TicketsThe Bearcats will play Alabama State on Friday (6 p.m.), Xavier on Saturday (6 p.m.) and Indiana State on Sunday (3 p.m.).
Below are samples from Alvey's press conference.
Opening Statement
"This opening weekend is special for us because we honor one of our former Bearcats who passed away, Stephanie Meinig-Rosefeld. She played here and coached here. So, it's a really special tournament for us. To be opening up at home and with our crosstown rival, it's a fun way to kick off this inaugural Big 12 season. We're looking forward to it. I know the players are super excited."
On the new additions to the team from the transfer portal
"Katelyn [Lefler] comes in as a junior and is just a really physical athlete. Offensively, she's strong and just her presence on the court is strong. For her height and strength, she has really quick feet. That's something that we look for in setters so you can get to the ball quickly. She's pretty mobile for her size too and puts up a really nice block. I think just her presence on the court. Her leadership has been fantastic and has really developed since she came in the spring. We got her an extra semester, so that was tremendous. Carly [Skrabak] comes to us from Marquette where she excelled at an extremely high level. I describe her as almost gymnast-like on the court. Just super athletic, but light on her feet and she moves to the floor. She's graceful, she's composed. She touches everything in her area. It's impressive to watch her play. She's going make some great plays. That position doesn't get noticed as much, but I think if you know that about her and you can kind of hone in and watch to see that she is just a tremendous athlete. Jadyn [Bauss] is a little bit of a unique situation because we played against her for the four years that she was at SMU. So, as soon as we saw her in the portal, it was a no brainer for us. As an outside, she's not overly tall but she's so long in her reach, and her vision, how she sees the block. Her ability to make decisions in the moment and her ball control is phenomenal. It's just that natural maturation process and really knowing what's expected of you. That's the level that those two graduate transfers bring in. They have experience and that's one thing as coaches we can't teach."
On the momentum entering the Big 12
"It's really exciting. You feel like you're finally there. We can only do so much as far as scheduling with our non-conference pieces to mimic what that next level looks like. That's one thing people would say about me, I schedule really hard non-conference opponents. If you want to be at that level, you have to play at that level, and we've scheduled that way with non-conference games in the past. Now, you have to do that over a long period of time, but we are excited. There's no question about that. The level of the volleyball in Big 12 is huge. They have the previous national champion Texas in the Big 12. The volleyball is tremendous. It's a whole different ballgame. You have to be right in the mix of everything. Your goal is to get to the tournament. So, I think it opens up so many doors, the coaches are unbelievable as well. The value that the conference puts on the sport is tremendous. It is an important sport. You wouldn't have a national championship team out of it if it wasn't important."
On the progress of the team so far
"I think they're ready. These first four weeks of non-conference play gives us that snapshot. After this weekend, you evaluate and ask, 'what do we need to bring to the following weekend?' You can't become a team on day one, right? It's a slow progress that you hope you can keep hitting the stride of and by mid-October, you're really starting to hit this peak and start going up. We'll learn a lot about ourselves this weekend. You're with the same people in the gym 24/7, so when you actually get to go out as one full front, all together, you get to see what that looks like. That's what's most exciting for this week."