Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Kritza Takes Stock Of CU Volleyball
December 05, 2009 | Volleyball, B.G. Brooks
Colorado volleyball coach Liz Kritza was in her office doing what she's been doing - taking inventory and looking ahead - since her first season on the job ended on Nov. 28 in a three-set loss at No. 8 Nebraska.
Kritza has several good reasons for taking more than a mild interest in the NCAAs and teams such as CSU and UW. First off, reaching the tournament is her goal. Secondly, when she scans the rosters of NCAA participants, she's struck by the number of former Colorado high school players that keep surfacing.
"Penn State, which is going for its third straight national championship, came in (to Colorado) and got three all-state players, Nebraska got the top player from Colorado Springs - the girl that I considered to be the top player in the state," Kritza said.
"Those were all set and done by the time I got here (in February). There are really, really high caliber players here. We heard comments from fans who say they're tired of seeing Top 10 teams come in and who's on their rosters . . . Colorado kids. The challenge for us is to keep the best of the best."
She also wants the Buffaloes to compete with the best of the best. To that end, Kritza, whose first Buffs team finished 7-22, 2-18 in the Big 12 Conference, has launched Project Colorado, an endeavor aimed at re-introducing CU volleyball to the in-state players who are being lured elsewhere.
"We want to reach out and educate those players as to what we're trying to do with this program," Kritza said. "We want to let them see that there's enough good players . . . get them on campus, let them look around and say, 'This can be a national championship team.' I didn't have that before and a lot of coaches don't have it now."
Before accepting the CU job, Kritza spent four seasons at Tulane, where she was 76-39 overall, 41-21 in Conference-USA. Her last two Green Wave teams finished 28-6, with the 2008 squad winning the conference championship and Kritza honored for her coaching.
Her first priority in Boulder was to "recruit" CU's returning players, acclimating them to her style and that of assistants Tom Hogan and Meg Henican. Kritza knew the Buffs roster would be short on bodies, but she refrained from bringing in more players without a full assessment of her returnees.
Remembered Kritza: "I said, 'All right, we're going shorthanded this season, let me see what you're made of.' And that's kind of what this season turned out to be. There were times when I definitely could have used three or four more bodies. One of the lineups we used toward the end of the year, I never in a million years could have seen drawing up that lineup."
After a season of evaluation, Kritza and her staff signed seven prospects, including players from Colorado (three), Virginia (two), Kansas (one) and England (one).
"We're recruiting against the right people now, if that makes any sense," Kritza said. "I think as we go into the spring, we're going to get commitments from some kids (in the next recruiting cycle) who were looking at some other high level programs.
"If we're losing them, it's to a Top 5, Top 10 program . . . you hate losing them to Nebraska, but we're going to shift that tide."
The transplanted Londoner that Kritza signed in this class is Elizabeth "Lizzie" Reid, an outside/right-side hitter who already has her sights on playing for her home country in the 2012 OIympics, then turning pro.
Reid's recruitment was one of those stories coaches love to tell - if they won the chase. CU did, and here's how it went down: Kritza heard from coaching sources that Reid "had been placed" at Jefferson (Missouri) College and was contemplating some Big 12 programs.
"I went straight to the source (Reid); I picked up the phone, called her and we started recruiting her," Kritza said, noting she had coached against Reid's Jefferson coach while both worked in C-USA. Nice in.
Reid took looks at several other Big 12 schools, and then "Florida was sniffing on the doorstep," Kritza recalled. "We wanted to close that one out pretty quickly. We actually got her before the junior college national championships, which was pretty important."
Kritza calls the 5-foot-11 Reid "the most athletic and experienced" of her signees. She can jump/reach in the 10-5, 10-6 range.
"We wanted to add athleticism to the roster; you can work with and train athleticism, then add that into the system pretty quickly," Kritza added.
"Lizzie brings some much needed experience. She's got a ways to go with her own development, but Hogan can lead her down that path. Here's a player who already knows she wants a pro career, and she's slated to play in the 2012 Olympics.
"I really can't say that I walked in here and any of the young players were looking at volleyball for professional careers . . . it's nice to add that level of commitment to the sport to your program. She's a fantastic athlete."
There might be another couple added to the roster before the 2010 season begins. CU loses one senior (Kaitlyn Burkett) from a 12-player roster. With 12 scholarships available, Kritza's ideal roster size is 15-18, and if every player returns and all her signees are admitted, she's there.
Of course, the players she is recruiting - domestic or foreign - must meet CU's academic standards. But at her alma mater, Kritza was very familiar with stringent admission requirements. Getting into private Tulane, she joked, "was like getting into Fort Knox."
Kritza's program stands to benefit from CU's plan to build a practice facility for basketball and volleyball adjacent to the Coors Events Center. For too long, all three indoor programs (men's/women's basketball, volleyball) have shared Coors for practice time.
Kritza termed it "another necessary evil . . . but I'm glad we we're practicing on our competition floor. Is it ideal? No. It's not the best situation for your players. It's been a point of contention for all of us to share that space - but don't get me wrong, we've shared it great.
"It just takes a lot of communication to get it all done right, but it's highlighted even more the need for the new facility."
Not long after Kritza signed on at CU, several colleagues told her, "You know, Liz, this was not the best year to come into the Big 12."
Her reply: "Well, that doesn't make me feel any better, but thank you."
Kritza quickly found the Big 12 as formidable as advertised, with a handful of its teams ranked in the AVCA Top 25 at any given time during the season. Six Big 12 teams - Texas, Iowa State, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor - were in the NCAA Tournament field announced last weekend.
"The league was as strong as it's ever been," Kritza said. "But I came here for that, to really try my hand at preparing a program and team to be able to compete at that level night in and night out. It's one thing to have a good match against a quality opponent and get your team up for it, but to really be able to sustain that level - it's something really different. That's what takes some time.
"It takes more than a season and I'm more impatient than most. Attribute it to my youth or whatever, but we're looking for drastic improvement. Our Season One success couldn't be defined by wins and losses, so we measured it by continual improvement.
"We kept hammering that home. Strides we made aren't readily apparent; it was kind of hard to see where the improvement was when your record wasn't indicative of success.
"The results leave a bitter taste in my mouth, but it's almost a necessary evil that you have to go through some tough, challenging encounters - which is how I'll describe the season - to figure out what we're made of. I think it's the same for any first-year program."
Krtiza believes CU volleyball can be an "entertaining family event." She has told/challenged CU's marketing department, "I'll take care of the product side . . . we'll do our side of it, you do the same. I know it makes their job easier when we're winning - and we will be better."
Colorado's volleyball community, which includes the state's best high school players, will be watching. Selling them on CU, closing the borders, is near the top of Liz Kritza's objectives.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
