Knoch grad Brynne Smith proves quick study in 1st season as setter with Penn State Behrend women’s volleyball
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Brynne Smith wasn’t sure what to expect heading into her freshman season with the Penn State Behrend women’s volleyball team. The Knoch grad had hoped to play a regular role on the team, but, with it being her first season of college athletics, she didn’t know how feasible that would be.
She certainly was not expecting a coaching change late in the season. Ryan Laing vacated his post as the coach — Behrend athletics could not elaborate on the details of Laing’s departure — and former women’s coach Phil Pisano took over the team on an interim basis. That was in mid-October, 21 matches into the 29-match regular season.
Smith and the Lions weathered the tumult, won six of their final eight regular-season matches and earned the No. 3 seed for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference tournament, which was held last week.
Smith, meanwhile, played a big part in PS Behrend’s success. The 5-foot-11 setter finished second in the AMCC in assists per set (6.84) while helping the Lions finish second in the conference in hitting percentage.
She played all six rotations, so she also contributed statistically in many areas: leading the conference in total aces (56), tied for fourth in aces per set (0.51), finishing with 116 total kills (1.06 per set) and 2.03 digs per set.
“I think she’s done a really good job considering she’s a freshman and that this is the hardest position to transition to a starting role from high school to college,” said Pisano, who won more than 350 matches and four AMCC titles during his previous tenure as the women’s coach. Pisano has been coaching the men’s team since 2012.
“You would say it’s like a quarterback position. You’re in charge of the offense. You’re making a lot of decisions, and to have a freshman have that huge responsibility — and to be doing a very nice job at it — is quite impressive.”
While Smith admitted the coaching change was a shock to the players, they tried to pull together and make the best of the rest of the season. Based on their record since Pisano assumed the head coaching role, the Lions succeeded.
“He hasn’t changed a lot,” Smith said about Pisano’s coaching maneuvers. “He has changed a few things of mine, like my footwork and some positioning, but, overall, a lot of my technique is still the same as it has been all season.
“He’s definitely had some tweaks to our lineup, which has definitely changed the way we have played going into some games. It’s a lot of little things, like position on the court, some blocking techniques. It’s definitely hard since a lot of those changes a college coach would make in August. For him to make them in October and November is definitely different.”
Smith was not unfamiliar with abrupt change on the volleyball court. She didn’t become a setter until her junior year at Knoch even though, throughout her club days, she was told she had great hands and should be setting.
But given her height, it seemed to make more sense to her coaches to put her in a hitting role.
Then, in preseason during her junior year with the Knights, her coach told her to go in and set for hitting lines. She has been setting ever since.
Certainly, her 5-11 frame makes her unusual for a setter’s role. But, as Pisano pointed out, having a setter that tall can be worked to great advantage.
“Not having to hide her in the front row and, in fact, giving her some bigger responsibility from a blocking standpoint is definitely a bonus and allows for a lot of lineup possibilities and matchups and things like that,” Pisano said.
Added Smith: “I think my height definitely is an advantage against other teams because I can be a threat on the net still. … Some of the other teams we play in conference, their setters are only 5-5, 5-4. And still, if we switch to a 6-2 (offense with two setters), I can still be a threat hitting out of the front row.”
Smith is only beginning to tap into her potential as a college player. The same might be said for the team as a whole.
Aside from two juniors, the bulk of the roster is made up of freshmen and sophomores. The team’s lone senior left the program earlier in the year, so this group has a couple of years to grow together.
Still, Smith said, so much youth presented some challenges, particularly for her.
“There’s no one older than me in my position, so there was nobody to key off of as a younger player,” she said.
But even with no one to show her the ropes of setting for a college team, Smith has proven more than capable.
She gave credit to her predecessors in the Knoch program for showing her the way. Players such as Kennedy Christy, Quinn Hughes, Mackenzie Kerkan, Bethany Nulph and Rory McCune, she said, modeled what it took to be a success in college.
“I saw what I needed to do to become that player in college,” she said.
Pisano said Smith only will get better in the coming years, and most of that will be a result of simply gaining more experience at the college level.
“Probably manipulating the other team’s defense a little bit more, which certainly comes with experience,” Pisano said about what Smith needs to improve. “It’s a little bit of a mental battle between a setter and the opposing team’s middle blocker, so trying to create some more one-on-one matchups, getting that (defensive) player leaning the wrong direction.
“As she gains experience, some of that, I think, is going to come fairly easily for her.”
Smith said she has been pleased with her performance this season and looks forward to even greater success with the Lions in the coming years.
“I definitely think there’s a lot more to come in future years considering that a lot of us are underclassmen,” she said.