Volleyball Preview: Outside Hitters

Six Husky hitters have added to their bag of tricks.

By Washington Huskies

August 30^th, 2019

As the Huskies are now one day away from taking on St. John's to kick off the 2019 season, we take a look at the final position group in our preview series: the outside hitters. Every hitter on the team took on a new or expanded role last season. Six return this fall, and with no additions to the group, it all comes down to the principles of the program -- growth and improvement.

Leading the way is senior All-American Kara Bajema, who established herself as a six-rotation hitter last year who could score with the Pac-12's best. Joining Bajema for one of the nation's hardest hitting duos is junior Samantha Drechsel, heading into her second Husky season.

As freshmen, Shannon Crenshaw and Claire Hoffman both made major contributions to UW's 2018 and they'll look to strengthen their games in every phase this year. Same goes for junior Maria Bogomolova who proved to be one of the Pac-12's toughest servers last year. Redshirt freshman Dani Cole has also taken major strides in practice and will be anxious to make her collegiate debut this fall.

Kara Bajema

Heading into her senior season, Kara Bajema is still showing signs of improvement on a daily basis. That should be good news for Husky fans as Bajema racked up 475 kills last year and ranked sixth in the Pac-12. She made a big leap in her beach volleyball game in the spring and then spent a part of the summer with the U.S. Collegiate National Team in Italy at the World University Games.

Coach Cook: "I was watching some film of Kara from a year ago, and there’s a lot of development in both her physical attributes and just the number of ways she can get kills. We’re really trying to round out her game in terms of having her hit every shot from every spot on the court. She’s got a few tricks left to learn, but her commitment to attacking the ball high and hard every time is showing up these first two weeks and we’re going to need that throughout the year. "

"Kara has also worked really hard for four years to become a player capable of receiving serve. This summer in Italy she was outstanding in serve-receive, so the more she’s out there doing that for us, the more complete team it makes us."

Samantha Drechsel

In her first season after transferring to UW from Maryland, Drechsel spent time on both the left and the right sides in 2018 and had success at both. She had moments of dominance, as when she won Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after UW won at USC and UCLA, and she led the team with 14 kills in the NCAA upset win at Creighton. Her 381 total kills was second on the squad.

Coach Cook: "She’s only been here for a year but it feels like more. The question for Sam is how much can she do for us at a high level? She can hit on the left, she can hit on the right, she’s been receiving the ball extremely well, her serve has come a long way, she can hit out of the front row and the back row. So figuring out where to put her and how much responsibility to give her is a big question. She had some big moments last year playing outside hitter and then she transitioned to the opposite role and did a nice job there. She was extremely good in December last year. But it will be fun to see her in the second half of her career carrying a heavier load."

Maria Bogomolova

After waiting two seasons to make her debut, Maria became one of the best servers for the Huskies, posting 19 aces and just 20 errors for a 0.28 aces per set average. She had an amazing serving match in the crucial home win vs. Arizona State, serving 5 aces and serving 13 points in a row to win the fourth set.

Coach Cook: "Maria we know has an outstanding serve that gave us some of our best memories last year. This spring I thought her commitment level was there to attack the ball at a high level, she had lots of days when she was one of our best attackers. Just the way she has bought in to our standards and what’s important to us, she really is a model for a lot of our core values and her biggest challenge is just her ability to defend at the net. If she makes strides in that area she gives us another versatile hitter who can come in and make things happen."

Shannon Crenshaw

Crenshaw has clear six-rotation ability for the Huskies, and will get another chance to show off all her skills as a sophomore. She had 48 kills last year and also contributed as a defensive specialist. Passing is a huge key for the Husky outsides this year so the Florida native is putting in the work to be exceptional in that area.

Coach Cook talked about Crenshaw in combination with our next outside hitter ...

CLaire Hoffman

Much like Crenshaw, a six-rotation sophomore outside hitter who is poised for bigger and better in year two. Hoffman did not make her season debut last year until midway through Pac-12 play, but she started every match from that point onward. She averaged 2.51 kills per set to rank third on the team and tied for the team lead with 0.34 aces per set, and she showed her offensive potential with 21 kills in a win over Arizona.

Coach Cook talked about Hoffman and Crenshaw as a pair: "Claire and Shannon are battling it out every day. Both are good defenders, good servers, good passers. They each have an edge on each other in different ways. Their commitment as freshmen, their spring and their summers, really pleased me. They came in more physically ready, they’re both steady in how they approach the game, so they give us two really nice options at that outside hitter position. It’s been fun watching them compete all camp."

Coach Cook: "Shannon’s serve-receive has been outstanding, and Claire’s out of system attacking has had moments where it’s been outstanding. But it’s also gone the other way, there’s been a couple days where Shannon’s been the best attacker and Claire’s been the best passer. So figuring out which one of them is going to be consistently good day after day is the challenge early in the preseason."

Dani Cole

Dani Cole redshirted the 2018 season and the native Texan has put in plenty of work behind the scenes to be ready to contribute when he time comes this fall.

Coach Cook: "Dani Cole is easily one of the most improved athletes in our gym, just in terms of her overall skillset. Her play as a server, her ability to hit on the left and the right, and her ability as a defender, every part of her game got better this spring. We know what she can do as a blocker. I think she’s starting to key in on her identity as a threat to score as a blocker. One of those players where how big of a role can we give you? How much can she do for us when the lights come on is the question."