Unlike most HBCUs around the country, where football and the school’s marching band is the top dawg on campus each fall, this is not the case at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), where women’s volleyball instead is queen.
“I think here at UMES we’re a little bit different than some other HBCUs,” Hawks Coach Vanessa Faircloth told the MSR prior to the start of the season. “We actually do not have football. So, we are the fall sport.
“We’re really big about energy. So, anyone who comes in our gym for a volleyball game usually recognizes pretty quick that [volleyball] games are usually more hype at UMES than some of our basketball games.
“We bring in a big crowd,” noted the second year head coach. “Our cheerleaders come in. Our band comes in. We have a full production.”
“We feed off our fans for energy,” concurred senior outside header Ranyla Griggs. “When it comes to our fans, they take volleyball games seriously. [I] like the love and support we hear from the stands.”
Faircloth was hired at UMES in June 2023 after two seasons as head coach at Chowan University. She inherited a program that had only six wins in two seasons, and in her first season she led the Hawks to a 16-12 overall record and 8-6 in MEAC play, as well as a first-round win in the MEAC tournament.
When the league preseason poll came out earlier this month and after our phone interview with Faircloth and Griggs, UMES was tagged for fourth in the MEAC. Griggs was selected preseason all MEAC.
Griggs (Atlanta, GA) led the Hawks last season with 303 kills and a team high 2.83 kills per set that ranked eighth in the conference. Twice she was player of the week during the season and recorded a season-high 21 kills against Howard, which was picked to finish first this season.
At 5’8” Griggs is considered undersized for middle hitter. “I was always told I wouldn’t be able to go Division I because I was shorter than most hitters in my position,” she recalled. “That was very discouraging.
“When I finally got into the recruiting process [I] realized that HBCUs have girls that are a lot shorter or just more athletic,” continued Griggs, who found her fit at UMES.
“I feel like I’ve always had the best of both worlds,” she continued. “My high school team was all Black, and my club team was majority [Black]. Coming into college, it was actually real comfortable and nice to see that it’s always going to be diverse, and I love to see how it’s expanding elsewhere outside of HBCUs. Even at some of these PWIs, there’s a lot of Black girls dominating the sport.
“I love to see that… It means a lot,” said Griggs, a criminal justice major.
There are 11 new players on the 2024 roster from seven different states (Maryland, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, New York and California). Ten are freshmen and one transferred through the transfer portal.
Griggs is one of four seniors on the Hawks this season.
UMES opens the 2024 season August 30 and 31 at Mercyhurst University, then Mercer University on September 4. Their non-conference slate also includes Rutgers (September 20), Radford (September 21) and Old Dominion (September 21).
“I’m really excited to get our newcomers in and adjusted with the returners,” said Coach Faircloth. “We had a great season last year, so we’re looking to have a really good year. We’re going to put on a show because we want our stands packed.”