Healthy, high-flying, surprising FSU set for Poole’s Arkansas NCAA homecoming

For the past decade, veteran coach Chris Poole has been striving to get Florida State back to the top of the ACC. It was a spot the Seminoles occupied in 2009, 2011 — when they went to the national semifinals — and 2012.

But in the years since, Poole has looked up at Pittsburgh, Louisville and Georgia Tech.

And Pitt won the ACC again this season – its fifth title in the past seven seasons – but surprisingly, the Panthers had to share the trophy with another team that went 16-2: Florida State, which was picked tied for fourth in the preseason ACC poll.

Forget coachspeak or any technical explanations.

Poole, who has more than 900 career wins on his resume, described it with terms like “miracle” and “smoke and mirrors.”

That’s not to disparage any of his players. To be sure, the Seminoles have plenty of talent, starting with with junior outside hitter Audrey Koenig — co-ACC player of the year — and junior middle blockers Khori Louis, who leads the ACC with a .441 hitting percentage and Kiari Robey, who is third in the league in blocks (144, 13 solo) and seventh in hitting percentage (.394).

They open NCAA Tournament play Friday in what is a homecoming for Poole at Arkanas when the Seminoles (23-8), who won their last eight ACC matches, play TCU of the Big 12 (16-14) before ninth-seeded Arkansas of the SEC (25-5) plays Stephen F. Austin of the WAC (29-4).

Florida State lost in four at TCU on September 15, but that was a different time for the Seminoles.

Poole thought the Seminoles might need a miracle after junior libero Emery Dupes — “one of the best players in the country at her position,” he noted — went down with a knee injury on August 19 in a scrimmage. Dupes was chasing a stray ball, it hit something on the ceiling and changed directions. which Dupes did, too.

“My first thought was, ‘What are we going to do?’ ” Poole said.

Added Koenig, tied for fifth in the ACC with 361 kills (3.37/set): “I was devastated for her. She had just recovered from an injury after her freshman season, and I know she worked really hard to get back.”

Koenig said the team was inspired to play that much harder for Dupes while she could only watch during her recovery. That’s all well and good, but her absence had a trickle-down effect on the Seminoles’ lineup.

The regular season was just around the corner, and Poole was going to be auditioning liberos.

The job ultimately fell to Kyleene Filimaua, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Bothell, Washington, who went to Tallahassee as an outside hitter who had never been a libero. She responded by leading the team with 319 digs (2.85/set) and tops FSU with 36 aces

“She’s doing an amazing job,” said Louis, the hometown junior who is second to Koenig with 264 kills (2.49/set). “Being a freshman and coming in and taking that pressure … it’s wonderful to see because it reminded me of when me and Audrey came in. We were freshmen having to play, and I know the pressure on her.”

She wasn’t alone. In FSU’s regular nine-player core, four are freshmen. In addition to Filimaua are setter Kenna Phelan, who splits time running the 6-2 offense with grad student and Serbian Andjelija Draskovic, right side Maddie Snider and libero Ella Gaona.

“They’ve done an amazing job,” Louis said. “Everyone is filling in and putting the pieces together. They’ve done a phenomenal job with all the pressure on them as freshmen. It could be hard, but I think they’re doing whatever they can. It’s pretty cool.”

And not only those freshmen would have to continue to be adaptable. The adversity wasn’t over.

Sophomore outside hitter Audrey Rothman missed five matches, including the first two in ACC play, with an injury. That moved Filimaua back into the front row to hit, sharing the duties with junior Skye Ekes. And with Filimaua  out of the back row for spells, it was up to the likes of redshirt-sophomore Addi Hultquist and Gaona to pick up the slack.

Florida State went a pedestrian 6-6 in non-conference matches.

“We were going through some struggles,” said Koenig, second on the team with 285 digs (2.66/set). “But I think as soon as conference play started, we kind of clicked with our lineup and got more comfortable in our roles and knew we were going to be able to support each other.”

ACC play started with a unsteady win against Virginia Tech. The Seminoles needed five sets to dispatch the Hokies, who wound up with only three conference victories.

FSU finally appeared to be rounding into form by sweeping Wake Forest and North Carolina.

Then it happened again. An injury forced Louis out of the lineup, and, without her, the Seminoles had to sweat out five-set wins over Duke and Miami.

After another five-set victory, this one over NC State, the rebuilt lineup — finally back at full strength — got its first big test against Georgia Tech. Florida State was serving for match point in the fourth set but couldn’t close the deal, and the Yellowjackets eventually won in five.

It was reminiscent of the September 12 non-conference match against Florida in which the Seminoles lost under the same scenario.

“Those are losses that I looked at and go, ‘We were right there!’ ” Poole said.

As Florida State prepared to play host to Pitt on November 3, Poole admitted he wondered if his team ever would get over the hump in a tight match against a quality opponent.

Injuries. Youth. Players shuffling positions. The team’s ability to win a big match was a legitimate worry for Poole.

“We’re up 2-0 (on Pitt). We’re playing really well. Can we finish it against a really good team?” he said. “We were able to come back and finish against teams we should  have been able to beat. But these (top) teams, we were struggling to get the victory over them.”

The match against Pitt went five sets, and when senior Sydney Conley and Louis combined on a block at 15-14, Poole’s fears were allayed.

That was the second win in what has become an eight-match ACC winning streak heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“When you look at where we were in September and where we are right now, you look at it and say that was a miracle season,” Poole said. “Because a lot of things had to fall into place, including getting wins when it was ugly. But we still found a way.”

Added Koenig: “I think we’re peaking at the right time. I think it’s really encouraging to know that we beat a 1 seed (Pitt), so we’re capable of anything, and that’s really motivated us lately.”

The Seminoles’ trip to Fayetteville will also be a homecoming for Poole on a couple of levels. He was born and raised in Arkansas, and much of his family remains there.

“Since I was old enough to walk, I was calling the Hogs on TV,” Poole said.

Perhaps as significant, Poole was the inaugural coach of the Arkansas women’s program, starting it from scratch and helping set up Barnhill Arena for volleyball. He started at Arkansas in 1994 and in his third year the Razorbacks made the first of their nine NCAA trips before he left for FSU in 2008.

At Arkanas, Poole coached the former Jessica Field, mother of FSU freshman setter Phelan. Field was Poole’s first All-American, a second-teamer in 1997.

It was Field who got the deciding block in the 1997 SEC title match when Arkansas knocked off rival Florida.

“A lot of emotions for me because Arkansas was my baby,” Poole said. “Very few coaches get the opportunity to start a program literally from ground level.… And to build it from there, and, during the time I was there, we ended up second in winning percentage to Florida. We were pretty much battling with Florida every year for the SEC championship.”

First up is the match with TCU, another team that battled injuries en route to an 8-10 record in the Big 12.

“Everyone is talking about (us) playing Arkansas. And I’m like, we’re going to Arkansas, but first we have to play TCU,” Poole said. “I feel like we didn’t get any favors with that draw … When you look at some of the results they had in midseason, (Outside Melanie) Parra was out with an injury  … They’ve got a great team and a great coaching staff.”

It’s worth noting that Parra, a transfer from defending national-champion Texas, went off for 34 kills, hitting .388, against FSU in that match in mid-September.

“It’s definitely going to be different in terms of just our confidence and how comfortable we are on the court now,” Louis said. “When we played them, it was a rough patch for us. But we’ve definitely been on a winning streak, and we’ve all been grinding and working hard this season and just making so many changes.

“So this game is definitely going to be good. Everyone is looking forward to it.”

While facing his former program isn’t guaranteed to be in the cards, Poole said he has assured his team of one thing: No matter what happens in the NCAA Tournament, 2023 already has been an unquestioned success.

Best of all, only two players on the current roster will graduate, so next year’s Seminoles will be another year wiser and a lot tougher for what they went through this season.

And maybe Poole won’t have to wait another decade to add to his ACC championship banner count.

“What they accomplished this year, no one can take away from them,” he said. “It was an amazing accomplishment. (The NCAA) is a whole new separate season. They shouldn’t look at anything in the NCAA Tournament as a failure on what this season has been. They did amazing for some of the adversity we had to face.”