Ohio State volleyball explains why five players from Elite 8 team are transferring
Ohio State girls’s volleyball superior to the Elite 8 this yr, its first journey to the regional closing since 2004.
Quickly after the Buckeyes misplaced to the eventual champion Texas (25-18, 21-25, 25-13, 25-21), 5 OSU gamers – all seniors – entered the switch portal.
That included All-American setter Mac Podraza and All-American libero Kylie Murr. Exterior hitters Gabby Gonzales and Jenaisya Moore can be leaving, as would Adria Powell, who has now set a course for Clemson.
It was sufficient to lift eyebrows.
Why would such extremely regarded athletes depart a top-ten program coming off its most profitable season in years?
Even those that comply with the game intently, like Lee Feinswog of VolleyballMag.com, had questions. Endeavoring to get solutions, Feinswog invited Podraza to hitch him for a video chat.
For these speculating the worst, it might need been a shock to see Ohio State coach Jen Flynn Oldenberg was additionally a visitor.
“I’ve nothing however love and respect for Ohio State,” Podraza began out. “I by no means grew up a Buckeye. I by no means thought I might find yourself being a Buckeye. However I couldn’t be happier that I’m a Buckeye, and I’ll all the time be a Buckeye.
“I feel it got here all the way down to the truth that I got here with these women, and now 4 years are up, and it is time for me to go away with these women. The scholarship cash simply is not there.”
Mainly, the Buckeye seniors have been caught in a roster crunch attributable to the NCAA granting an additional yr of eligibility to athletes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, however ending an amnesty for applications over the scholarship limits after this season.
Podraza admitted that with 5 incoming freshmen, Ohio State was put in an “awkward and peculiar scenario.”
“It is simply how COVID ended up making it go,” she mentioned.
Oldenberg met with every of the seniors after the NCAA event, and there have been tears in each assembly as she defined the scenario, and why she felt this was the way in which issues needed to go.
“If I make a option to maintain all 5 on my roster, on scholarship, then I am telling incoming freshman or gamers in my program, ‘Hey, sorry. Not yours anymore,’ ” she mentioned. “You are able to do that, and I had a selection to try this, and I selected not to try this – not as a result of I do not need these 5. I would like them eternally.”
Podraza responded by vowing to come back again sometime, telling Oldenberg, “This is not going to be the final time I cry in your workplace.”
The reply did not shock Oldenberg who feels that the departing gamers have “set us on a path for extra” success down the road and are contributing to their legacy by leaving in such an aesthetic and mature approach, together with all of the gamers graduating by this spring – Podraza, Murr and Gonzales with masters levels.
Podraza is uncertain of her subsequent vacation spot. She did know this a lot, nevertheless: “I am taking my Buckeye roots wherever I’m going subsequent.”
This text initially appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OSU volleyball explains transfers of All-American gamers
