Volleyball @ Visitation?

[Anonymous]

Maybe Academy is more targeted toward their JV players? I just looked at the Varsity roster and from what I can see:

Mojo is the most represented club with 3 players.
Academy and Metro Regional, have 2 players each.
The top teams, Metro Travel and Paramount each have 1 player.
Virginia Elite, Vienna Elite, Alexandria Titans, X-Force each have 1 player too.

Anyway, not the strongest overall, but clearly not all Academy, and it seems like the top players found their way to Metro Travel and Paramount, which seems typical for what we would see at any high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visi played in the finals against GDS this year.

I wouldn't infer too much meaning from Visi making the DCSAA "state" finals - Visi was maybe a little stronger last fall than they are historically, but they are not generally a top team. The tournament seeding system DCSAA uses is pretty flawed - they try to seed teams from a bunch of different conferences (DC public schools, DC charter schools, and privates, including schools in the ISL, WCAC, PVAC) with the top 12 teams making it to play in the DCSAA tournament. It's not fully transparent, but there seems to be minimum numbers of schools from some of the conferences that make the tournament. This year, St Johns didn't even make the top 12, while teams like Dunbar and Banneker (which would lose to most suburban school JV teams) made the tournament. While SJC didn't have the best season overall, they were likely the second best team in DC and weren't even given a chance to play which was really unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visi played in the finals against GDS this year.

Neither are great teams.... they don't compete well against, say, O'Connell, St. John's, or PVI, for example.

LOL St. John's didn't even *make* the DC tournament this year, and GDS beat every WCAC team it played over the past two years (including O'Connell).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visi played in the finals against GDS this year.

I wouldn't infer too much meaning from Visi making the DCSAA "state" finals - Visi was maybe a little stronger last fall than they are historically, but they are not generally a top team. The tournament seeding system DCSAA uses is pretty flawed - they try to seed teams from a bunch of different conferences (DC public schools, DC charter schools, and privates, including schools in the ISL, WCAC, PVAC) with the top 12 teams making it to play in the DCSAA tournament. It's not fully transparent, but there seems to be minimum numbers of schools from some of the conferences that make the tournament. This year, St Johns didn't even make the top 12, while teams like Dunbar and Banneker (which would lose to most suburban school JV teams) made the tournament. While SJC didn't have the best season overall, they were likely the second best team in DC and weren't even given a chance to play which was really unfortunate.

Visi has a couple of D1-caliber players (and neither were seniors) plus some other talent. They did lose to St. John's head-to-head, but Visi also beat more of their common opponents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visi played in the finals against GDS this year.

I wouldn't infer too much meaning from Visi making the DCSAA "state" finals - Visi was maybe a little stronger last fall than they are historically, but they are not generally a top team. The tournament seeding system DCSAA uses is pretty flawed - they try to seed teams from a bunch of different conferences (DC public schools, DC charter schools, and privates, including schools in the ISL, WCAC, PVAC) with the top 12 teams making it to play in the DCSAA tournament. It's not fully transparent, but there seems to be minimum numbers of schools from some of the conferences that make the tournament. This year, St Johns didn't even make the top 12, while teams like Dunbar and Banneker (which would lose to most suburban school JV teams) made the tournament. While SJC didn't have the best season overall, they were likely the second best team in DC and weren't even given a chance to play which was really unfortunate.

Visi has a couple of D1-caliber players (and neither were seniors) plus some other talent. They did lose to St. John's head-to-head, but Visi also beat more of their common opponents.

Visi lost to St. John's head to head in 4 sets with the three sets they lost going 25-16,25-14,25-14. Visi didn't make the ISL finals, losing to St. Andrews in the ISL semis. And the DC state finals against GDS wasn't close either (25-15, 25-19, 25-11, with GDS holding large leads in each set). We watched the game and the talent difference between GDS and Visi was very visible.

Not sure what players you would consider D1-caliber, but in the state finals there wasn't anyone on Visi who stood out as a mid or high-D1 prospect.

None of this means they aren't improving. They did win the lower ISL league, move up and then compete well the next year. But they benefited from an overall down year from Flint Hill, Bullis, Potomac and Episcopal, all of whom have historically had consistently better teams. And St. John's being excluded from DCSAA competition was a travesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visi played in the finals against GDS this year.

I wouldn't infer too much meaning from Visi making the DCSAA "state" finals - Visi was maybe a little stronger last fall than they are historically, but they are not generally a top team. The tournament seeding system DCSAA uses is pretty flawed - they try to seed teams from a bunch of different conferences (DC public schools, DC charter schools, and privates, including schools in the ISL, WCAC, PVAC) with the top 12 teams making it to play in the DCSAA tournament. It's not fully transparent, but there seems to be minimum numbers of schools from some of the conferences that make the tournament. This year, St Johns didn't even make the top 12, while teams like Dunbar and Banneker (which would lose to most suburban school JV teams) made the tournament. While SJC didn't have the best season overall, they were likely the second best team in DC and weren't even given a chance to play which was really unfortunate.

Visi has a couple of D1-caliber players (and neither were seniors) plus some other talent. They did lose to St. John's head-to-head, but Visi also beat more of their common opponents.

Visi lost to St. John's head to head in 4 sets with the three sets they lost going 25-16,25-14,25-14. Visi didn't make the ISL finals, losing to St. Andrews in the ISL semis. And the DC state finals against GDS wasn't close either (25-15, 25-19, 25-11, with GDS holding large leads in each set). We watched the game and the talent difference between GDS and Visi was very visible.

Not sure what players you would consider D1-caliber, but in the state finals there wasn't anyone on Visi who stood out as a mid or high-D1 prospect.

None of this means they aren't improving. They did win the lower ISL league, move up and then compete well the next year. But they benefited from an overall down year from Flint Hill, Bullis, Potomac and Episcopal, all of whom have historically had consistently better teams. And St. John's being excluded from DCSAA competition was a travesty.

The two players I was referring to are the Visi middles, one of whom is already committed (Yale). Their pins weren't nearly as good as GDS, no, and that was a big factor in them getting smoked twice by the Hoppers. Bullis and Potomac both lost their coaches prior to the season, and "historically" is an interesting choice of word for schools that I believe have only even had volleyball teams for 10 years or so. SJC being excluded wasn't a travesty, but it definitely was an unfortunate result of the way that the DCSAA gives out bids to their tournaments, which resulted in the two semifinalists opposite GDS (Visitation and Cathedral) coming from the 10 and 11 seeds of a 12-team tournament and both getting two easy wins each on the road against schools that won their conferences.

[Anonymous]

I think Visi has a fine high school program. Perhaps not one of the strongest schools in the area, but one of the stronger teams in DC. As noted, they have a bunch of club players on their team. I would certainly not view the VB program as a negative (would probably rate it positively, or neutral at worst).