Bison Volleyball Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell varsity volleyball program debuted in the fall of 1978, with Bucknell Athletics Hall-of-Famer Terrie Grieb coaching the team for its first seven seasons. Grieb led the Bison to a winning record in just their fifth varsity season in 1982, which was also the first year that the squad played in a conference. Bucknell competed in the East Coast Conference from 1982-89, and then was a charter member of the Patriot League starting in 1990. Since then, the Bison have produced a number of terrific teams, including two that won league titles and played in the NCAA Tournament, and the program has sent two players into the Hall of Fame. Over the next several days we will take a look back through the decades and hear from many of the top players from the past 42 years. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.

1970s
After three years competing at the club level, the Bison volleyball program was elevated to varsity status in May of 1978. Volleyball and softball both debuted as varsity sports during the 1978-79 academic year, upping Bucknell's count to 23 varsity programs at the time. Just 10 years earlier, Bucknell Athletics consisted of only nine sports, but the passing of Title IX in 1973 resulted in the rapid and successful expansion of women's athletics. Terrie Grieb, a former star athlete herself at Lock Haven, came to Bucknell at the age of 22 and was installed as head coach of both the brand-new volleyball and softball programs. Grieb's first volleyball team in the fall of '78 consisted of 15 players, some of whom were holdovers from the club squad. To show how far the sport has come, the position listings on that initial roster consisted of two categories: "setters" and "spikers". The first varsity team finished 2-7 with wins over Susquehanna and Scranton, but the win total doubled to four in year two, and then quadrupled to 16 by the year four in 1981. On this episode of Bison Volleyball Through the Decades, we welcome three members of the original varsity volleyball team: Wendy Green '80, Sue Atkinson '81 and Susan Bairstow '81. Head coach Tyler Hagstrom and current freshman Catherine Jamison lead this fun and informative discussion.

1980s
Bucknell Volleyball debuted as a varsity program in 1978, so the team's success under head coach Terrie Grieb came fairly quickly. The team moved into the East Coast Conference in 1982, and the Bison posted back-to-back 22-win seasons -- the first winning campaigns in team history -- in '82 and '83. Grieb, who was also the head softball coach and assistant women's basketball coach at the same time, relinquished her volleyball post following the 1984 season. Five alumnae from the decade join head coach Tyler Hagstrom and current senior Anna Carroll on this discussion: Denise Cohen '83, Beth Hopper '85 P'17, Cheryl Conrad '86, Traci Bittler '88 and Sue Riley '89. Cohen captained the 1982 team and earned 10 varsity letters at Bucknell, four in softball and three each in volleyball and basketball. She was the basketball team's leading scorer as a junior, and as a senior she was named the East Coast Conference Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Hopper was a two-year team captain in volleyball and was also a three-year letterwinner in softball. Conrad earned two letters at Bucknell after transferring from Georgia. In 1985 she was a team captain and a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, and she still holds the team record for service aces in a match with nine. Bittler lettered all four years at Bucknell and led the team and ranked seventh in the ECC in digs as a junior. Riley was a two-year volleyball captain who was named the team's Most Inspirational Player in 1987 and a Second Team All-ECC selection in 1988.

1990s
The Bison volleyball program experienced a lean stretch in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, but the 1993 squad will be long remembered for one of the most remarkable turnarounds in any sport in Bucknell history. After a 4-24 season in 1992 to cap a four-year stretch with just 18 total wins, the Bison completely flipped the script in '93, finishing 17-15 while establishing themselves as one of the Patriot League's top programs. The '93 team, whose top players consisted mostly of freshmen and sophomores, was the nation's most improved team, set numerous statistical records, and earned an invitation to the ECAC Championship at season's end. Just two years later the Bison finished 26-7 overall and a perfect 6-0 in Patriot League play. Bucknell captured two more Patriot League regular-season titles in 1997 and 1998, and in '98 the team broke through and won the PL Tournament for the first time, resulting in the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. Two of the catalysts from this era were Katie Steele '96 and Melissa Wharton '98, who are the volleyball team's two representatives in the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame. They are joined on this edition of Bison Volleyball Through the Decades by Susie Teitsworth '97 and Shannon Walker '02. Steele, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, was a two-year captain and a rare four-time First Team All-Patriot League selection. Her name is all over the team record book, and she still ranks second in total blocks, solo blocks, aces and hitting percentage. Steele was also a Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year and CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. Wharton was nearly automatic as a middle hitter, and her .400 career hitting percentage is a safe bet to remain the school record for quite awhile. Her .445 hitting percentage in 1995 is still one of the best in NCAA history. Wharton is the only Bison to hit over .400 in a season, and she did so three times, while also setting season and career records for solo blocks and total blocks. Wharton was a three-time First Team All-Patriot League selection, and in 2015 she joined Steele on the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team. Teitsworth captained the 1996 squad, and she still holds the team's season and career records for service aces. She is the former record holder for digs in a season and career and now ranks second in both. Like Wharton and Steele, Teitsworth was a Christy Mathewson Award winner as the top athlete in her class. Walker played on both of Bucknell's NCAA Tournament teams in 1998 and 2000. She was a three-time All-Patriot League selection and was the league's Offensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2000. A two-time Academic All-District pick, Walker currently ranks third on Bucknell's career kills list as well as fifth in hitting percentage and solo blocks.

2000s
The Bucknell volleyball program exploded in the mid-1990s, and that momentum carried over into the 2000s. In fact, in the year 2000, the Bison went 10-2 in Patriot League play and as the No. 1 seed won the Patriot League Tournament for the second time in three years. The team's only two regular-season PL losses that season came against Lehigh, but coach Cindy Opalski's squad avenged those defeats with a four-set win in Davis Gym in the PL semifinals, led by a school-record-tying 32 digs from PL Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year Brandi Trapasso and 21 kills (with just one error) from Offensive Player of the Year Shannon Walker. Backed by 18 kills from Tournament MVP Brooke Bader, the Bison swept Colgate the following day to win the title. That led to the program's second NCAA Tournament bid, where the Bison ran into a tough Wisconsin team -- the top seed in the Mid-East Region -- in the first round. That would be the team's last league title to date, but the Bison posted .500 or better league records and finished in the top four in the league standings in eight of the 10 seasons in this decade, including seven in a row. Trapasso, who was teammates with her twin sister Breean throughout her Bucknell career, joins us on today's episode, along with Jackie Leahy '05, Chelsea Anderson '06 and Shannon Pitsch '09. Trapasso remains Bucknell's career digs leader with 1,588, and she was a two-time All-Patriot League and two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. Leahy was a two-year team captain who ranks fourth on Bucknell's career kills chart with 1,194. She was a First Team All-Patriot League pick in 2003 and 2004. Anderson captained the 2005 squad and was terrific in the back row for the Bison. She was a two-time all-conference selection who ranks third on the career digs chart with 1,210. Pitch was a two-year captain and one of the top setters in team history. She holds the Bucknell single-season (1,199) and career (3.597) assists records and also ranks third all-time with 136 service aces. She earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors as a senior and was also a two-time Academic All-District selection.

2010s
We start our series with the most recent decade, which ended with the introduction of first-year head coach Tyler Hagstrom. In this episode Hagstrom and current sophomore Kelsey O'Loughlin chat with four standouts from the 2010s: Kat Tauscher '13, Karen Campbell '16, Katie Price '16 and Hailey Stout '16. All four were team captains, with Price becoming one of only two players in team history to be a three-year captain. Campbell ranks second in Bucknell history in block assists (308) and third in total blocks (388), and she was a Second Team All-Patriot League and Academic All-Patriot League selection as a senior. Price received both the Bison Club Award and the 'ray Bucknell Award at the 2016 Senior Awards Banquet, in recognition of her work both on and off the volleyball court, and Stout was a two-time Academic All-Patriot League Team honoree.

Bucknell University Athletics

Bison Volleyball Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

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