Mandy’s been dandy for U-Hi

Maybe it’s just coincidence that Mandy Daniels’ arrival on University’s volleyball team corresponds to the longest sustained record of success in school history.

Certainly there have been standout contributors from four successive classes who helped to make it happen. But there can be no denying that Daniels has had as much to do with it as anyone since she first set foot on court.

“She has been the catalyst of this program being turned around,” U-Hi coach Amanda Velasquez said of Daniels.

The Titans were coming off three successive 1-9 seasons upon Daniels’ arrival along with fellow sophomore Daidre Mendenhall and freshman setter Kara Crisp.

They joined a senior-dominated team that included three returning starters, but U-Hi wrestling coach Don Owen, whose daughter was a junior second-year starter on that team, said, “I never thought Molly would be on a winning team.”

That changed in a hurry. The upstart Titans shot to 10-3 and finished third in the GSL. At first Daniels may have felt she was in a supporting role, but she certainly took her turn leading the team in kills and was named second-team All-Greater Spokane League as a varsity neophyte.

“One person can’t change the way a whole team plays,” Daniels insists. “I really didn’t have any expectations whatsoever. My sister was there, which was a lot of fun, but I hadn’t played with any of the girls before.”

The Titans of 2002 qualified for the school’s first regional tournament and only a loss to Shadle Park prevented them from qualifying for state.

“I think if we would have been able to play a couple of years together, we could have been a very dominating team,” Daniels said.

Her role as U-Hi’s dominant player has increased with each successive season. She was kills and digs leader in half of the league matches her junior year, when she was first-team All-GSL. Those Titans were an unknown entity, but finished second in league and made their first state appearance.

This year Daniels has put up impressive statistics in leading both categories in six of eight matches, including Tuesday’s win at Mead that put the Titans alone atop the GSL.

“Every year her game has improved and it’s her all-around game, not just one aspect of it,” said Velasquez. “One of Mandy’s strengths is she can read where the ball is going and can see the entire court. She’s about two passes ahead of the game.”

So much so she even helps direct Crisp’s passes when she is the back row.

Daniels came to volleyball stardom almost by accident. In sixth grade she played YMCA volleyball, but also was focusing on basketball and softball when Crisp and senior teammate Callie Taylor asked her to go along to tryouts for a club volleyball team Crisp’s aunt was to coach.

She wound up playing for Ferris coach Stacey Ward on the River City 12-U team and has been a club staple ever since.

“I used to do Ferris camps because we didn’t really do those here,” Daniels said. “Credit the Ferris area with starting me in volleyball.”

She spent two years playing for Performance which went to two national tournaments with players from various current GSL and Idaho teams. So there was a certain buzz in the U-Hi community about this volleyball standout before she arrived there.

Still, nobody could have predicted this kind of success for the Titans. There had been no precedent for it.

U-Hi volleyball had a winning record in 1976, the Greater Spokane League’s first year, but finished seventh or lower until a break-even playoff season in 1987. Through 2001 the Titans had the league’s worst overall record.

There was a window of success in the early 1990s with two winning seasons, including an unprecedented, third-place 12-4 record in 1994.

What has transpired since has been remarkable. Daniels has been a big part of it, if not the biggest part.

“I knew she was going to be very vital,” Velasquez said. “I knew she would have an influence.”