Brian Votaw knew he was taking over a Madison High School volleyball program with a storied past, including a state championship, three state poll titles, four additional trips to the state’s Final Four, five regional titles, 12 district titles and 18 conference titles.
The key for the veteran coach was convincing this year’s Lady Rams team that they had had earned none of those banners on the gymnasium wall.
“I told the girls when I got here that last year’s 17-6 team, a third-place finish in the league and a loss in the first tournament game is unacceptable by Madison standards,” Votaw saw after his team ran its record to 15-1 with an Ohio Cardinal Conference win against Wooster on Tuesday night.
“I told them we had a lot of work to do,” said Votaw, whose career coaching record is now 247-124. “I would like to think our girls bought in to what we were trying to do. We understand the tradition here. We know what all those banners mean. We know expectations of us. We are working hard to meet them.”
Now ranked fourth among Ohio’s Division II teams, Madison (8-1 in the OCC) dropped the first game against Wooster (25-22) before blowing the visitors off the court by scores of 25-14, 25-12 and 25-21. The Generals fell to 7-6 overall and 4-5 in the league.
“We were not mentally ready for the first game,” Votaw said. “We were trying to be too perfect, too cute, instead of just returning the ball. Plus, we had four or five serving errors. When we get our serves in and we are mentally focused, we are capable of playing very well.
“When you give a good team like Wooster six points in a game, you will have the kind of game we had in the first one,” Votaw said. “It didn’t happen in games 2, 3 and 4 and we had far different results.”
Wooster coach Jen Snowbarger said Madison picked up its defense pressure after losing the first game. “We got in a few lucky plays in the first game and that luck turned against us after that. We have problems in maintaining our consistency for a full match. When the job needs to get done, we’re failing,” she said.
Consistency has not been a problem for Votaw’s team this season – or in his coaching career. He built the Gilead Christian team to a 26-1 record in 2009. He took over Sparta Highland in 2010 and led the Scots to an 18-7 record. He entered the college ranks in 2010 to become the head coach at Bluefield College in Virginia, turning the college team’s woeful record around in just two seasons.
“For family reasons, I wanted to come back (to Ohio). There were only a handful of schools and programs I wanted to get into. Fortunately, this position here was open,” Votaw said.
With just two seniors on the team, defensive specialists Maggie Andrews and Liz Sutter, Votaw knows the future of the program could again be bright and he intends to quickly develop his younger players.
“When we practice, we have freshman, JV and varsity all in the gym at the same time,” said Votaw, whose fulltime job is as a crisis counselor. “I want to build consistency throughout the program. If I am going to be responsible for the entire program, then I want to make sure the girls are learning my expectations and doing things the way I want them done.”
Several Lady Rams had outstanding games against Wooster, led by junior setter Katie Wagner, who finished with 44 assists, eight kills, seven digs and three blocks. “Katie is a leader on this team. She doesn’t come off the floor. She is probably our best hitter, but she is also our best setter. She has played club volleyball at high levels and nothing rattles her on the floor,” Votaw said.
Other top performances came from junior outside hitter Alexandra Brown (9 aces, 9 kills); junior middle blocker Mekaila Grose (18 kills), junior outside hitter Ryenn Kitts (12 kills), sophomore middle blocker Kamilla Brown (7 kills) and junior libero Chase Carper (32 digs).
Madison is back in action Thursday at Clear Fork. Wooster hosts Mansfield Senior that same evening.
Wooster won the JV game, 25-18, 25-27, 25-17.
