Behind the Scenes Action - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Behind the Scenes

A reminder came our way, a week or so ago, that while we may have a "summer slump" where there isn't all that much going on publicly, there's still activity in our favorite sports programs behind the scenes.

Specifically, we saw a flurry of indicators from Head Coach Dani Busboom Kelly and Associate Head Coach Dan Meske on various social platforms of verbal commitments being made to the UofL Volleyball program for the 2026 year.  Recruiting is one of the activities in these sports programs that is ongoing hot and heavy during the summer.

DBK and Meske used animated gifs of a cardinal bird, each had their own that they used, to indicate they had received a verbal commitment.  Typically a verbal commitment from a player will be accompanied by a social media post from the player proudly announcing their decision as they're not under the same sorts of constraints to talk about the process that coaches are.  Amusingly, however, the coaches are allowed to repost, or retweet, or whatever the term is for the social network, the player's post, which is as good as an announcement from the school for most purposes.

It's important to recognize that a verbal commitment has nothing binding about it, it's just a public statement.  There are no repercussions for retracting or changing a verbal commitment until a National Letter of Intent is signed, which puts the commitment on paper.

So, DBK and Meske tweeted their animated gifs 5 times over the course of a week or so, and four players were quickly identified, and the suspicion is that the 5th commitment was very quickly (within a day?) retracted and committed elsewhere.

In any case, here's who we know about that has committed verbally for 2026:

 

Blair Thiebaud, from Houston, is a 6'0 setter.  She'll be arriving as Nayelis Cabello would be starting her junior year, which is nice timing.  It will leave the Cards with one year with only one setter on the roster in Cabello, perhaps the coaching staff will gap fill that year with a graduate transfer?

Immediately after Thiebaud, Amirra Bailey shared her commitment.  I've seen Bailey listed at both 6'4" and 6'5" and is a middle blocker.  Similarly to setter, we'll be in need of more middles with 2026 as Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman finish out their college careers.  Bailey is from Kentucky, relatively local, living in Bowling Green.

Next up is Elli Strecker, another 6'4" middle out of Zionsville, which is basically a suburb of Indianapolis, a region that has been very kind to the Cards in past years, including Cardinal great Melanie McHenry.  Molly Urban, currently on the squad is from Martinsville, about halfway between Indy and Bloomington, and incoming freshman Ava Utterback is from Plainfield a western suburb of Indy.

Lastly, Jordyn Gray will be coming our way from the heart of ACC country, Charlotte, NC.  Jordyn is a 6'1" left side hitter.  While we have a big lineup of left sides on the roster currently, in two years time several of them will have exhausted their eligibility, so we'll need to be reloading.

All in all, the future looks bright with some great recruits coming our way, and some height in them, which is always nice.  You can get great players that aren't as tall, but all other things being equal, it's good to have the height as well.

CCRHP

No CCRHP yesterday as, with the busy holiday weekend, the crew were all over the place with plans.  Paulie was available, and might have been able to record something on his Tascam for posting later, but we decided that was going to pose lots more challenges, and with not a great deal of material to discuss, we decided to take the week off.

We should be back with you next week!