Tigers’ volleyball roars into NCAA Tournament

After finishing conference play undefeated, and winning the CAA Championship, Towson University makes its way to the Big Dance

By Kyle Hobstetter and Henry Basta '11 on December 6, 2019

The Towson women's volleyball team won the first NCAA Tournament game in school history Friday night, taking a five-set thriller against American University at Penn State.

The Tigers won the first, second and fifth sets in the opening round win (25-23, 15-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12) to advance to the second round.

The Tigers will play the winner of Penn State vs. Princeton in a second-round game set for 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, Towson (29-2) was down 7-5 to Patriot League champion American (24-8) in the fifth set. The Tigers rallied with a 5-0 run to tie the set at 12. Towson earned the final three points, including kills from Lydia Wiers and Olivia Finckel, to win the tiebreaker, 15-12, and take the five-set victory.

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With the Towson University volleyball team just one point away from a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament championship, senior Olivia Finckel already had tears in her eye.

And then when teammate Emily Jarome spiked home the match-winner to put away rival James Madison, all the Tigers stormed the court in celebration. Well…everyone but Finckel.

She had to take a minute to compose herself because for the first time since 2004, and only the second time in school history, the Tigers were CAA Champions.

“I honestly was kind of paralyzed,” Finckel says. “Everyone started booking it to the court and running and crashing, I just kind of stood there for a second and like took it all in and then ran to the team.

“The fact that we haven’t won it in so long, and it was our senior year, it makes it even more special.”

With the win, the Tigers will be playing in their first NCAA Tournament since ’04. The team will travel to Penn State for a first round matchup against Patriot League Champion American University. The match takes place on Friday at 5 p.m. and will be streamed for free on Big Ten Plus.

The Tigers go into the NCAA Tournament with a record of 28-2, the best single-season win total under head coach Don Metil, who started at TU in 2012. The Tigers will also be on a 22-match winning streak, also a program record.

After winning his first CAA Championship with the Tigers, Metil couldn’t help but have a little fun with the championship trophy.

“We brought the trophy home and had a celebration as a staff. And I jokingly put the trophy in my middle son’s bed and covered him up with a blanket,” Metil laughs. “Then I shot a text to John Stark, our sports information director and it said ‘I’ve been missing for 15 years, but I slept comfortably at home last night. Looking forward to mingling with everyone today.’”

And while the CAA championship trophy has found a comfy new home, the Tigers spent the regular season making CAA opponents uncomfortable on the court.

The Tigers finished the regular season 16-0 in the CAA, a first in conference history. The Tigers were also the first rally-scoring era team to go unbeaten in the CAA regular season and the CAA Tournament.

After sweeping the CAA schedule, the Tigers also dominated the postseason awards with seven players picking up honors.

Metil was named CAA Coach of the Year
Lydia Wiers was selected CAA Rookie of the Year and First Team All-CAA and was selected to the CAA All-Tournament Team
Finckel was named to both the First Team All-CAA and the CAA All-Tournament Team
Jarome and senior Silvia Grassini were named to the Second Team All-CAA

But the biggest honors went to senior Marrisa Wonders, who was named CAA Setter of the Year, CAA Player of the Year, First Team All-CAA and CAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Wonders is only the second person in CAA history to win Setter and Player of the Year in the same season.

When Wonders found out about winning the award, she couldn’t believe it. She found out after a class when coaches sent out a video naming all the winners. And when her name came up for Player of the Year, she had to rewind the video a couple of times to make sure.

“I wasn’t expecting it whatsoever,” Wonders laughs. “But the goal was to make the NCAA Tournament. And to have that finally happen…it’s amazing. It’s something we’ve pushed for and we’ve worked so hard for and to finally be here is a dream come true.”

According to Metil, it was players like Wonders that made this team special. While they had plenty of individual awards, they never stopped looking towards the overall team goal.

“Some of these players have been with the program for four years, so it’s not just one year’s hard work, it’s a career of hard work,” Metil said of his five seniors. “To see it come to this accomplishment is incredible for them and very humbling for all of us. I’m proud of them because sometimes those awards, and those accolades are more important to the individual than the team accolade, but we put aside all of those individual accolades for the good of the team.”

When talking with the team, it’s not a surprise to see them focus on the team rather than the individual. It’s easy to see when watching them play too.

Each player has a special celebration for a service ace. There are special handshakes for blocks, kills and even special celebrations. And while they have been focused on making the NCAA Tournament, they also know the sport is supposed to have fun.

“We’re just a goofy group honestly,” Finckel says. “We have these inside jokes and we made our own little family within the team. Everyone has their own little part of the family and we keep things fun and light-hearted. I think it translates to the court that we can still have fun and work hard.”

Metil has also got in on the fun as well…sort of. The coach has joked that the team should have finished the season 30-0.

And while he teases they should be perfect, he remembers at the beginning of the season when the team set a goal to win a CAA Championship ring. Now that main goal has been accomplished, he’s excited to see what happens at Penn State.

“This team has proven to have the ability to set both individual and team goals,” Metil says. “When we accomplish them, we just look forward to the next opportunity and that right now is hopefully defining this team as the best Towson Women’s Volleyball team that has ever played here, and I think we can do that if we win our first-round matchup.”

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland.