With the dust now settled from the 2024 volleyball season, one can look back on it as one that may have fallen short of the lofty expectations initially set, but one that marked the continued rise of the volleyball program and sport at Georgia Southern.

The numbers alone from the season can paint the picture for anyone - a .758 winning percentage (third-best in program history), a 12-1 start to the season, a 14-0 record during the regular season at home, 28 straight sets won and a program-high RPI of 53 - firmly on the bubble for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

While Chad Willis has never been one to focus on the hard numbers, with the season over, he appreciates the successes when they come.

"The first word that comes to mind is grateful," he said. "As I'm getting older and doing this longer, I'm coming to have a better appreciation for loving what you do and who you do it with. Any time you can take a step back and look at the type of season we had in terms of some of the things we accomplished as a team and certainly for some individuals as well, I have an awful lot of gratitude for the opportunity we had together."

The team gained a lot of national exposure early in the year. Playing under the bright lights of Auburn, earning a pair of SportsCenter Top 10 plays, and taking down Clemson at home—Willis's first Autonomy Four victory—were just the tip of the iceberg of what a special season it was for the squad.

"We have a scorecard mentality in everything we do, and those moments aren't necessarily just about the level of volleyball being played," Willis said. "All of it is a culmination of everything we have built up to this point. This staff has been here six years now, and you think about the work that has been done on and off the court and behind the scenes with the support staff, all of that is a culmination to put us in a place where if we play the right kind of volleyball, we feel great about our chances to win."

GS ran roughshod through its early-season tournaments and the first four games of Sun Belt play, sweeping opponents ten times and winning 28 straight sets, featuring wins over Winthrop, Furman and Marshall.

While the long win streak ended at App State, the team was 7-1 in the Sun Belt and firmly in first place after taking down James Madison for the first two times in program history. The two wins over the Dukes were a benchmark for Willis and Co.

"JMU has been a perennial powerhouse since joining the league a few years ago, and those wins gave us a confidence boost as a program to know we can be at the top of the league," he said. "I'm proud of us taking that step this year. With that kind of visibility also comes added responsibility; being a top team in the conference, you will get every team's best effort every night and have to be tougher. That's catalyzing us going into the 2025 season."

While it was going to be hard to sustain a near-.900 winning percentage for the whole season, the team didn't necessarily collapse but stumbled towards the end of the year, playing to just a 3-3 record in its final six games, including a pair of losses at Coastal Carolina and a tough loss to end the season at Louisiana. 

Willis mentioned that while it is easy to look at why those things happened in the statistics, the mindset should be about appreciating what you can learn about the team when those things happen and positioning yourself in the future to come out on top in those games.

"I tell our team all the time to win in those moments, you have to be in those moments, and sometimes when you're in those moments, you don't get the outcome you want," Willis said. "It's easy to look at the stat sheet and say that we didn't pass well, we didn't serve well, those things can jump out at you. For us as a team, it's more about appreciating what we can learn from being in those moments, while also having a little bit of gratitude for them in that moment, and then letting that drive the work."

The team did not let the end of the season define them. The Eagles earned a berth in the Sun Belt tournament semifinals for the first time in program history following a dominant sweep of South Alabama, who did the same thing to them in 2023 but fell to an equally hot Arkansas State team in the next round despite a tournament record 24 kills by Gray. 

Earning a berth in the NIVC for the second consecutive season, the Eagles hosted a pair of postseason games at Hanner Fieldhouse, taking down SEMO and engaging in a "game of the year" type effort in the loss against Northern Colorado. For this team, it shows the shift in mindset over the last few seasons.

"The standard has shifted from 'let's try to get to the conference tournament and maybe make some noise' to a team built to play volleyball late into November and December," Willis said. "That's where we're evolving heading into next season, whether it be advancing in the conference tournament, making the NCAA tournament and advancing or advancing in the NIVC, that is what we are focused on - being built for the long haul."

A significant element of the season was the graduating class of seniors, which consisted of six players who have been pivotal in the program's rise. Ashlyn Lovett, Paige Powers, Jillian Gray, Jordan Christy, Robin Rosser, and Logan Jones established the bar for the program from their initial game in 2021 to their last match against Northern Colorado. 

While the group didn't get an NCAA Tournament berth to hang its hat on, the impact they had on the current team will be felt for a long time.

"I certainly feel like we were a good enough team to be in the NCAA tournament, and certainly put ourselves in a position to be there and ultimately came maybe two matches away from doing that," he said. "It stings a little bit for those six seniors and all the work, time, energy and effort that they put in, not to have that encapsulating moment for them, but that shouldn't take away from who they are and everything they've done to put this program in that position."

Individual accolades were a big part of the season—Reagan Barth, Kirsten Barrett, and Lovett made all-conference, and those three, along with Gray, were named conference player of the week at one point, part of a record-setting season for the team in that area. Willis broke down each of those four players' seasons.

Lovett: "She was someone who was playing like it was her last ride. I don't think anyone wanted a championship more than she did, and she certainly made sure we were equipped on her side of the ball to do so. She was an exceptional leader, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and a consummate teammate. Ashlyn found a great way to not only hold teammates accountable to the standard that we needed to be playing at but also was a great encourager and supporter, especially for some of our younger kids."

Gray: "We knew we were going to have to rely on Jill heavily this season and I think she answered the bell better than we could have hoped. She is a humble kid, someone who never complained about anything that was being asked of her, whether it be from us as a staff or by her teammates every single day, the approach was the same. She never wavered in her commitment to try and get better every day. I think you saw that carry over to the end of the fall and certainly put together, selfishly, what I think was an all-conference season."

Barrett: "KB is someone that every time she steps in the gym, she gets more confident. She is a kid who knows how to dish the rock. She puts hitters in great situations. You're starting to see her become a better all-around player, whether it be serving, blocking, or even on offense. She has that quarterback mentality of running the offense through herself. That's where I saw KB elevate herself this year, and she has to be in the conversation for one of the best-returning setters in the Sun Belt this year."

Barth: "With a lot of injury question marks coming into the season and all, I think the biggest thing this season showed about Reagan was to see how she elevated herself as a leader. She knows how to handle all the emotional highs and lows with what's been put on her plate. Reagan has truly established herself as one of the premier pins in this league and is excited for her first full offseason. I expect her to continue to excel and get better and put herself in the conversation next year for Sun Belt Player of the Year."

It can be tough to replace the impact the six seniors had on the team, but if anyone is equipped to do so, it's Georgia Southern. For the first time in a long time, the team had tremendous depth, something that allowed them to be so successful throughout the season and can help alleviate the loss of some premier players - and Willis touched on the transfer class and incoming freshmen brought in as major helps towards that.

For a season with as many successes as it had, it can be hard to pinpoint one thing to look back on, but Willis will look back fondly on all the little things that made the season play out the way it did.

"The people and the moments, whether it was the bus rides, the van rides, the practices, the locker rooms, or the meetings," he said. "The opportunity we had to be with those 17 student-athletes, we won't ever get that locker room back. There were an awful lot of laughs, an awful lot of tears, mostly of joy, for what we accomplished as a group this year."

As the team gets set to tackle the spring, a huge offseason is in store for what hopes to be another great season for Georgia Southern volleyball.