Vach a Quick Study
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The decision, it turns out, was easier than she expected.
When Savannah Vach sat down to weigh the pros and cons of beginning her college career earlier than most incoming freshmen, she realized the positives far outnumbered the negatives.
By enrolling at Miami in January, she’d have the opportunity to begin the adjustment to a new routine, a new class load and a new environment without the added pressure of also trying to navigate her first season of ACC volleyball. And she wouldn’t have to rush to learn the Hurricanes’ system. Time would be on her side before she’d have to play her first match.
There was another unexpected bonus, too: the opportunity to train with one of the most decorated setters in Miami history and the player whose success she’d be trying to match.
“Haley [Templeton] is obviously an amazing player and an amazing person,” Vach said. “She’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met and it was really good to be able to see what I’m supposed to look like every day. And then seeing how much she accomplished here and what it led to afterwards, it was just really good to see what I could do in the future.”
In a way, the future is already here for Vach.
A little more than a month after playing her first college match, the former PrepVolleyball.com National High School Player of the Year and Florida Gatorade Player of the Year has already emerged as one of the top freshmen in the conference.
This past weekend, in Miami’s first two matches of ACC play, Vach totaled 83 assists over seven sets. Against Wake Forest, she had 35 assists, three kills, a dig and a block. Two days later in a win over Duke, she had 48 assists, three digs and an ace to help the injury-depleted Hurricanes improve to 6-4.
Her performance last weekend helped Vach earn ACC Freshman of the Week honors, recognition the setter says opened her own eyes to the impact she could have this year.
“It was very, very surprising, but it felt good,” said Vach, who has totaled 374 assists in 10 matches and ranks second in the ACC and 30th in Division I with 10.71 assists per set, a number that ranks fourth among freshmen setters nationwide. “It’s good to know that I’m capable of doing these things and know that I can be even better in the future than I am now.”
Said Hurricanes volleyball coach Jose “Keno” Gandara, “She came in early in January and I think that was huge for her. She realized how the challenges were bigger than she expected and she was very glad to be here handling them early. She’s been amazing. She’s very mature, hard-working and just a very good learner. She’s the daughter of a coach and she’s everything you would expect.”
While there may have been some early hiccups, for Vach, adjusting to the college game has likely been made easier because of those family ties.
Her mother, Kimberly Vach, played volleyball at Stetson before going on to a successful coaching career that has included four national open division championships with the Orlando Tampa Volleyball Academy and the 2015 Class 8A state championship at Winter Springs High.
Vach’s older sister, Sydney, played a season at Harvard before stepping away from the sport to focus on her academics. And these days, Vach’s younger brother, Slater, is playing, too.
Volleyball has been a part of the family’s life as long as Savannah Vach can remember. Both she and Sydney began playing when each turned 4 and both grew to eventually play on their mother’s state championship-winning team four years ago.
“I can remember back when they were really young, they’d take a rope out in the garage because they didn’t have a net and they’d just play these games in the heat of Florida,” Kimberly Vach recalled. “Her older sister would beat her and beat her and beat her and Savannah would come into the house upset. Then one day, her grandmother – my mother – said to her, ‘Savannah, one day you’re going to beat your sister. Trust me.’ … I think that’s been the attitude Savannah has always had. She’s had a fight that’s rare in this generation. It’s been kind of amazing. … I’d coached for 32 years and when I was at Winter Springs and Sydney was a junior and Savannah was a freshman, I had never won a state title. Then Savannah came in and she was that missing piece. That was the year we won state.”
Now, the Hurricanes are hoping Vach will bring a similar kind of success to Miami.
“She’s a special kid and a good player and I think there’s a lot of good things coming for her,” Gandara said. “She’s already established herself as a kid that can help us develop the culture of the team and help set the tone we want in practice.
“Her focus on game preparation, she’s not a freshman in that regard. I think her value’s not only on the court as a setter running our offense, but as a teammate, mentor and leader for the rest of the team. In spite of her age, she’s really mature and she’s already helped the freshmen with only a couple of months under her belt. She’s earned the trust of her teammates just by working hard.”
