palgutova and Santos will be joined by 15 returning players from last season's team that finished sixth in the conference. The Red Storm returns four starters (Palgutova, Santos, Briana Guzman, and Deniz Mutlugil) from a season ago and welcomes five newcomers.
The 2015 Red Storm will feature four seniors (Palgutova, Santos, Mutlugil and Yaidy Santiago), four juniors ( Melissa Chin, Guzman, Mona Karkkainen, Artiana Wynder), seven sophomores ( Julia Cast, Delaney D'Amore, Hope Demel, Ali Healy, Danisha Moss, Raya O'Neal, Nikki Sen) and six freshmen (Pelin Aroguz, Margherita Bianchin, Nia Diaz, Alexandria Lobdell, Ariel Miyasaki, Emily Rabot).
MIDDLE BLOCKER/MIDDLE HITTER
St. John's returns five to the middle in 2015, including Guzman, Cast and Moss. Guzman started 29 matches last season in the middle and will help lead both the offensive and defensive game at the net. The 6-foot-2 redshirt junior will look to be a force at the net after finishing second on the team in blocks with 91 in 2014. The Red Storm will also look to Cast and Moss to contribute in the middle. Cast had the second best hitting percentage (.258), while Moss finished second in blocks among freshmen.
LIBERO/DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST
Santos will once again be the defensive anchor for the Red Storm. Last season, she finished with 524 digs, which stands as the Red Storm's fifth-highest mark in a season. She finished second in digs (309) and digs per set (4.90) in conference play. Santos has been consistent and reliable throughout her career, as she set a career-high for digs in 2013 with 572, which is the third-highest dig total in a season. The 5-foot-8 senior libero is currently in fourth place all-time in digs with 1,447. She will play a major role in 2015, as she will be heavily relied upon for her veteran leadership and versatility. D'Amore returns as another defensive weapon after a very productive freshman campaign. The Elmhurst, Ill., native tallied 144 digs last season, which ranked fifth on the team. The Red Storm will welcome back Chin after a redshirt season and Sen, who will also be in the mix at defensive specialist after playing in 69 sets last season.
SETTER
Mutlugil will be the primary setter in 2015 after compiling a team-best 1,096 assists and 10.85 assists per set average. The 5-foot-11 native of Turkey also had an 11.11 assists per set average to lead the BIG EAST in conference play. Heading into her final year in the Red and White, Mutlugil ranks fourth in program-history in assists with 2,535. Demel will also add depth at the position after seeing action a year ago. O'Neal is a newcomer who transferred from Hampton after last season and will likely redshirt this season.
OUTSIDE/RIGHT SIDE HITTER
The St. John's outside hitters will be a strong and experienced group as they will be led by three-time All-BIG EAST honoree Palgutova, but the Red Storm will also rely on veterans Santiago and Karkkainen to provide offense as well in 2015. In her final season in the Red and White, Santiago will look to be more versatile after finishing last season with a career high 95 kills and 86 digs. Karkkainen will once again be in the mix for playing time at both the outside and right side hitting positions after starting 19 matches last year. In 2014, the Finland native ranked fifth on the team with109 kills and finished third in blocks (59).
SCHEDULE
St. John's will begin the 2015 campaign in Philadelphia, Pa., for the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West Temple Invitational (Aug. 28-29) where the Red Storm will take on Navy, No. 13 Oregon, who made a run into the third round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, and host-Temple before returning to Queens for its home-opener against Iona (Sept. 1).
From there, the Red Storm will travel across the country to Moraga, Calif., to compete in the Saint Mary's Invitational. The two-day event opens with a match against host-Saint Mary's (Sept. 4) before matches against Fresno State and Bethune-Cookman on Sept. 5.
St. John's will return home on Sept. 11-12 to host the 2015 Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic which features four matches in two days at Carnesecca Arena. St. John's will open things up with a match against George Mason and Central Connecticut State on Sept. 11 before rounding things out against Cornell and San Francisco on Sept. 12.
"I'm just honored to have had the privilege of having Coach Kaiser as an athletic director, mentor, and now as a friend," said Persico. "We are excited for the Kaiser Classic and hopefully we will be able to honor Coach Kaiser by winning his own tournament and keeping the trophy home."
Following the Kaiser Classic, the Red Storm will remain in Queens to face 2014 Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament champion LIU-Brooklyn, winner of nine of the last 11 conference tournament titles.
The Red Storm will then head south to Florida to compete against some of the elite teams in the country from Sept. 17-19. St. John's will first face No. 4 Florida, who advanced to the 2014 NCAA Regional Final, in Gainesville on Sept. 17. The Gators finished last season ranked No. 6 with a 28-4 record. The Red Storm will then make a trip to Tampa to face defending National Champion and No. 1 Penn State and Auburn in the USF Tournament on Sept. 19, to round out its tournament schedule. The Nittany Lions have won seven national championships, including six of the last eight.
Already 15 games into its schedule, the Red Storm will head to Indianapolis, Ind., to open up conference action on the road against Butler on Sept. 25 before making the short trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, to face Xavier (Sept. 26).
"We open up the BIG EAST conference with three of the top five teams from last season, which are Butler, Xavier and defending champion Creighton." said Persico. "It will be tough, but I think our team will be up for the challenge and hopefully we can bring home the BIG EAST title in 2015."
The Red Storm will host a three-match homestand as it takes on defending BIG EAST champion Creighton (Oct. 2), Georgetown (Oct. 3) and Villanova (Oct. 7) before returning to the road with a match against Providence on Oct. 10.
After taking on Seton Hall at home on Oct. 14, the Red Storm will open a four-game road trip against DePaul (Oct. 16) before traveling to Milwaukee to take on Marquette (Oct. 17). The following weekend the Red Storm will make the trip to Washington, D.C., to face Georgetown (Oct. 23) and then travel to Omaha for a match against Creighton (Oct. 25)
A five-match homestand follows as St. John's takes on Xavier (Oct. 30), Butler (Oct. 31), Providence (Nov. 6), Marquette (Nov. 14), and DePaul (Nov. 15).
St. John's rounds out the 2015 regular-season schedule with a two-match road trip against local rival Seton Hall (Nov. 20) before heading to Pennsylvania to take on Villanova (Nov. 21).
The 2015 BIG EAST Volleyball Championship (Nov. 27-28) will be held in Omaha, Neb., at the D.J. Sokol Arena.
Follow all the home matches live via GameTracker (free) and StormTracker All-Access (subscription) on RedStormSports.com this season. For more on St. John's volleyball, log onto redstormsports.com or follow the team on twitter (@StJohnsVB) and be sure to use and search the hashtag #sjuvb throughout the entire season.
