Third Postseason In Four Years Begins For BC In The NIVC

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- In the land of once upon a time, postseason volleyball at Boston College was both an impossibility and a dream. Wins were elusive for a program that began in 1990, and the shift from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference set back the growth that produced three winning seasons over the final four years leading up to realignment. The construction project looked prohibitive, and the sheer idea of playing in a postseason tournament, let alone hosting, was miles away from Power Gym and Chestnut Hill.

Yet this weekend, the Boston College volleyball program will play in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship for the third time in four years while hosting an opening weekend bracket for the second consecutive season. The Eagles are one of the tournament's top contenders and a team that finished just outside the four at-large bids awarded to the ACC. Those olden days - the ones where BC struggled to consistently win games - are long gone, instead replaced by a championship caliber program built from the sweat equity of those prior years with a keen eye towards future title aspirations.

"We followed the path almost as exactly as maybe we envisioned," said head coach Jason Kennedy, who stands to break the program's all-time coaching wins record as early as this tournament. "We knew BC hadn't been .500 for 15 or 16 years, and we wanted to see if we could get back to .500. Once we did that, we said that we never wanted to go back and never wanted to have a losing season here again, and minus the COVID year when we were .500 in the spring but not .500 in the fall - and things were all out of whack - we've been able to do that."

Kennedy's vision transformed winning from a goal to an expectation within his first two seasons, and BC advanced to the NIVC in his second year after winning 20 matches for the second time in program history. It was the third year of the tournament's reincarnation after it went on hiatus following a seven-year run between 1989 and 1995, but it offered the Eagles an opportunity to dance at a level that the 20-win team in 2004 was denied. They were sent to Colgate, where a four-set match went to the host Raiders, who summarily advanced to the Third Round with a four-set win over Tulane before dropping a straight-set loss to TCU.

"We're coming into the postseason with a lot of confidence," said graduate student Kate Brennan, a middle blocker who transferred into the program from UNLV. "Every game that we've played since the start of the year, we've improved and found our identity more as a team. We're playing well against and potentially have matchups against teams that we've already played during the season, and we're coming off of a season where we had to face top-50 teams multiple times while giving some top-10 teams a run for their money. That helps us to come in with a lot of confidence, and the expectation now is to win and be successful in this tournament."

Getting that taste advanced the team's overall goals, and after the weird split season during the COVID-19 year, the team rediscovered its mojo by once again qualifying for the tournament with a .500, 17-17 record that included a win over Ivy League champion Brown during a three-match win at the Bryant Invitational. The Eagles separately swept the BC Classic at home in Power Gym and won two matches at the St. John's Classic before battling Dayton through four sets. They finished the season with three wins in their final six matches before winning a bid to host the NIVC at home in Chestnut Hill. After a straight sets win over Delaware State, a Second Round matchup against Connecticut went through four bitterly-fought sets before the Huskies pulled away with a fifth set win.

"I remember walking into the gym for that first day in January and saying we wanted to get to .500 [during that first year]," Kennedy said, "and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Most of them, in their lifetime, had never seen BC get to .500, so to come in here and say that - and then say that we're still doing it - says a lot about the buy-in to do this a certain way. We knew we would need to fight to make this happen, and it's not easy. The conference certainly hasn't gotten any easier, so I think the fact that we've been able to do it over a sustained time is a big deal."

Changing and building that culture has BC poised for great things in its future, but the Eagles are primed to begin realizing some of that potential in this year's NIVC. The first trip to the tournament was about being happy to play in the postseason, while the second berth last year built a new step into that first win and produced a confidence that's undeniably present following the team's relocation to the Margot Connell Recreation Center. The new home, coupled with the new attitude, was on display all season and enabled a team-first mindset that could produce a new program record for wins before the weekend is over.

"It's a lot more fun to play with the people that you love," said senior right side hitter Izzy Clavenna, "and I really do think that all of us love each other. I was thinking about it at our last conference game that I was a little sad because I love all of these girls on the team, and I didn't want to stop and have my last game with them. So I'm really happy for that reason, especially, and a lot of other people on the team can say the same. We're all really happy and really excited that we can keep pushing, and the more times we win, the more time we can spend with one another."

"We have a lot of people that want to come to this school," Kennedy said, "and we have a lot of people that we have to say no to because they're just not the right culture fit. When people get here, they don't necessarily know that, so they still have to make friends with each other, and the team still has to like each other. We've done a good job of recruiting personalities that are in it for the right reasons, so they can be as good as they can be, that want to be part of building something special. They aren't taking anything for granted, and I think that makes it a little bit easier to step into a gym, with like-minded people that have the same goals that you want to accomplish."

It's built an all-encompassing, winning program at BC, and the Eagles taking the court on Friday against Buffalo understand that the only way to continue playing matches with one another is to beat the Bulls to advance to the next round. This is a team that dominated the early stages of the season by dominating regional opponents by barely losing a set, and it's the team that overcame the midseason lull brought by a brutal and difficult conference schedule.

The Eagles were, at one time, a team that lost five consecutive matches, but a five-set win at NC State righted a season that ended with five wins over the last eight matches. Consecutive wins over Miami and Florida State launched BC into a postseason conversation, and the straight-set win over Syracuse included two set wins within three points before a five-set win over Virginia Tech featured a fifth set rally after the Hokies won the fourth set, 28-26, while facing match point.

"We started off super strong with a lot of local, non-conference games that built our momentum," said Brennan, "but the ACC is no joke. It's a conference where you can't take any games off, and every team is going to give you a run for your money [regardless] if you're at the top or bottom of the conference. The beginning was a real eye-opener that we needed to step up our game and continue to improve, but playing in our gym really helps. Our fans and not having to travel helped establish that confidence [earlier in the year]."

"Buffalo has the same record that we do," Kennedy said, "and they're coming into this weekend about as hot as we are. They've played really well down the stretch, and they've had a great last third of the season. They're going to be a really tough matchup; we have to slow down their middles, and they have two very . We have to serve tough to get them out of their system, and [outside hitter Katrin Trebichavska] has probably the best serve we're going to see all year. We have to get her off the service line and serve them out of being able to run the middle as much as they'd like to. That will give us a chance, but by no means is this going to be an easy matchup. It'll be a fight, for sure."

Boston College hosts Buffalo in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship on Friday, December 2, at 4 p.m. Should the Eagles advance, they would play either St. John's or Binghamton on Saturday, also at 4 p.m. All matches are at the Eagles' new volleyball facility located within the Margot Connell Recreation Center. Admission is free for all attendees, and people watching from home can view the match via the ACC Network Extra, which is available online on the ESPN platform for cable subscribers with access to the ACC Network.

Third Postseason In Four Years Begins For BC In The NIVC

Players Mentioned

Kate Brennan

Izzy Clavenna

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