They say two’s company and three’s a crowd, but when it comes to volleyball, three is the magic number. It’s the number of times a team can touch the ball during a rally, the number of sets needed to win a match and, if the sophomores of the Ithaca College volleyball team are anything to go by, the ideal number of players for a recruiting class.
This year’s Bombers squad is off to an 11-3 start and ranked in the top 25. This success is in large part because of their dominant offensive performances throughout the year, which sophomore setter Wesley Slavin has helped facilitate through her 10.32 assists per set, good enough to get her in the top 10 in Division III. Sophomore outside hitters Naomi Clauhs and Gabriela Gonzalez-Abreu are the main beneficiaries of these assists, as they lead the team with 143 and 139 kills respectively.
Assistant coach Camryn Bancroft explained that the team has had great chemistry across both years she has been with the program.
“I would say it’s definitely a benefit,” Bancroft said. “Everyone’s just great friends on the court, and I think that that has an impact on how well we play. They genuinely love each other and want the best for one another, and I think that’s very obvious when you watch them interact.”
That chemistry is perhaps most evident when speaking with Slavin, Clauhs and Gonzalez-Abreu, who all insisted they be interviewed together. Even before the questions started, they were already laughing about wasting Bomber Bucks at the end of last year on an ice cream cake.
Despite only knowing each other for about a year, the sophomores talk like lifelong friends. Clauhs said she and Gonzalez-Abreu noticed they had a connection even before committing to Ithaca College.
“The summer going into our senior year, we both had camp and both got offers,” Clauhs said. “And then we kind of told each other, like, ‘If you commit, I’ll commit,’ because we just clicked really well. Then I texted Gabby right before I called coach [Johan Dulfer] and told coach that I was committing, And then he was like ‘Oh, that’s weird, Gabby said she’s gonna call me in like five minutes’ and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah I kind of knew.’”
The sophomore trio all hail from different parts of the country. Clauhs is from Collegeville, a suburb just outside of Philadelphia, while Gonzalez-Abreu is from Miami-Dade County in Florida and Slavin comes all the way from Mill Valley, California. Despite the thousands of miles between their homes, they each had very similar experiences with club volleyball that prompted them to pursue the intercollegiate game.
The impact was instant when these three hit the court as first-year students. Gonzalez-Abreu led the team in kills with 336, a total that was enough to put her second in the Liberty League. Slavin had the opportunity to start as the team’s main setter after an early-season injury to then-sophomore Maddie Cox and ended up leading the team with 564 assists and leading the Liberty League with 8.55 assists per set. Although she had less playing time, Clauhs recorded 187 kills for Fall 2023.
Slavin said the three of them helped push one another to improve throughout the season.
“We are a very small class,” Slavin said. “So we connected really quickly, but we all kind of realized we have very similar work ethics, that strive to play and strive to be the best player we can be. We all kind of did that together, and I think that really helped.”
Bancroft said their play styles complement each other well and create a dynamic partnership on the court.
“Gabby is just so powerful,” Bancroft said. “And when she comes in, she’s coming in hot, and she will hit that ball as hard as possible. It’s amazing when she gets going, and when she gets a little angry or fiery about the game, there’s no stopping her. … The thing about Naomi is, in the best possible way, she doesn’t let anything get to her. The old head coach used to say, be a goldfish, because, you know, goldfish only have 10 seconds of memory. So I would say Naomi is the best one at doing that. … Wes is just super consistent and is constantly striving for more, to be better, asking for extra reps. She’s the one that we look to for changing the flow of the game and getting our hitters going, and she takes that pressure well.”
However, their real superpower may be their blend of personalities. Bancroft said that is what helps them bounce off of one another so well.
“I would say Naomi’s just like, the most bubbly and happy one,” Bancroft said. “And I would say that they probably all go to her for that type of energy. Gabby’s the fiery one, they go to her when they’re like, ‘hype me up.’ And then Wes is the stable, kind of can be both and just confident, the calm, cool, collected one. So I would say they kind of all balance each other out.”
If that sounds like the Powerpuff Girls, Gonzalez-Abreu agrees. She was quick to figure out which of the characters Bancroft said she was most similar to (Buttercup) as well as which girls Clauhs (Bubbles) and Slavin (Blossom) were.
Unlike the heroes of Townsville, the three sophomores cannot live together because of coach-enforced rules, but Slavin said that does not stop them from hanging out off the court as much as possible.
“We eat a lot of meals together,” Slavin said. “Na[omi] and I live in the same building, but we’ll walk to class together, and then we’ll meet up with Gabby, and Gabby and I do athletic training together. We kind of just find a way to meet up with each other wherever.”
Gonzalez-Abreu said their friendship also has a direct impact on their communication on the court.
“I think it’s easier to talk to Wes being a hitter and her being a setter,” Gonzalez-Abreu said. “Because we know how to talk to each other already. So it’s not like walking around eggshells like at the beginning of the season last year, it was just off the bat.”
Clauhs said being close with teammates also relieves a certain level of pressure on the court.
“I also think, at least for me personally, it’s definitely like a level of comfort,” Clauhs said. “Knowing your best friends are there with you and if you make a mistake they’re not going to hate you because we’ve had such a deep bond and love for each other. It’s just fun to be out there with people that you know care about you so much.”
Bancroft said she was initially worried about a potential relationship imbalance happening because of the odd number of recruits, but realized quickly that their friendship went three ways.
“When you have a class of three, you get a little worried at first,” Bancroft said. “Because everyone has a best friend, and then there’s always that third person that’s a little left out. So of course, as a coach, that was my number one worry about having a class of three, but that has never, ever been an issue with them. All three of them are great best friends.”
