Since there's a lot of concern about the volleyball program, I decided to look back at how Corbelli's recruiting has been over the last several years. According to PrepVolleyball, A&M's classes were ranked:

2006 #11
2007 NR
2008 NR
2009 #18
2010 NR

So she has had at least some talent to work with but obviously not enough to compete at a high level in the Big 12. We did not sign anyone for 2011 as we had no seniors on the team this year, but looking ahead to 2012 I found the following Texas prospects that are included in PrepVolleyball's Top 80 recruits for the class:

MB Alexis Austin, 6-1, Cy Falls (Houston, Texas), Texas Thunder
MB Khourtni Fears, 6-1, Bellaire (Texas), Texas Elite - LSU
MB Molly McCage, 6-3, Klein Collins (Spring TX), Woodlands Wave - Texas
MB Annie Mitchem, 6-2, Friendswood (Texas), AVA of Texas
MB Kiara Wright, 6-1, Clear Lake (Houston, Texas), AVA of Texas - USC
ST Katy Beals, 6-0, Lake Travis (Austin, Texas), Austin Juniors - Washington
ST Andie Malloy, 6-1, Lovejoy (Lucas, Texas), Skyline - Iowa St
ST Alexia Heist, 5-8 Setter, Eastwood (El Paso, Texas), El Paso Wildfire - TCU
LI Amy Neal, 5-9, Lake Travis (Austin, Texas), Austin Juniors - Texas
LI Caitlin Nolan, 5-6 Libero, Carroll (Southlake, Texas), TAV - Iowa St
OH Leah Mikesky, 6-1, Schulenburg (Texas), Textstar - Florida St
OH Katie Mitchell, 6-1, College Park (The Woodlands, Texas), Texas Pride - Ohio State
OH Emily Ehrle, 6-1 OH, Crowley (Texas), TAV - Arkansas
OH Angela Lowak, 5-11 OH, New Braunfels (Texas), Austin Juniors
OH Thea Munch-Soegaard, 6-2 OH, Tascosa (Amarillo, Texas), Young Guns - Baylor
RS Liz Fortado, 6-2 RS, Marcus (Flower Mound, Texas), TAV - Arkansas


As you can see, Corbelli is not recruiting the state very well at all. Only three prospects remain uncommitted to this point in a year when the state was loaded with talent. Obviously Texas is going to get who they want as they are a Top 5 program right now, but it's depressing to see other programs like Arkansas, Washington, and Iowa State come into our state and steal players. I would think this could be contributing to our lack of success on the court. A&M should always be able to sign Top 10-15 classes every year with all this talent in the state of Texas.

Your analysis is sound.

Executive summary: top recruits know LC is a dead coach walking...BB doesn't give a **** about building champions in vb...little hope for next season because the team remains a one-trick pony with everyone coming back...a waste of scholarship money and operating costs.

Good report and rather brutal.

It is always disappointing to see Texas kids go out of state, in some cases very far away (like Washington), where their parents will rarely see their girls play.

We did sign a player so far from HP who is only about 5'10'' OH and not an answer for our team to compete. Yale out ranked us last year and they cant give athletic scholarships.

Too many players close that fit the bill of what we need in 2012 leaving namely Mikesky and Mitchell (I think Mitchell parents both Ags)

The stability of coaching with recruits is that Corbelli's are lame duck and in recruiting it shows.

Curious to see if LJ stint on staff will have positive or negative effect for coming years. Will TAV recruits want to play at Texas A&M? Will they be told it is a good program?? Will they be steered away? Will we have a assistant coach hired to get on recruiting trail soon?? How will we do with an intact roster with 2 losses and 2 wins leaving the conference? Texas players know that Corbelli's havent been given vote of confidence or extension so are they willing to committ based upon that notion?


And by the way Washington is a top 10 program by far in the country so going there over even in state program that is average at best is the way to go right now, hopefully in a couple of years that will change. I want to see a change either with or without the current staff. The change in the program at Texas A&M occurs during the Spring not the Fall...that is recruiting for 2012 we will need OH's and another Middle to get necessary reps for the 2013 season if we stay with current lineup

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Too many players close that fit the bill of what we need in 2012 leaving namely Mikesky and Mitchell (I think Mitchell parents both Ags)

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Would you, as Aggie parents, want your daughter playing in this program under LC? I think not.

[This message has been edited by sharpdressedman (edited 1/8/2011 3:49p).]

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Would you, as Aggie parents, want your daughter playing in this program under LC? I think not.

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Doesn't make it hurt any less.

Wow, this is just depressing hearing about legacy recruits that want nothing to do with our program. Bill Byrne needs to wake up and do something about this one way or another!

Welcome to 2005.
This program's last high point was ten years ago. It has been on the downhill since then. Slow enough at first to look like maybe just a long rebuilding process, but the accelerating atrophy became obvious in 2005 and and has run its course now. It's really sickening to see an athletic administration just stand by and watch as the program dies over such a long period of time. Without a change, we may only be a year or two behind Colorado and ttech in terms of activating the DNR order.

Wicked makes some very valid points....like many others here.

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It's really sickening to see an athletic administration just stand by and watch as the program dies over such a long period of time.

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I would describe it as egregious malpractice, given the time frame of the decline.

I like to watch good volleyball. Sadly, we haven't been playing good volleyball. Can't believe Byrne can't spare a little time to focus on this.

i want to clarify, when i say "this program's last high point was ten years ago", i don't mean to imply that everything else has been a low point.

we've had some great teams, great players, and great performances in the last decade.

i just mean 10 years ago was the last time we had a rational expectation of making the fourth round of playoffs and even a moderate shot at the final Four. after the 2001 season we have been a very very dark horse to even sniff the last two rounds, and by 2005 we were starting to feel lucky just to make it out of the first weekend, or even get a postseason bid at all.

Man that information is depressing. Women's tennis is off to another rousing start as well. 1-6 loss to the Number 22 team in the country.

This is so disappointing. I really thought this was the year for a change.

Gary Blair proved that it is possible to get great female athlete's to commit and to rebuild a program from the ground up. Our athletic department has plenty of resources. What is the hold-up with volleyball?