Stafford in the portal
- Thread starter ratking17
- Start date
This is a crusher. It just hit the VolleyTalks board and posters there are shocked. They believe she is the first 1st team AA ever to enter the portal. Although almost all are supporters of other teams, there have been a number of posters expressing their disgust for what NIL and the portal are doing to volleyball.
Seems like no, rumors on VT are that he turned it down a while ago
I’m not shocked, to be honest. I saw something last week that made me wonder.
Part of me thinks that a bit of a shakeup isn’t a terrible thing.
Part of me thinks that a bit of a shakeup isn’t a terrible thing.
Ok. This is going to sound like sour grapes. But all season long I expected more out of Stafford because all that I heard was how great she was. And well, she left me wanting more. Probably not because of her play, but because of how good we kept being told that she was.
Really? She's a 1st team all-American, who showed great improvement from freshman to sophomore season. Also, she had a tumor removed from her leg and had a rod inserted in the offseason. I think she was pretty awesome, and assumed that she will continue to improve, especially if she's healthy in the offseason. I'm pretty disappointed with the portal news.
I know. I’m sure I’ll get heat. I’m not hating on her. Maybe it’s just that she was Geno Malkin compared to Sid Crosby.
I'm with you, Chaos. I don't see a silver lining in this. She is a great player. I'm hoping like hell she ends up coming back like Cat Flood did, but I'm not optimistic about that at all. Really don't want to see any more bad news compounding this.
Hate to see her go and I dont know enough about who is available in the portal but surely there has to be a top notch OH that would love to play for us next year. Any of you people in the know have any names? I know the Purdue girl went to Lville but there has to be others.
Flormarie Heredia Colon is the best OH currently left in the portal, led the ACC in total kills this year for Miami and plays all 6 rotations. After that it’s a big drop off, need to get her if we lose Torrey
Problem with torrie leaving now is it’s too late. Maybe Fish knew all along. But if this happened last minute, then she didn’t leave a lot of time for fish to plan accordingly.
That’s said, before Torrie and Liv arrived, we certainly didn’t see them being as good as they were their first years. So maybe there’s hope.
What’s wrong with being Geno? During his prime a top 5 player in the league. I believe Torrey had the best hitting numbers of any outside hitter in the country. If you’re saying she wasn’t as good as the National Player of the Year, I’m not sure I understand your point. She’s the best returning player in the country at her position and whoever takes her place will be a downgrade.
I do wonder if her cancer diagnosis played some role in this. I guess we’ll have to see where she ends up and what compelled her to leave. But I’d imagine going through something like that - even with an amazing physical recovery - makes you re-evaluate some things, especially as a 19 year old on the opposite side of the country from your family.
Yea Flormarie Heredia Colon, 3rd Team All American, followed by Kellen on Insta
It was a benign tumor, as I recall. Not trying to minimize the recovery effort needed, it was still major surgery on a part of the body very relevant to volleyball performance, but it wasn't cancer.
Thank you - apologies for the inaccurate info.
Nothing wrong with Geno. He once won a Conn Smythe. And he will be in the HOF.
I didn’t knock her. Perhaps she was overshadowed and that impacted my perception.
She was pretty much the only pitt player to not comment on liv's return instagram post from last week.
I hope if she really leaves, she goes to usc or ucla. It will be easier to accept her transfer.
I’m just a fan and there are probably money and resources back home. Just stating that was my original thought. What do you think? Personally I think Pittsburgh can be quite a culture shock for anyone from Southern California.
She was visiting a "friend" right after the NC game. Wasn't on any of her social media accounts. I felt like this was coming. She's one of the best outsides in the nation and she's completely overshadowed by another player at Pitt. I don't think this is NIL chaos as much as it's her wanting to be the star.
There are also rumors that Bianca Garibaldi is headed to the portal.
We'll have to wait and see....but I don't all of sudden see California as the reason....after she's been here for 2 years. There's more to this story for sure. I have been wondering for a long time what it's like for her to play in Olivia's shadow. I get that. I think she ends up in the B1G....just my guess.
There was a suggestion last night that Wisconsin is a possible landing spot but just a rumor.
Wasn't so much who, just that it seems she left quickly after Louisville.
You have to keep in mind that tampering, for as bad as it is in football, is so much worse in sports where these kids play in big clubs as juniors. There are lots of ways for coaches to gauge interest and make offers without any direct contact. This was likely decided a while ago.
She's also super close with Cat Flood and now that link is gone with her graduating
I think Cat was a more important leader than people realized but I did sense that she had a bond with Torrey. For what it's worth, I expect Cat to head to Texas at some point since that was her original plan before Pitt created a way for her to stay here and study. I doubt that will have any affect on where Stafford lands but I guess we'll see.
I also noticed Stafford follows about 1/2 of the Nebraska team.
By the way....your Pantherlair profile picture is prophetic. I think it's a drawing of Dan Fisher....head in hands....in front of his computer.....dejected.....sad. Imagine what this guy must be feeling now. Ranked number 1 most of the year....4 AA's....a NPOY.....top seed in NC tourney....gets eliminated in the SF round....and now he loses one his key athletes to the portal.
