SMU DOUBLETREE INVITATIONAL
Moody Coliseum - Dallas, Texas
UC Irvine Friday, Aug. 26, 12 p.m. | DePaul Friday, Aug. 26, 7 p.m. | SFA Saturday, Aug. 27, 3 p.m.
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Match Notes (PDF)
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DALLAS (SMU) – It would have been easy for Jadyn Bauss to be frustrated.

Following the conclusion of her junior year with SMU volleyball, the Frisco native spent the offseason enduring what seemed like an unending spiral of change. The coaches who recruited her are gone, leading to a new staff taking over the program. Many of her teammates from last fall are no longer in Dallas, leaving just six returners from 2021.

Bauss could have easily hung her head. Instead, she honed in on the opportunity.

"There's a lot of newness, which obviously happens when you get an entire new coaching staff and almost an entire new team," Bauss said. "But honestly it's been great to kind of see a whole different point of view of how people see the game of volleyball. It's almost like breaking down the game and rebuilding it."

New SMU volleyball coach Sam Erger was grateful to inherit players like Bauss as they are becoming the foundation of what she wants to build on the Hilltop. She found a level of maturity among the returners that made the transition from one staff to another very easy.

To help, Erger hit the transfer portal looking for specific kinds of players. Portal additions Celia Cullen (Michigan State) and Natalie Perdue (Arkansas) have multiple years of eligibility left, meaning their impact could be more than one-year. And while three of the graduate transfers will only spend a short time in Dallas, Marieke van der Mark (Baylor), Tatum Ticknor (Arkansas State) and London Austin-Roark (Texas A&M) all have Division I experience the Mustangs intend to draw on this year. Erger notes that each of the grad students aspires to play the game beyond college and this will be an opportunity for them to showcase their skills to professional clubs.

To get everyone on the same page, players spent the summer hanging out together when they weren't in summer workouts. A Fourth of July trip to Galveston featured most of the roster and served as a great bonding moment. Erger also organized a preseason team retreat without volleyball – just a few days on a ranch enjoying bonfires, swimming and horseback riding. It's all part of the team's mission statement, something Erger makes sure everyone understands and has a hand in.

"Our mission statement is not something you write and forget. We talk about it every day. Our mission statement is cultivating the best possible college volleyball experience for the team – and we define team as players and staff," Erger said. "These are girls that want to be here. They're bought in. They're really good players and good people."

The revamped Mustangs will get tested early at this week's Doubletree Invitational to open the 2022 season. UC Irvine, DePaul and Stephen F. Austin each had winning campaigns last fall, with Stephen F. Austin taking part in the postseason as part of the National Invitation Volleyball Championship.
Despite all the change, SMU still finds itself picked to finish among the American Athletic Conference's top three teams. But those external expectations have no bearing on how the Mustangs envision their season playing out.

Even with everything that has changed, the team remains focused on being the best version of themselves. And they're certainly on the same page when it comes to that.

"It's definitely been a challenge, but the thing that hasn't been a challenge has been getting everyone to bond together and trust each other. From the beginning, we've just all clicked with everyone and it's been so great," sophomore Jamison Wheeler said. "It's been a crazy change, but I think it's been a great one. I think it's been a positive change for sure."