Set for success

Setter Whitney Granado: the shy, quiet one.

Right-side hitter Kelci Marschall: the outspoken leader.

Middle blocker Samantha Thrower: the cool, calm one who goes about her business.

The three seniors of the IU volleyball program will be honored at Senior Night against Ohio State on Saturday and lace up their shoes for the last time against Minnesota on Nov. 24.

This group helped lead IU to some of its best moments, particularly the Sweet 16 run in 2010. The eclectic and diverse threesome has become inseparable.

It wasn’t always that way, though.

“I didn’t like Kelci at all,” Granado said while laughing at the memory. “Because when we were on a visit together, I thought she was so mean.”

Granado had a simple explanation as to why her fellow senior was mean.

“Because she was,” Granado said. “It was probably just because I was so quiet and she was very outspoken.”

They have come to love each other and have already made plans to be in one another’s weddings.

“I think we have really different personalities, but opposites attract,” Marschall said. “I was obnoxious, Whitney was dead silent and Sam was in between. We didn’t know what to think of each other.”

Granado has become more outspoken and is now a leader of the team, IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said.

“Whitney came in and was this quiet kid from California,” Dunbar said. “Then things changed last year. She really took it upon herself to be a leader. It was really nice to see someone who was able to make that decision to change.”

This year has been plagued by injuries for Granado, as was most of her career, Dunbar said.

She missed the first 12 games of the season due to complications with mononucleosis and had a leg injury that caused her to miss some action in the conference portion of the schedule.

When she came back this season, she was one of the conference’s best setters.

“I would have loved to see her healthy for four years and see what she could have done,” Dunbar said.

Her teammates said Granado came into the program as a shy, quiet kid and leaves as one of the most vocal leaders of the team.

But she’s not shy anymore, just reserved, Marschall said.

“She’s not shy, she just doesn’t feel the need to tell everyone what she’s thinking,” Marschall said. “Like I do.”

Marschall is the primary vocal leader of the team and the one who addresses her teammates during timeouts and pre-game pump up speeches most of the time.

“She’s really a student of the game,” Dunbar said. “She’s got a true love for the sport, which I love.

“If we walk into practice and it’s 30 minutes before practice and someone’s hitting balls, she grabs balls and wants to hit with them.”

Marschall and Thrower hit it off right away, the friends said, partly because of the valuable asset Marschall had that every college kid desires — a car.

“And you guys used my car and snuck to the mall, I know you did,” Marshall said to her teammates to the left and right of her. “That was just evil.”

Then there’s Thrower, master car thief and middle blocker for the team. The one who always plays it cool, her teammates said.

Except on the court, where she dominates, Dunbar said.

Her coach added she wishes Thrower had one more year, as she’s playing the best volleyball of her career right now.

“Physically, she’s a monster,” Dunbar said. “Teams are running their defenses around her and trying to stop her, because she’s such a significant presence out on the court.”

Thrower is one of the top players in the Big Ten at protecting the net. She ranks third in the conference with a 1.28 blocks-per-set average.

The middle blocker has matured and taken her senior year seriously, which is different from when she first came into the program, Dunbar said.

“She was kind of goofy, and everybody picked on Sam,” Dunbar said with a smile. “Now she’s a woman. I don’t know. She’s just different.”

Her fellow senior teammates thought she was cool and easy to get along with when they first met her. They didn’t have the rocky start Granado and Marschall had.

“I thought Sam was cool,” Granado said. “I didn’t really know her, but she was fine, just kind of there and happy.”

Marschall agreed.

“Sam was just Sam,” she said. “There’s no other way to describe her.”

To her coach, Thrower’s business-like attitude and lunch-pail mentality stands out to her.

“Never complains. That’s the one thing I’ll say about Sam,” Dunbar said. “She’s not been in the training room for four years, maybe except to get a Band-Aid. Never complains. It is rare to have a kid on your team who never complains.”

After the trio experienced a sophomore year regarded as the best in program history — the Hoosiers’ had their only Sweet 16 appearance — the program took a dramatic hit the following year.

The team went 1-19 in Big Ten play and was tied for the worst conference record with Iowa.

This year, the final for these three players, the team has gone 4-12 in the Big Ten, adding to the consistency they gain as they go throughout the season.

IU started the year 0-8 in the conference and since has gone 4-4.

For the seniors, building the program to what it was two years ago is their main focus.

“This year it’s coming back,” Granado said. “It’s kind of where we were at as freshmen. So if that’s the trend to get back where we were when we leave, then I would feel really proud that we helped make that step.”

The chain of command has been passed down throughout the years, Marschall said. The installments of character that were drilled into them as underclassmen are the same values they are trying to give the underclassmen.

“That’s the reputation that volleyball has and we’ve worked hard to get,” Marshall said. “Doing things the right way, even when no one is looking.”

Dunbar is happy the seniors want to leave the program better then when they came in.

“They’ve had one of those careers where it’s been kind of up and down,” Dunbar said. “Last year being obviously the worst year, and this year where we actually have talent, but we’re not consistently winning.”

It’s not just the wins and losses that will be the legacy of these three teammates, their coach added in.

“They do well in school, make good decisions and care a lot about the program and the University,” Dunbar said.

After graduation and when their eligibility for volleyball dries up, they each plan to go in different directions.

Granado hopes to go to law school, Marschall wants to continue playing volleyball in Puerto Rico and Thrower is applying for an internship this spring in sports marketing.
No matter what, though, they will still be inseparable.

“We’re best friends,” Marschall said. “We don’t have to worry about staying in touch. It’s not something we are going to stress about, because we know wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, we’ll find a way.”