Monday checkin: Sibley update, Pestolesis’ 30th
Hope everyone on Oahu survived the heat and now the rain of the weekend.
Happy 30th wedding anniversary to Diane Sebastian and Tom Pestolesi. Great people and glad I was able to cover them during their playing days at UH.
I did have a story on Kirsten Sibley (Campolindo, 2016 oral commit) in Friday’s paper. But because it is behind our paywall for subscribers I cannot repost it here. so recapping it with a couple of items didn’t make it in the story.
Very nice young woman. Got a chance to speak with her and both her high school and club coaches. Love the internet for making it much easier to track people down.
both coaches said she’s very athletic, good reach, high contact point. has played mostly LS. When setting a goal of playing at a top college, she was told she’d need to set herself aport from other OHs so her club particularly focused on her defense. She said she began doing extra passing drills from when she was 14. Both coaches said she was a 6-rotation player.
She said she hasn’t made her official visit, likely will do so Labor Day weekend tournament. Said she and her family have visited Hawaii many times and love it. She had offers from some East Coast schools like Virginia and BC but she wanted to stay near the beach. Had looked mostly at WCC schools, and it ended up between Hawaii and Pepperdine.
Someone on the previous thread asked about her playing beach for UH. That probably will happen since they’ve always encouraged crossovers. She’s also still swimming competitively but not as seriously as she was before committing to volleyball. Believe her brother plays water polo for Cal.
Said she and the Warriors incoming setter Joe Worsley are great friends and is looking forward to both of them being at UH. She is the first Vision Volleyball Club player to come to UH since Amber Kaufman.
Club coach is former Santa Clara assistant Will Yuen and High school coach is John Vuong, who is married to a Kamehameha grad. Both are very familiar with the volleyball culture in Hawaii and feel Sibley is a good fit with the Wahine program.
Thanks for the Kirsten Sibley article. Looks like a great get (sign the dotted line when it’s time, please).
Happy 30th to Diane and Tom!
Vision’s 18’s coach is Jason Mansfield, a Stanford assistant. Wonder if they made her an offer and if not, why not.
2. Stanford was never mentioned by coaches or player.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure I am correct. UH has never successfully competed with and won a recruiting battle with Stanford. If Stanford was in the picture, UH did not get that recruit. I believe the closest we got was Alix Klineman, and possibly even Kathryn Plummer a recent commit to Stanford. (if my resources were correct anyway)
But Sibley looks like a solid get for UH. Saw her even do a step out in one of her recruiting videos.
Stanford is the #1 ranked University in the USA. Those with any sense and who are given the opportunity are sure to attend Stanford. There are still plenty of bright talented girls available who will thrive at UH. Coach has accomplished so much considering UH is a second tier University academically speaking. He lures the recruits with the promise of great coaching, the allure of Hawaii, and the great fan base.
5. You stated that Stanford is the #1 ranked University in the USA. Do you also mean that it will be ranked #1 in the pre-season as well? I would think so since they will have a couple of senior outside hitters, a senior setter and middle blocker who were All-Americans and incoming freshman of the year, Hayley Hodson. Same question I direct to Cindy and everyone else. Will Stanford be ranked #1 in preseason? Perhaps Penn State will be #2. Hope Hawaii can make it in the top 10.
Stanford is probably losing Inky to injury, so who knows. I do think they’ll be ranked number one pre season though.
And Stanford never offered Sibley. She’s good, but not that good from what I’ve seen.
Their 2016 recruits are Keefe, Plummer, Fitzmorris, Gray and Hentz. They basically nabbed the top Opp, MB, and L of the glass, with a solid top 5 setter in gray, and a good get in keefe.
I was not talking about volleyball when I stated that Stanford was the #1 university in the Country, I was talking about their over-all ratings provided by many publications that rate all colleges and universities. They just happen to have the potential to be #1 this year in women’s volleyball. I think that Hawaii will also field an elite team this year and anything could happen.
Personally I’d take Sibley over Keefe. I think Sibley will be a better college player.
Not sure why Stanford is even being discussed other than one of the assistants at her club is an assistant at Stanford. Don’t think it’s that relevant. McNeal from Vision went to Texas, one went to Harvard.
Has UH ever won the recruiting battle? Only one I can remember is Diane Sebastian who came to UH because it had the degree she wanted. But Stanford wasn’t a volleyball power back then.
Think UH was closer to getting Logan Tom than Klineman. Tom’s dad was on the big island at the time and she was in Hawaii every summer. She told me that she refused to take a recurring trip to UH because she knew if she did she would commit to the Wahine.
8. agree Ron. hard to pass on Stanford. No. 1 on some lists.
9. not necessarily. Don’t think you can predict how good a 17 year old will be a year from now and how they develop during their four years.
Caitlin and Michaela Keefe have pretty good DNA. Dad Adam played basketball and volleyball at Stanford (then the NBA) Mom Kristin Klein Stanford volleyball as well.
Were we really that close to getting Logan Tom? My lord, can you imagine the team Hawaii would of fielded in 2001 and 2002? That team would have been even scarier.
Hm..I didn’t know Kristen Klein was their mother. I remember in 1991 Stanford came to town as the undefeated #1 team in the country with Klein and Bev Oden. We swept them in 3 straight the first night and fell in a hard battle 5 gamer the second night. What a series that was.
As far as Logan Tom goes, I guess I never really considered her a possible close call for UH because she never took her recruiting visit and said quite frankly that she didn’t want to go to UH. And Klineman took a recruiting visit and we were in her top 5, so to me she was more likely to come here than Tom.
And Brandon, you may be talking if we had Logan for 2002 and 2003, those were the Kim and Lily years. 2001 was the 7 kills a game Willoughby show as Lily took the year off. Now, if we had Tom for 2002 and 2003, guarantee USC would not have been national champions. We would have been back to back champions those years, not them…too bad.
sorry didn’t see this until now. thought I had closed this thread out. so may be repeating myself from comments made on the next tread.
12. As mentioned earlier, Tom said she didn’t take a recruiting trip to UH because she knew that if she did she would commit. so i don’t take that as she didn’t want to some to UH. Took that as she went with her head over her heart, which is hard to turn down a Stanford degree. Although she didn’t earn that degree until quite some time after her eligibility was done because of her playing career.
And think I said that if Tom had come, it would have been hard to keep all those hitters happy. But, then, with Kahumoku and Tom in the 1999 class, perhaps you don’t recruit Willoughby to come in a year later.