New Home Offers Fuel Injection For Record-Setting Season
December 06, 2022 | Volleyball, #ForBoston Files
Moving into the Margot Connell Center changed the game for BC volleyball.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The atmosphere surrounding Boston College's ACC volleyball opener against Duke was unlike any other match in the history of the program's 32 years. A near-sellout crowd armed with chairback seats sat in bleachers surrounding an actual volleyball court, and as more fans filtered onto the running track surrounding the Eagles' new home, the Margot Connell Recreation Center felt like a fishbowl to the visiting Blue Devils. The noise rocked, and as a bitterly-fought match drifted towards the end of its fifth and final set, the last kill from outside hitter Katrina Jensen sent the 500-plus spectators into a frothing, frenzied lather.
The win had handed the Eagles their first conference victory of the year after losing to Syracuse in five sets four days earlier, but a Pandora's box had officially opened within the landscape of college volleyball. BC's fight against bigger, more historic programs had, for years, felt like an uphill struggle against the Big East and the ACC, but the new dawn and new day had come home to a facility capable of shattering any perceived glass ceiling.
"It's huge," said head coach Jason Kennedy of the team's new home. "Everyone wants to feel special in their space, regardless of the sport, and that carries a lot of weight with recruits that want access at all times to get into [a building] and do what they want to do. They don't want to be limited by someone else having access between [certain hours]. We'd had these drawings for a year or two of how it was going to look, and it certainly helped us in recruiting, and we're not done, either. It's a work in progress, so where this is year one, year two is going to be better and year three is going to be better than year two. But every year we have something to build upon and show recruits what's coming, and that's huge for this program."
Boston College introduced the Margot Connell Recreation Center as part of the overhaul that reimagined and redesigned the campus area surrounding Alumni Stadium. It effectively replaced the Flynn Rec Plex and was built directly next to the former building, which was destroyed to create the green space that now exists across from the Yawkey Center on Campanella Way. The site moved the new recreation center next to Walsh Hall and more adjacent to the Mods on St. Thomas More Road.
The four-story building was officially dedicated in 2019 and quickly established itself as the 244,000 square-foot home for the entire Boston College community, but the next three years moved several of the university's athletics programs into its confines as the Eagles' footprint shifted and changed.
Volleyball initially remained at Power Gym, which was in Conte Forum, where a logistical jigsaw puzzle shuffled five programs between two locations. Practice times were dependent on when basketball needed the floor and if hockey required Conte Forum's ice setup, and volleyball times lined up against when Power was open.
"It's not uncommon for volleyball and basketball to share space," Kennedy said, "and a lot of people share practice shifts and things like that. What makes it especially challenging is when there's a conflict. If it's between volleyball or basketball, [the other] could just go to the arena, but the fact that we shared two spaces with two additional hockey programs made it hard because it wasn't like we could change basketball and hockey in the matter of minutes."
All of that changed last May when basketball announced the Hoag Basketball Pavilion, and the demolition and expansion of Power Gym's footprint relocated the volleyball program into the Connell Center, where facilities upgrades enabled the team to enjoy new facilities unlike anything it ever experienced.
"We're playing on a Taraflex floor, which is the same surface that's used in the Olympics," Kennedy said. "Any high level volleyball competition [at an] international level and at the Final Four for the NCAA is on a Taraflex, and it's the gold standard. So it's great from a standpoint that it protects the athletes from wear and tear and how much they jump and all that. This is the best surface for their longevity, and we've got two courts, including a practice court and a competition court, to go with seat-back bleachers [for fans].
"When we used to play at 7 p.m.," he added, "we would have to serve and pass at 8 a.m. because basketball had to practice, but now that we're the primary and dedicated tenant in this space, it allows us more flexibility. The girls can come and do extra reps whenever they want, and we made a commitment to our athletes to have access to a volleyball facility all semester."
The result was a redefined advantage that saw the Eagles produce their best record at home in program history. Their 10 wins in Chestnut Hill included a single non-conference match on the Conte Forum main floor before the Duke match, and BC later defeated Miami for the fourth time in their last five meetings before beating Florida State, an NCAA Tournament team, for the first time since 2007.
Each of the team's first two matchups at the National Invitational Volleyball Championship were in the building, and the Second Round win over St. John's broke the record for wins in a single season while moving Kennedy to within one match of tying the all-time coaching record for victories. Wednesday's Quarterfinal against Xavier offers an opportunity for the Eagles to extend a home winning streak to five straight matches after ending the season with a straight sets win over Syracuse and five-set victory over Virginia Tech.
"At our first match, I think most of the men's basketball team was up in the rafters overhead," said Kennedy, "and that was fun. I wouldn't want to be on that side [as an opponent]. It's a really good deal for us if we can jam some students up top and create that surround sound bubble, and it's small enough that a crowd can definitely have an impact. They're on top of everything, and it's a pretty good home court advantage, for sure."
BC and Xavier will play one another in the quarterfinal round of the 2022 NIVC from the Margot Connell Recreation Center in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The match is set for 7:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to the semifinals over the weekend at sites to be determined.
The win had handed the Eagles their first conference victory of the year after losing to Syracuse in five sets four days earlier, but a Pandora's box had officially opened within the landscape of college volleyball. BC's fight against bigger, more historic programs had, for years, felt like an uphill struggle against the Big East and the ACC, but the new dawn and new day had come home to a facility capable of shattering any perceived glass ceiling.
"It's huge," said head coach Jason Kennedy of the team's new home. "Everyone wants to feel special in their space, regardless of the sport, and that carries a lot of weight with recruits that want access at all times to get into [a building] and do what they want to do. They don't want to be limited by someone else having access between [certain hours]. We'd had these drawings for a year or two of how it was going to look, and it certainly helped us in recruiting, and we're not done, either. It's a work in progress, so where this is year one, year two is going to be better and year three is going to be better than year two. But every year we have something to build upon and show recruits what's coming, and that's huge for this program."
Boston College introduced the Margot Connell Recreation Center as part of the overhaul that reimagined and redesigned the campus area surrounding Alumni Stadium. It effectively replaced the Flynn Rec Plex and was built directly next to the former building, which was destroyed to create the green space that now exists across from the Yawkey Center on Campanella Way. The site moved the new recreation center next to Walsh Hall and more adjacent to the Mods on St. Thomas More Road.
The four-story building was officially dedicated in 2019 and quickly established itself as the 244,000 square-foot home for the entire Boston College community, but the next three years moved several of the university's athletics programs into its confines as the Eagles' footprint shifted and changed.
Volleyball initially remained at Power Gym, which was in Conte Forum, where a logistical jigsaw puzzle shuffled five programs between two locations. Practice times were dependent on when basketball needed the floor and if hockey required Conte Forum's ice setup, and volleyball times lined up against when Power was open.
"It's not uncommon for volleyball and basketball to share space," Kennedy said, "and a lot of people share practice shifts and things like that. What makes it especially challenging is when there's a conflict. If it's between volleyball or basketball, [the other] could just go to the arena, but the fact that we shared two spaces with two additional hockey programs made it hard because it wasn't like we could change basketball and hockey in the matter of minutes."
All of that changed last May when basketball announced the Hoag Basketball Pavilion, and the demolition and expansion of Power Gym's footprint relocated the volleyball program into the Connell Center, where facilities upgrades enabled the team to enjoy new facilities unlike anything it ever experienced.
"We're playing on a Taraflex floor, which is the same surface that's used in the Olympics," Kennedy said. "Any high level volleyball competition [at an] international level and at the Final Four for the NCAA is on a Taraflex, and it's the gold standard. So it's great from a standpoint that it protects the athletes from wear and tear and how much they jump and all that. This is the best surface for their longevity, and we've got two courts, including a practice court and a competition court, to go with seat-back bleachers [for fans].
"When we used to play at 7 p.m.," he added, "we would have to serve and pass at 8 a.m. because basketball had to practice, but now that we're the primary and dedicated tenant in this space, it allows us more flexibility. The girls can come and do extra reps whenever they want, and we made a commitment to our athletes to have access to a volleyball facility all semester."
The result was a redefined advantage that saw the Eagles produce their best record at home in program history. Their 10 wins in Chestnut Hill included a single non-conference match on the Conte Forum main floor before the Duke match, and BC later defeated Miami for the fourth time in their last five meetings before beating Florida State, an NCAA Tournament team, for the first time since 2007.
Each of the team's first two matchups at the National Invitational Volleyball Championship were in the building, and the Second Round win over St. John's broke the record for wins in a single season while moving Kennedy to within one match of tying the all-time coaching record for victories. Wednesday's Quarterfinal against Xavier offers an opportunity for the Eagles to extend a home winning streak to five straight matches after ending the season with a straight sets win over Syracuse and five-set victory over Virginia Tech.
"At our first match, I think most of the men's basketball team was up in the rafters overhead," said Kennedy, "and that was fun. I wouldn't want to be on that side [as an opponent]. It's a really good deal for us if we can jam some students up top and create that surround sound bubble, and it's small enough that a crowd can definitely have an impact. They're on top of everything, and it's a pretty good home court advantage, for sure."
BC and Xavier will play one another in the quarterfinal round of the 2022 NIVC from the Margot Connell Recreation Center in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The match is set for 7:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to the semifinals over the weekend at sites to be determined.
Players Mentioned
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