Michigan
Boston College
Michigan to Begin Virtue Era at Boston College Invitational
8/22/2023 3:57:00 PM | Volleyball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan volleyball team (0-0) will open its season and the Erin Virtue era when they head to Boston, Mass., for the Boston College Invitational on Friday and Saturday (Aug. 25-26). The Wolverines open the weekend on Friday (Aug. 25) at 7 p.m. when they face off against host Boston College, then battle Sacred Heart on Saturday (Aug. 26) at 1 p.m. Friday's contest will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.
Notes
• Michigan volleyball enters a new era under head coach Erin Virtue, who returns to Ann Arbor after serving as an assistant coach from 2011-15. She is joined by Dan Pawlikowski and Benavia Jenkins as associate head coaches and Nick Clark as an assistant coach. Pawlikowski spent the 2022 season at UNLV, where the Rebels went 26-5 and also coached professionally in Denmark. Jenkins served as the head coach at East Tennessee State and went 43-32 in four seasons at the helm. She played collegiately at Florida, where she recorded more than 1,000 kills and 600 blocks. Clark joins after two seasons at Harvard as an assistant coach and graduated from Eastern Michigan.
• U-M returns 10 players from last year's team and adds five newcomers -- one graduate transfer and four freshmen. Highlighting the returners is Hannah Grant, who is coming off a season for which she was named second team All-Big Ten.
• Redshirt-senior Grant returns for her fourth season as the Wolverines' libero. She has started every match so far in her time with U-M and was second in the conference in service aces per set (0.41) and third in digs per set (4.43) last season. All-time at Michigan, Grant ranks 10th all-time in digs with 1,148 and is just four away from entering ninth place, currently held by Katie Bruzdzinski.
• Junior Jacque Boney enters her third season with the squad and finished second in blocks (110) and fourth in kills (187) last season. She has started all 60 matches in her two seasons in Ann Arbor and averaged 1.53 kills per set and 1.1 blocks per set.
• Kendall Murray finished fifth on the team in kills in her junior season with a career high of 183, more than doubling her previous two seasons combined. Playing in 86 sets and 28 matches last year, Murray averaged 2.13 kills per set and added 17 aces and 23 blocks.
• Senior Scottee Johnson ranks ninth in program history in assists after an impressive sophomore season with 1,056 helpers. She added another 495 last seasons after splitting time with Maddie Dowd. Johnson is just 66 assists away from reaching 2,000 career assists and becoming the ninth player in history to reach that milestone.
• Saj McBurrows joins Michigan as a graduate transfer from Columbia. Over three seasons with the Lions, McBurrows played in 46 matches and 129 sets. She broke out in her senior year with 197 kills and 56 blocks after just 46 kills and 17 blocks in her two seasons prior. With the strong season, McBurrows earned All-Ivy honorable mention honors.
• Michigan added four freshmen, with two -- Morgan Burke and Carly Greskovics -- joining from the United States. Burke joins U-M from Skutt Catholic in Nebraska, where she was a four-time state champion and was named to the 2023 AVCA High School All-America third team. Greskovics hails from California and was named to Prep Volleyball's Top 30 Libero/Defensive Player list in 2021.
• The two other newcomers, Lydia Johnson from Canada and Valentina Vaulet from Argentina, arrive after having represented their countries on the international stage. Johnson played in the 2022 and 2023 Pan America Cup for the Canadian U-19 team and in the U-18 World Championships. Vaulet earned a silver medal in the U-21 Pan American Games and was named Argentina's best opposite hitter and attacker.
• U-M will face off against Sacred Heart for the first time in program history and plays Boston College for just the second time. The teams first met on Sept. 17, 2021 in the Michigan Invitational, a 3-0 U-M sweep, behind a double-double from Johnson, who had 32 assists and 10 digs. Michigan also was helped by Boney, who led the team in blocks (six) and Grant, who led in digs (16).
