Last year, Bradley volleyball was at a high point. The Braves made the postseason for the first time since 2018, won 12 games in conference play for the second consecutive year and also won the BESPY for team of the year.
Then, on Dec. 18, a bomb dropped.
Sixth-year head coach Carol Price-Torok left the Braves to return to The University of Texas at San Antonio, where she spent two years as an assistant coach. In her place now sits Alicia Williams, who joins Bradley after leading Iowa Western Community College to back-to-back NJCAA National Championships.
The 10th head coach in the program’s history, Williams inherits an experienced roster featuring 10 upperclassmen and 13 returning players. She also brings Maike Bertens Deckart, an NJCAA All-American for Iowa Western, with her to Peoria, rounding out a team that Williams wants to get close with.
“I just hope I can love them hard so that they know that I’m here to help them and mentor them and provide whatever they need to be as successful as their potential is,” Williams said. “For me, I just want to make sure I can create good relationships right off the bat and then make sure they know that they can come to me.”
For the fourth year in a row, the Braves were picked to finish fourth in the MVC so Williams knows there’s a class that finally wants to make the conference regret their rankings.
“This senior group has something to prove,” Williams said. “They’ve told me over and over again [that] they’re tired of getting picked fourth in the league. They have an extra little chip on their shoulder of that internal drive to do better than they have the last four years.”
Playing under a new coach is tough, especially after three years on a team. That’s why seniors like Karagan Coggin are thankful Williams is resonating with the girls.
“She does have a different coaching style, but it is working for our team,” Coggin said. “It seems like everybody’s picking it up really quickly. She does a great job trying to make sure we’re all on the same page and getting it all together, so I think we’re all able to transition to it.”
A veteran in the front row, Coggin was named to the preseason All-MVC team after earning first-team all-conference honors a season ago. She was the first Brave since 2004 to collect 300 kills and 85 or more blocks in the same season while hitting .345 in MVC contests, a mark that led the conference. Bradley also returns two more seniors with last year’s leading blocker Raeann Bergman and digs leader Serena Sparks.
A point of struggle for the Braves could be the absence of Hannah Thompson, one of two Braves to earn three First-Team All-MVC selections at Bradley. She led the team in points and kills her senior year while also holding the career mark for double-doubles as a Brave.
However, Coggin thinks the success will continue whether Thompson is out there or not.
“I think the spring really helped us, not having [Thompson],” Coggin said. “Yeah, she was a big part of our team, but we also have lots of people coming back and I think we’re adjusting really well to it already.”
As for what she expects in her first year, Williams is not one to make any brash predictions.
“I think it’s hard to pinpoint expectations until you go through a season with a team,” Williams said. “I really need to see all facets of the game with them. How do they go through a fifth set? How are they on the road? How are they during the middle of a conference game? Does their play waver during the middle of November? These are all things that we just need to experience together.”
For Coggin, she’s just excited to get back out and put on the jersey for one more season.
“Going out and playing with this team for the last time is gonna put a bow on it for me,” Coggin said.
However, she has a bigger goal in mind.
“Win the MVC,” Coggin said.
