As the Major League Baseball playoffs kicked off yesterday, a convenient comparison for this year's volleyball team in the world of sports is the 2006 Minnesota Twins.
Like the Twins, the Jumbos started off slow, hovering around .500, before rallying to win nine of their last 10 and reclaiming their spot among the best teams in New England.
And like the Twins, the Jumbos are getting it done with players who are on the major stage for the first time, jumping into new roles and unfamiliar positions. No one is more symbolic of this than sophomore Stacy Filocco.
Filocco played in just 44 games in 20 matches as a freshman before breaking out in her sophomore year. She is only one of two Jumbos to have taken the court in every game the Jumbos have played this year, and she is second on the team in kills (3.19 per game), third in service aces (16), and fourth in blocks (18). Filocco, senior co-captain Kelli Harrison, and junior Katie Wysham, all among the top 12 in the league in kills, make up the core contingent of a fearsome Jumbo offense.
These statistics are more impressive given that Filocco has switched from a primary role as the team's back-up setter to that of an outside hitter.
"She's one of the most intense and dedicated athletes," coach Cora Thompson said. "She learns quickly, and she really does push herself harder than a lot of athletes. We knew this year that Stacy would be coming out of that setting role, and we expected her to get better."
This season the Jumbos have been burdened with several key injuries. Senior co-captain Dana Fleisher has yet to play this season because of shoulder troubles related to her shoulder surgery last spring, and her absence leaves a hole in the outside hitter position. Another shoulder injury to outside hitter sophomore Caitlyn Dealy only exacerbated the team's problems.
Coming into the year, Tufts' three main outside hitters were expected to be Fleisher, Dealy and Harrison. The loss of two-thirds of that trio put Tufts in a precarious position to start the year and made Filocco a role-player.
"I just try to stay competitive, just try and push people in practice," Filocco said. "I just try to be a positive, vocal leader."
The emergence of Filocco has given the Jumbos a much more potent and versatile attack after the losses of Fleisher and Dealy, as well as a new leader.
"Your outside hitters are the toughest hitters; they usually receive 60 to 67 percent of the sets," Thompson explained. "They are expected to be consistent and expected to be successful. If things get in trouble, we push the ball outside, so our [hitters] on the outside have to be very versatile and have a certain type of mentality and be finishers in a sense."
Filocco was recruited out of high school as a right-side hitter but became a setter last year as a freshman. She saw limited playing time behind starting sophomore setter Kaitlyn O'Reilly but played an important role in practice scrimmages.
This year, because of the recruitment of freshman setter Dana Feiger, the team expected Filocco to reemerge as a right-side hitter. However, given the injuries, Thompson had no choice but to convert her into an outside hitter.
"More than anything you need to be able to adjust," said Thompson on the difficulties of switching positions. "Your perspective of the court is very, very different. The whole game is about angles, and reversing that [part of the] game is probably the biggest thing."
Filocco, aware in the spring of the potential needs the team might have due to the injury to Fleisher, stepped up her summer training. She practiced as an outside hitter all summer, playing volleyball five times a week.
Filocco's summer work is also evident from the serving stripe. She has 16 service aces on the year, but perhaps more impressively only has 14 errors, one of the best ratios on the team. Her serving has helped the team through earlier periods of inconsistency this season that were often plagued with bouts of serving errors.
"All of my personal goals are really tied up with the team," says Filocco. "I really want us to host NESCACs, and I think we can win the New England region."
Filocco's ability to fill the hole in that position has shone far beyond her numbers of kills, aces, and digs. She has allowed the Tufts team to develop into the force they have become over the past few weeks.
For Tufts to continue to flourish, the team will need more of the same from Filocco. Up ahead for the Jumbos are to NESCAC road contests, as they will travel to Amherst and Middlebury this weekend.
Just like the Twins stole the AL Central crown on the last day of the season, don't be surprised if a once-struggling Jumbo volleyball team finds itself atop the NESCAC.
