Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Allie Matters was happy to find she’d be inheriting a recruiting class that included Jenna Story and Lainey Stephenson after becoming the Wright State volleyball coach 21 months ago. But that didn’t mean Matters could bank on the duo sticking with their commitment.
The two stars from rival AAU clubs in Kentucky were sold on the Raiders by the previous staff, and the new coach had to get them to buy into her vision for the program.
“Just being an assistant at Seton Hall, I was already familiar with Jenna and Lainey — very much so. I recruited other people from their teams. I was familiar with their high schools,” Matters said.
“It was nice to be able to say, ‘Hey, I watched you play at AAUs your senior year.’ There was a lot we had in common. I spoke at length with them, and we connected very early in the process.”
Matters’ ability to click with the two certainly is paying off this season. The sophomores are part of a talented core for the 11-1 Raiders, who are off to their best 12-game start since the program was launched in 1973.
Story won her third league defensive player of the week award this month after leading Wright State to a three-game sweep at the Ball State tourney last weekend. She set a single-game program record for digs with 39 en route to being named tourney MVP.
“Jenna is playing with such a level of consistency that we always know what we’ll get from her. The cliché that defense wins championships didn’t come up out of nowhere. She’s been absolutely spectacular,” Matters said.
