Team Tampa Bay's Take with Joey Johnston - Game On! The 2023 Season Begins

By Joey Johnston

Tickets are officially on sale for the NCAA Volleyball Final Four, set for Dec. 14-17 at downtown Tampa’s Amalie Arena.

Appropriately, when the season-opening Road 2 Tampa Bay Volleyball Invitational opens tonight at Amalie, it includes four teams that would love to punch their postseason tickets and return to Tampa for a shot at the national championship.

The No. 8-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions, No. 11 Florida Gators, No. 20 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and home-standing USF Bulls will assemble at Amalie for two matches, then shift to USF’s Yuengling Center on Saturday night for another double-header while ushering in what promises to be a historic and notable season in college volleyball.

“We’re so lucky to be invited to this first-class event,’’ Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley said. “It’s great teams and legendary coaches. I know our kids are really looking forward to it.’’

For good reason.

It’s an opportunity to play at Amalie Arena, the Final Four site, and dream about what a Tampa return could mean.

“It’s an advantage and hopefully a big motivating factor for us,’’ Penn State middle blocker Taylor Trammell said. “We don’t want this to be our only Tampa trip.

“We can experience the court and get a feel for the environment, maybe getting us a leg up on the competition. Obviously, you can’t determine what’s going to happen in the future. But we have goals and getting back to Tampa is definitely one of our goals. We would very much like to make a statement right away.’’

In all sports, coaches usually see opening games as a measuring stick, maybe an opportunity to play through some jitters and early mistakes. So what quality of play can be expected this weekend?

“We’re only going to get better from here, so I actually like starting with a big challenge,’’ Georgia Tech coach Michelle Collier said. “I think we’ll learn some things about ourselves that will help for later on. We’re not tip-toeing into the season, that’s for sure. This will force us to do things at a high level from the beginning.’’

“We at Florida have gone this route before and it’s always beneficial to have this type of early competition,’’ Florida coach Mary Wise said. “I know we’ll be better just from playing Penn State and USF this early. You always learn more from a loss than a win. You can risk a loss early on for your team to get better. If our team is in midseason form, that’s great, but we know that we have to keep improving.’’

“Beyond what happens on the court, I think this weekend will also be a really good opportunity to showcase what Tampa is all about,’’ USF outside hitter Ragan Kinard said. “I know every team has hopes of coming back for the Final Four. This is going to be a sample of all the hard work the Tampa Bay Sports Commission has done to put this on. I am super excited that our sport will decide the national championship in Tampa. How could you not love being in Florida in December? It’s going to be incredible.’’

For now, though, it’s about starting the season on the right foot.

“I’m stressing to my players to go hard and let it all hang out because this is such a special and unique experience,’’ USF coach Jolene Shepardson said. “The energy will be crazy in that big arena. It’s big for our program, big for the city of Tampa and big for college volleyball in general.’’

And a return trip to Tampa? It’s already on everyone’s mind.

“It’s not like a taboo topic for us,’’ Penn State setter Mac Podraza said. “We had camp season all summer and we told the kids, ‘Be sure to watch us in Tampa this December.’ We are vocalizing it because it’s clearly our goal. To get the chance to actually see the arena and play through all the potential depth-perception things, it’s great. We will visualize ourselves being back, no question.’’

“Starting and ending the season in Tampa would be like a dream scenario for our program,’’ Florida libero Elli McKissock said. “Just imagine playing for a national championship in Tampa, our home state, and trying to get Coach (Mary Wise) her first national title. There’s no doubt we’ve got Tampa on our minds.’’

From start to finish.