The SEC Is On Fire Early in Transfer Season

The SEC might be the second-best conference in Volleyball, but they have easily been the best in the transfer portal so far this year. 

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The SEC already has 18 commits this year, and we haven’t really been going for a week. Schools like Oklahoma, LSU, and Georgia have already dominated the portal early, while Texas and Auburn have gotten themselves one really good piece each. So, let’s look at some of the big classes so far. 

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Oklahoma has led all schools with four commits already. They have multiple top commits in 2022 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honoree KJ Burgess, Kari Geissberger, who was a 2x First Team WCC honoree, and Kamille Gibson, a redshirt freshman, who played for TAV in high school. They also brought in Utah State S Leah Wilton-LaBoy, and I really believe they have the #1 class this year. 

LSU is another class that I like. They have three players already committed. Iowa Setter Bailey Ortega leads that class. Ortega is ranked 9th all-time on the Iowa assist leaders. She has been a rock for Iowa for the past four seasons and has a chance to help LSU, who just lost one of their setters to the portal as well. You throw in Ana Tevderodze, who averaged almost 14 kills a match at the D2 level last year, and this is a stellar class so far from the Tigers, who have already evened their team after losing three players to the portal earlier this month. 

Alabama also landed two transfers of their own. They landed one of the top servers in the SEC in Sophie Agee from Mississippi State. Agee had 25 aces last year and also had 250 kills. She has two years of eligibility left. They also added top Southern Conference setter Kayla Keshok, who had 1000 assists in 2022 and 100 kills. 

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The other class to look at is Georgia. They landed maybe the best player in the portal in Bianna Muoneke, but they also added two-time transfer Erykah Lovett, who spent the last two years at Tennessee as the #2 Outside there. Lovett has been the #2 Outside her entire career but is nearly at 1,000 career kills heading into this season. She has not had a season with less than 230 kills so she will be a solid piece. But Muoneke is the prize of this class. She was named to the SEC All-Freshman team last season and still has three years of eligibility remaining. She was a top recruit out of high school and proved why in her Freshman year. Muoneke was the best player in the portal, and Georgia landed a big one here.

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Those are the only multi-transfer classes so far for the SEC, but that isn’t it for the SEC. Texas made one of the biggest moves after winning a championship when they grabbed Whitney Lauenstein from Nebraska. She was one of the best players in the Big 10 before sitting out this past season. Auburn landed a former top 10 recruit in Baylor’s Alexis Dacosta, while South Carolina nabbed CAA All-Rookie Team member Sarah Jordan from Towson. 

It’s been a fantastic start for the SEC, but they are far from done. Teams like Kentucky and Tennessee have yet to make moves, so look for them to be active in the coming weeks.