Roumeliotis Digging Her Expanded Fit in Program
Libero's play, leadership crucial on a young roster
Mike Brohard
At first, the board in the corner of Moby Arena wasn’t working. It happens.
Normally, that’s where the fans can check out the stats of a Colorado State volleyball match. The players, too. But it wasn’t working at first, so Alexa Roumeliotis had no idea how good of a night she was having.
Then it came on, and what she had been feeling was definitely reality.
“Then they kept going up, and I was like, oh, this is cool,” Roumeliotis said. “That’s a lot of digs.”
Indeed. In fact, 36 in all, a program record for a four-set match. The bummer was that it came in a loss to UNLV, one where the two teams strung together a ton of long rallies, leading to a high dig total. Obviously, a record means an incredible performance, but this wasn’t a one-time thing for the Rams’ senior libero. She is averaging 4.86 digs per set, which ranks her first in the Mountain West and 55th nationally.
From coach Tom Hilbert’s perspective, Roumeliotis has always been good. In fact, since her first day on campus after transferring from Creighton, he notes she’s been the best at serve-receive since that day.
“Hands down,” he said.
Last year, she was doing it from the middle-back, her more comfortable position; it’s what she played for the Bluejays. However, Hilbert’s system needed her to move for his team’s defense to be at its peak, so she worked on the transfer to left-back.
The major adjustment for her she said was being closer to the hitters, so she had to train herself to react instead of being able to set up for shots to read a ball. . It meant training herself in practice to have a wide base. Being a calm competitor helped. But swing after swing, the attacks were funneled her way and she was constantly feeding passes to setter Ciera Zimmerman.
The pandemic allowed her more time to grow into the role, but Hilbert’s not sure she actually needed the delay to the season to be ready.
“She was more comfortable in the middle-back, so we played her in the middle-back a lot last year. Then we focused in the offseason and this last fall at her trying to be better at low-range defensive plays,” Hilbert said. “She’s a really, really great player, and it didn’t take her long to kind of master it. She’s very good at reacting to the game, which you want in any libero. She can play any position, but I think that she’s really taken it upon herself to kind of lead us in the back row this year, take charge of everything and make all the defensive calls.
“Last year, she was good, but she also had Olivia Nicholson, who was a really good back-row player. She was joined by some other pretty talented kids, but she’s kind of doing it all now.”
Not just taking a lead role for the team, but also in mentoring a young group in the backcourt and on the team. It fits naturally with her major, math education, and she knew she not only had to change positions, but transform into a leadership role.
When a senior-laden roster exits for a massive infusion of freshmen, a program will automatically be altered, but for the base principles to remain in place, some players are going to have to offer guidance.
“Every game we seem to be improving,” she said. ”Little by little, it’s cool to see the younger players get integrated into the team. That team chemistry might take a while, but every day it’s getting there.
“Knowing six seniors graduated, I knew this might be a different season. It’s exciting for me as an education major that we had seven new freshmen coming in who could build their own culture. I was really interested to see how they were all going to be and grow as players. It’s been really fun.”
Last year, she was good, but she also had Olivia Nicholson, who was a really good back-row player. She was joined by some other pretty talented kids, but she’s kind of doing it all now.Tom Hilbert
“Knowing six seniors graduated, I knew this might be a different season. It’s exciting for me as an education major that we had seven new freshmen coming in who could build their own culture. I was really interested to see how they were all going to be and grow as players. It’s been really fun.”
Her approach is positive encouragement, which she also uses a couple of days a week in helping in a local classroom. Better yet, she said the freshmen on the team are more apt to listen to her than middle schoolers, at least by a 60/40split.
“It depends on the moment,” she joked.
But the younger players do appreciate her methods, even those she started working with last year. Sophomore Alyssa Bert’s main role was as a server last season, but she worked hard to earn a spot in the back-row rotation, and some of that improvement stems from watching the way Roumeliotis operates.
“Honestly, I really appreciate her. She is the opposite of me,” Bert said. “I’m very high strung and anxious, and she’s the calm. I remember talking to my parents over the last year, I’m very comfortable next to her on the court. I feel that brings trust in her. She’s just a good. She’s not overbearing; I can be overbearing at times, but she counters that. I can overbear myself, overthink things.
“I feel one of the biggest things I’ve observed from her is her calmness, and I feel she does well because of how calm she is, specifically in serve-receive. That was something that I struggled with in was serve-receive, and I feel by watching her be calm, I was like, I should try that. So I really try to calm my mind in serve-receive now, and my serve-receive has really improved in the past year.”
Bert calls Roumeliotis’ teaching style honest and witty, noting she is timely with when she speaks and how she views individuals and their situations. It helps, because as Hilbert noted, they want Roumeliotis to be as involved as a libero can be in the defensive scheme.
She’s just that good at what she does, so they have increased her area of coverage, which can mean venturing into seams which used to belong to others. For a team looking to be more consistent in having the offense run in-system, Roumeliotis constantly passing is the quickest path to the goal.
“She’s already made us better. The other area she’s improved and probably one of the bigger roles is she’s taking a lot more space as a serve-receiver,” Hilbert said. “We have different schemes where we move her to the middle of the court in five of the six rotations, so when she does that, she has to move around and poach balls away from other people, and she’s gotten really comfortable with that.”
Roumeliotis admits that wasn’t easy at first, but she became comfortable with the concept because, one, it’s what helps the team, and two, constant communication has led to an understanding of the defensive plan.
“Poaching balls is definitely a little bit of a ball hog, but it’s definitely my job as of now,” she said. “I think it was something they started talking to me about when I first got here, was being aggressive in those seams on serve-receive. After we worked on it for a while and people became comfortable with what I was going to take, and we all knew which balls were mine and theirs, it became more comfortable.”
She’s also made the Rams – 3-3 heading up to Wyoming (4-2) for the Border War series this Friday and Saturday (both matches at 6 p.m.) – a better serving team. To her, that’s a real change.
She was good in the back row at Creighton, not as adept at the service line. Now, after five aces against the Rebels in one match, she is fifth in the conference with .50 per set, helping make the Rams the 19th-best serving team in the country.
In fact, the coaching staff saw her service game as such a bugaboo, it is a topic they will not talk to her about. But in the offseason, she worked at making her serving stroke more consistent, making it easier to brush aside an off-target offering or two.
“It might be the part of my game that I was least confident in coming from Creighton,” she said. “I think I’m able to stay calm even if I miss a couple of serves and getting back into that rhythm the next game is relatively easy for me.
“I think it was pretty cool to be able to have such a great serving night, since that’s not my forte exactly. That definitely built my confidence. I guess I’m getting better at it, which is really cool to see.”
In that department, Hilbert and Co., think it is best to leave it very well alone.
But in the back row, there isn’t enough they can ask from her. Because when they cross north from one state to the next, he feels the keys to victory are if the Rams can serve well and pass sharp.
And really, both of those areas are now Roumeliotis’ forte.