St. John’s 2024 Volleyball Season Preview

Many players return from a team that was one win away from becoming Big East tournament champions. Can Joanne Persico’s squad disrupt Creighton and Marquette’s dominance in 2024?

The hierarchy of Big East volleyball has not changed since realignment. Creighton lords over the rest of the conference, winning nine of the last ten Big East tournament titles, and Marquette trails a hair or two behind as the second-best team.

That pecking order remains intact heading into 2024. The league’s coaches picked Creighton and Marquette to finish first and second, respectively. Behind those two teams in third place are St. John’s, who were the culprits behind that missing tenth tournament title for Creighton. In 2019, they crashed the party by knocking off the Bluejays and Golden Eagles to win the Big East tournament championship.

In 2024, the Red Storm have their best chance of disrupting the Big East volleyball balance of power since that tournament win a half-decade ago.

The 2023 Red Storm volleyball team won 24 games (their most since 2007), upset second-seeded Marquette in the Big East tournament, and were one match shy of winning the Big East championship and punching a ticket to the NCAA tournament when they fell to Creighton in straight sets. Most of last season’s group returns, hoping to reverse their fate from the conference tournament final.

Head coach Joanne Persico has been a beacon of positivity for the St. John’s volleyball program over the last three decades and returns for her 31st season of coaching the Red Storm.

Like previous Persico-coached teams, there’s a diverse background of international players around this team. Players from Poland, Brazil, Italy, and Costa Rica make up the 2024 roster, and the American players come from places like San Antonio, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Atlanta.

Language barriers and cultural differences exist, but to Persico, the team shares a dialect of hard work and a hunger to improve every day.

“We’re an eclectic group,” Persico said about the team in a phone interview, “but these girls hold themselves to a high standard; they can stick together through adversity. Day in and day out of practice, they come early and ready to work. They’re engaged; they ask the right questions. When we start drills, they want to give it their all.”

The Players

Two pre-season Big East selections are expected to be crucial players for this 2024 team: juniors Erin Jones and Lucrezia Lodi.

Jones was a stat-sheet stuffer in 2023, leading the team in points (508) and kills (446) and was second on the team in digs (259). She recorded the first-ever triple-double in program history in a home win against Marquette last October, recording 22 kills, 17 digs, and 14 assists. It’s no surprise she was also named a unanimous All-Big East selection.

This past February, Jones participated in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics open tryouts for the United States women’s national volleyball team in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Lodi was second on the team in points per set last season, behind Jones, with 3.43 points per set. Across 25 matches played (22 starts), the Italian international tallied 246 kills, 164 digs, 28 blocks, and 19 aces while also earning All-Big East honors.

“Their skill sets are very versatile,” Persico said of Jones and Lodi, “I asked them to become leaders in the locker room, off the court, and in the community, and they’ve done that.”

Three seniors, libero Bree Martin, setter Wiktoria Kowalczyk, and hitter Giorgia Walther, all return for their final season of college ball and will provide the veteran experience needed for a relatively young squad.

“They have done all that I have asked of them,” said Persico when asked about the senior trio, “They come to practice every day with a hard hat and lunch pail, ready to work.”

Martin served as a defensive specialist in 2023, tallying 226 digs and 28 aces. Kowalczyk led the team in assists by a country mile with 1,084 helpers last season, ranking 6th in the Big East and the top 100 nationally. Erin Jones was the next best on the team with 273 assists. Kowalczyk also provides defensive upside, registering a round 200 digs last season.

Walther is hoping to return to form in 2024. After leading the team in points and becoming a unanimous All-Big East selection in 2022, her role was reduced in 2023, coming off the bench in twelve of 35 matches. She still provided consistent production, as she was second on the team in points (427.5), kills (379), and was fifth in digs (146).

Despite the step back in prominence, Walther rose to the occasion in clutch moments. In the Big East tournament semifinal against Marquette, she recorded the match-winning kill in the fifth set.

“It was not a moment of serendipity when she got the winning point [against Marquette], she earned that,” Persico said of Walther, “That was her working hard, doing her job, filling her role really well even if she was playing out of the back row.”

Ludovica Zola and Magda Stambrowska are expected to hold down middle-blocker duties once again in 2024. The pair were respectively first and second on the team in blocks last season, as Zola registered 111 rejections and Stambrowska logged 96 swats.

Rising sophomore Rashanny Solano Smith looks to build off a very promising unanimous Big East All-Freshman campaign. As libero and defensive specialist, the Costa Rican international registered a team-high 458 digs. Solano Smith recently returned to practice after an injury.

The newest arrivals to this team are Kya Harris, Ella Parker, and Brazilian internationals Ana Franca Benjamim and Barbara Costas dos Santos. Persico tabs the freshmen quartet as great athletes, and they will be promising players in the future once they gain experience.