The Lost Season: 2020 HS Volleyball

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Dicer17

New member
Been a long time fan of the sport in Ohio, specifically the Cincinnati area, but just found out about this website recently. Seems like a great place to discuss this with others who are passionate about the sport in the area.
Congrats to Moeller on winning this year, was a stellar final match. Liberty was a well oiled team that just fell a little short.
Now that the season has ended, and it will be a while before we have substantial information to talk about the 2024 season, I thought it’d be interesting to discuss the lost season in 2020. As I looked back, due to COVID, this season did not seem to get much discussion, other than initial roster reports. It’s extra interesting to look at it taking in information from the later seasons, such as 2021, and look at what the teams could’ve looked like in 2020. Not sure how many users were present and invested back then, but figured it would be interesting to talk about. I’ll list the rosters I can find, specifically from the Cincinnati area, and anyone else who has information on other teams or has other information please reply below.


The Favorite: Moeller
S: Beckelhimer (Junior, 2-year starter)
OH1: Fuller (Senior, 3-year starter)
OH2: Carroll (Junior, First year starting)
M1: Bowles (Senior, 2-year starter)
M2: Reinholdt (Junior, First year starting)
Opp: Reynolds (Senior, 2-year starter)
L: Haas (Senior, 3-year starter)
This would’ve been Lee Meyer’s first year coaching, and he entered with the most returning talent in the state. This team lost a middle in Ben Kiser and a OH in Mav Owens in the previous year’s state final appearance. Would’ve been interesting to see if this team could live up to the expectations it that surrounded it.

St Xavier: The Reining Champs
S/OPP - Konrad, Sr
S - Carmosino, Jr
OH1 - Kastne, Jr
OH2 - Como, Sr or Schottinger, Sr or Tooman, Jr
MH1 - Glover, Sr
MH2 - Toomb, Jr or Turner, Sr
OPP - Turner/Como/Schottinger
L - Dannemiller, Sr
DS - Schroeder, Jr/McGrath, Jr
The reining champs lost their three key pieces the previous year in Kastner (S), Mauch (M1), and Connaughton (OH1). Would have been an interesting year to see Ferris’ decision with the setters as well as OH/OPP options.

Elder - The Dark Horse
S - Koewler, Sr
S/OPP - Weisman, Jr
OH1 - Beiter, Sr
OH2 - Albers, Jr or Byrne, Sr or Maune, So/Engelhardt, Sr
MH1 - Dugan, Sr
MH2 - Sinnard, Sr or Meyer, Jr
OPP - Engelhardt or Albers
L - Shook, Sr
DS - Geisen, Jr or Smith, Jr
Elder definitely had the most to prove after a regional final departure the previous season. Losing Hargett (OH1) hurt the fire power of this team, but Tierney had a lot of versatile options with this team, with the option of bringing up their quality 2022 players as sophomores.

I am not as educated for the other teams in the state. Please fill in the gaps if you can.
 
 
Certainly think Elder held the advantage that year. They had senior talent mixed with some very good young players. Moeller had Beckelhimer who may have carried them, but not enough consistent supporting talent to make it an easy guess that they would have a shot at winning it all.
St. X wouldn't have had a chance. Not enough developed Junior and Senior talent (due to losing key seniors the year before) and coaching decisions that would be sure to give the advantage to any opponent.
 
1000games said:
Certainly think Elder held the advantage that year. They had senior talent mixed with some very good young players. Moeller had Beckelhimer who may have carried them, but not enough consistent supporting talent to make it an easy guess that they would have a shot at winning it all.
St. X wouldn't have had a chance. Not enough developed Junior and Senior talent (due to losing key seniors the year before) and coaching decisions that would be sure to give the advantage to any opponent.
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I’m not sure I agree with that. You had an Elder team progressing from a lackluster 2019 year, where their one consistent offensive threat has graduated. Sure they had young talent, but there’s no telling they would’ve been that threat back in 2020. Moeller on the other hand, has Beckelhimer at setter as mentioned, but has one of the best libero’s in the last 5-6 years in Haas. Fuller, despite being undersized, was a consistent threat in both 2018 and 2019. If I remember right, Fuller was one of the sole attackers that kept Moeller in the 2019 finals despite facing blocks from Mauch and Connaughton. Then you have possible developments from Reinholdt, who was dominant in 2021, and Carroll who had a solid 2021 season, I think Moeller is the clear favorite. And remember this is that team in a Lee Meyer system that has clearly done wonders these past few years.
 
I think it was clearly shaping up to be a 3 team race. X, Moeller, and Darby all seemed to have quite a bit more talent than the rest of the teams.

There was talk about Walnut possibly being better than Elder with Dom Hagerty, Vogelpohl, Lipscomb, Borgmann, and a couple of uber talented freshmen (Wheatley and Tombragel).

I may be mistaken but I don't think Reinhold even started learning the middle position until club season the following year? He was a setter in Beckelhimers shadow up until making that switch, which obviously worked out really well
 
Brambleberry said:
I think it was clearly shaping up to be a 3 team race. X, Moeller, and Darby all seemed to have quite a bit more talent than the rest of the teams.

There was talk about Walnut possibly being better than Elder with Dom Hagerty, Vogelpohl, Lipscomb, Borgmann, and a couple of uber talented freshmen (Wheatley and Tombragel).

I may be mistaken but I don't think Reinhold even started learning the middle position until club season the following year? He was a setter in Beckelhimers shadow up until making that switch, which obviously worked out really well
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Would Smith-Trondle have been the setter still that season? I know he was a bit of a late bloomer
 
Dicer17 said:
Been a long time fan of the sport in Ohio, specifically the Cincinnati area, but just found out about this website recently. Seems like a great place to discuss this with others who are passionate about the sport in the area.
Congrats to Moeller on winning this year, was a stellar final match. Liberty was a well oiled team that just fell a little short.
Now that the season has ended, and it will be a while before we have substantial information to talk about the 2024 season, I thought it’d be interesting to discuss the lost season in 2020. As I looked back, due to COVID, this season did not seem to get much discussion, other than initial roster reports. It’s extra interesting to look at it taking in information from the later seasons, such as 2021, and look at what the teams could’ve looked like in 2020. Not sure how many users were present and invested back then, but figured it would be interesting to talk about. I’ll list the rosters I can find, specifically from the Cincinnati area, and anyone else who has information on other teams or has other information please reply below.


The Favorite: Moeller
S: Beckelhimer (Junior, 2-year starter)
OH1: Fuller (Senior, 3-year starter)
OH2: Carroll (Junior, First year starting)
M1: Bowles (Senior, 2-year starter)
M2: Reinholdt (Junior, First year starting)
Opp: Reynolds (Senior, 2-year starter)
L: Haas (Senior, 3-year starter)
This would’ve been Lee Meyer’s first year coaching, and he entered with the most returning talent in the state. This team lost a middle in Ben Kiser and a OH in Mav Owens in the previous year’s state final appearance. Would’ve been interesting to see if this team could live up to the expectations it that surrounded it.

St Xavier: The Reining Champs
S/OPP - Konrad, Sr
S - Carmosino, Jr
OH1 - Kastne, Jr
OH2 - Como, Sr or Schottinger, Sr or Tooman, Jr
MH1 - Glover, Sr
MH2 - Toomb, Jr or Turner, Sr
OPP - Turner/Como/Schottinger
L - Dannemiller, Sr
DS - Schroeder, Jr/McGrath, Jr
The reining champs lost their three key pieces the previous year in Kastner (S), Mauch (M1), and Connaughton (OH1). Would have been an interesting year to see Ferris’ decision with the setters as well as OH/OPP options.

Elder - The Dark Horse
S - Koewler, Sr
S/OPP - Weisman, Jr
OH1 - Beiter, Sr
OH2 - Albers, Jr or Byrne, Sr or Maune, So/Engelhardt, Sr
MH1 - Dugan, Sr
MH2 - Sinnard, Sr or Meyer, Jr
OPP - Engelhardt or Albers
L - Shook, Sr
DS - Geisen, Jr or Smith, Jr
Elder definitely had the most to prove after a regional final departure the previous season. Losing Hargett (OH1) hurt the fire power of this team, but Tierney had a lot of versatile options with this team, with the option of bringing up their quality 2022 players as sophomores.

I am not as educated for the other teams in the state. Please fill in the gaps if you can.
Click to expand...
Elder would not have been a factor, in my opinion. Varsity had already been established and none of the talented sophomores or Samuels was on that Varsity squad. May have been the best JV team in Ohio history. Probably could have beaten 90% of the Varsity squads in Ohio that year.
 
1000games said:
Certainly think Elder held the advantage that year. They had senior talent mixed with some very good young players. Moeller had Beckelhimer who may have carried them, but not enough consistent supporting talent to make it an easy guess that they would have a shot at winning it all.
St. X wouldn't have had a chance. Not enough developed Junior and Senior talent (due to losing key seniors the year before) and coaching decisions that would be sure to give the advantage to any opponent.
Click to expand...
You've got to be trolling lol

Elder didn't really have a "guy" to be the focal point of the offense. Would have been fairly well balanced, but they didn't have a Hargett type guy to feed anymore. They would have been good, but everyone back then was talking about X and Moe and Darby as others here have said.

Luke Fuller was the best and most consistent hitter on Attack 18-1s that year, so saying Moeller just had JJ is a bad take. Haas was a beast at Libero. Bowles and Reynolds both very solid returning players.

The question for St X would have been - could Kastner carry that team offensively? But they would have been very good.
 
Vogelpohl probably still would have set that year.

OH - Hagerty (Arguably the best player in Cincinnati that year)
OH - Tombragel (I think he was better than Wheatley before Wheatley grew 6 or 7 inches)
MH - Lipscomb
MH - Borgmann
OPP - Shea Britt
L - Wheatley?
S - Vogelpohl
 
MatchPoint said:
If I recall correctly, Darby was also gearing up for a dominant season in Noah Platfoot's senior year.
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I thought Darby's best shot was the year before? They had two good middles and a really strong outside if I'm not mistaken that graduated. Maybe I'm off by a year though. They were still going to be really good due to Platfoot, but I think Moeller and X were a small step above overall
 
Brambleberry said:
Vogelpohl probably still would have set that year.

OH - Hagerty (Arguably the best player in Cincinnati that year)
OH - Tombragel (I think he was better than Wheatley before Wheatley grew 6 or 7 inches)
MH - Lipscomb
MH - Borgmann
OPP - Shea Britt
L - Wheatley?
S - Vogelpohl
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That would've been a damn good team. Vogelpohl setting a 5-1 would've been tough when he was front row, but that's still a really good lineup
 
MyNameIsDoug? said:
That would've been a damn good team. Vogelpohl setting a 5-1 would've been tough when he was front row, but that's still a really good lineup
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Vogelpohl set for Walnut his first two years and played front row. Kid was a good athlete with a good IQ, he held his own up there from what I recall. He would have had a leg up on Smith-Trondle in experience that year. Walnut also had another kid who was a solid libero for several years who would have been a senior that year, doubt Wheatley would have played over him.
 
Falcon11 said:
Vogelpohl set for Walnut his first two years and played front row. Kid was a good athlete with a good IQ, he held his own up there from what I recall. He would have had a leg up on Smith-Trondle in experience that year. Walnut also had another kid who was a solid libero for several years who would have been a senior that year, doubt Wheatley would have played over him.
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Would've been a good year for them, for sure. Gonna be interesting to see what the future holds!
 
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