However within the years since, Poole has seemed up at Pittsburgh, Louisville and Georgia Tech.
And Pitt gained the ACC once more this season – its fifth title prior to now seven seasons – however surprisingly, the Panthers needed to share the trophy with one other workforce that went 16-2: Florida State, which was picked tied for fourth within the preseason ACC ballot.
Neglect coachspeak or any technical explanations.
Poole, who has greater than 900 profession wins on his resume, described it with phrases like “miracle” and “smoke and mirrors.”
That’s to not disparage any of his gamers. To make sure, the Seminoles have loads of expertise, beginning with with junior outdoors hitter Audrey Koenig — co-ACC participant of the 12 months — and junior center blockers Khori Louis, who leads the ACC with a .441 hitting share and Kiari Robey, who’s third within the league in blocks (144, 13 solo) and seventh in hitting share (.394).
They open NCAA Event play Friday in what’s a homecoming for Poole at Arkanas when the Seminoles (23-8), who gained their final eight ACC matches, play TCU of the Massive 12 (16-14) earlier than ninth-seeded Arkansas of the SEC (25-5) performs Stephen F. Austin of the WAC (29-4).
Florida State misplaced in 4 at TCU on September 15, however that was a special time for the Seminoles.
Poole thought the Seminoles may want a miracle after junior libero Emery Dupes — “top-of-the-line gamers within the nation at her place,” he famous — went down with a knee harm on August 19 in a scrimmage. Dupes was chasing a stray ball, it hit one thing on the ceiling and adjusted instructions. which Dupes did, too.
“My first thought was, ‘What are we going to do?’ ” Poole stated.
Added Koenig, tied for fifth within the ACC with 361 kills (3.37/set): “I used to be devastated for her. She had simply recovered from an harm after her freshman season, and I do know she labored actually laborious to get again.”
Koenig stated the workforce was impressed to play that a lot tougher for Dupes whereas she might solely watch throughout her restoration. That’s all properly and good, however her absence had a trickle-down impact on the Seminoles’ lineup.
The common season was simply across the nook, and Poole was going to be auditioning liberos.
The job finally fell to Kyleene Filimaua, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Bothell, Washington, who went to Tallahassee as an outdoor hitter who had by no means been a libero. She responded by main the workforce with 319 digs (2.85/set) and tops FSU with 36 aces
“She’s doing a tremendous job,” stated Louis, the hometown junior who’s second to Koenig with 264 kills (2.49/set). “Being a freshman and coming in and taking that stress … it’s great to see as a result of it jogged my memory of when me and Audrey got here in. We had been freshmen having to play, and I do know the stress on her.”
She wasn’t alone. In FSU’s common nine-player core, 4 are freshmen. Along with Filimaua are setter Kenna Phelan, who splits time working the 6-2 offense with grad pupil and Serbian Andjelija Draskovic, proper facet Maddie Snider and libero Ella Gaona.
“They’ve carried out a tremendous job,” Louis stated. “Everyone seems to be filling in and placing the items collectively. They’ve carried out an outstanding job with all of the stress on them as freshmen. It may very well be laborious, however I believe they’re doing no matter they’ll. It’s fairly cool.”
And never solely these freshmen must proceed to be adaptable. The adversity wasn’t over.
Sophomore outdoors hitter Audrey Rothman missed 5 matches, together with the primary two in ACC play, with an harm. That moved Filimaua again into the entrance row to hit, sharing the duties with junior Skye Ekes. And with Filimaua out of the again row for spells, it was as much as the likes of redshirt-sophomore Addi Hultquist and Gaona to select up the slack.
Florida State went a pedestrian 6-6 in non-conference matches.
“We had been going by means of some struggles,” stated Koenig, second on the workforce with 285 digs (2.66/set). “However I believe as quickly as convention play began, we type of clicked with our lineup and received extra comfy in our roles and knew we had been going to have the ability to help one another.”
ACC play began with a unsteady win towards Virginia Tech. The Seminoles wanted 5 units to dispatch the Hokies, who wound up with solely three convention victories.
FSU lastly gave the impression to be rounding into kind by sweeping Wake Forest and North Carolina.
Then it occurred once more. An harm compelled Louis out of the lineup, and, with out her, the Seminoles needed to sweat out five-set wins over Duke and Miami.
After one other five-set victory, this one over NC State, the rebuilt lineup — lastly again at full power — received its first huge take a look at towards Georgia Tech. Florida State was serving for match level within the fourth set however couldn’t shut the deal, and the Yellowjackets finally gained in 5.
It was harking back to the September 12 non-conference match towards Florida through which the Seminoles misplaced underneath the identical situation.
“These are losses that I checked out and go, ‘We had been proper there!’ ” Poole stated.
As Florida State ready to play host to Pitt on November 3, Poole admitted he questioned if his workforce ever would recover from the hump in a decent match towards a top quality opponent.
Accidents. Youth. Gamers shuffling positions. The workforce’s capability to win an enormous match was a reputable fear for Poole.
“We’re up 2-0 (on Pitt). We’re taking part in rather well. Can we end it towards a very good workforce?” he stated. “We had been capable of come again and end towards groups we ought to have been capable of beat. However these (prime) groups, we had been struggling to get the victory over them.”
The match towards Pitt went 5 units, and when senior Sydney Conley and Louis mixed on a block at 15-14, Poole’s fears had been allayed.
That was the second win in what has turn out to be an eight-match ACC successful streak heading into the NCAA Event.
“If you take a look at the place we had been in September and the place we’re proper now, you take a look at it and say that was a miracle season,” Poole stated. “As a result of loads of issues needed to fall into place, together with getting wins when it was ugly. However we nonetheless discovered a approach.”
Added Koenig: “I believe we’re peaking on the proper time. I believe it’s actually encouraging to know that we beat a 1 seed (Pitt), so we’re able to something, and that’s actually motivated us currently.”
The Seminoles’ journey to Fayetteville can even be a homecoming for Poole on a few ranges. He was born and raised in Arkansas, and far of his household stays there.
“Since I used to be sufficiently old to stroll, I used to be calling the Hogs on TV,” Poole stated.
Maybe as important, Poole was the inaugural coach of the Arkansas girls’s program, beginning it from scratch and serving to arrange Barnhill Enviornment for volleyball. He began at Arkansas in 1994 and in his third 12 months the Razorbacks made the primary of their 9 NCAA journeys earlier than he left for FSU in 2008.
At Arkanas, Poole coached the previous Jessica Subject, mom of FSU freshman setter Phelan. Subject was Poole’s first All-American, a second-teamer in 1997.
It was Subject who received the deciding block within the 1997 SEC title match when Arkansas knocked off rival Florida.
“Plenty of feelings for me as a result of Arkansas was my child,” Poole stated. “Only a few coaches get the chance to begin a program actually from floor degree.… And to construct it from there, and, throughout the time I used to be there, we ended up second in successful share to Florida. We had been just about battling with Florida yearly for the SEC championship.”
First up is the match with TCU, one other workforce that battled accidents en path to an 8-10 document within the Massive 12.
“Everyone seems to be speaking about (us) taking part in Arkansas. And I’m like, we’re going to Arkansas, however first we’ve to play TCU,” Poole stated. “I really feel like we didn’t get any favors with that draw … If you take a look at a number of the outcomes they’d in midseason, (Exterior Melanie) Parra was out with an harm … They’ve received an awesome workforce and an awesome teaching workers.”
It’s price noting that Parra, a switch from defending national-champion Texas, went off for 34 kills, hitting .388, towards FSU in that match in mid-September.
“It’s positively going to be completely different by way of simply our confidence and the way comfy we’re on the courtroom now,” Louis stated. “Once we performed them, it was a tough patch for us. However we’ve positively been on a successful streak, and we’ve all been grinding and dealing laborious this season and simply making so many modifications.
“So this recreation is unquestionably going to be good. Everyone seems to be wanting ahead to it.”
Whereas going through his former program isn’t assured to be within the playing cards, Poole stated he has assured his workforce of 1 factor: It doesn’t matter what occurs within the NCAA Event, 2023 already has been an unquestioned success.
Better of all, solely two gamers on the present roster will graduate, so subsequent 12 months’s Seminoles will likely be one other 12 months wiser and quite a bit harder for what they went by means of this season.
And perhaps Poole gained’t have to attend one other decade so as to add to his ACC championship banner depend.
“What they completed this 12 months, nobody can take away from them,” he stated. “It was a tremendous accomplishment. (The NCAA) is a complete new separate season. They shouldn’t take a look at something within the NCAA Event as a failure on what this season has been. They did wonderful for a number of the adversity we needed to face.”
