The spring transfer portal window opened up today for volleyball, and there has already been some big news to hit the portal. The biggest one in all of volleyball is Florida's Kennedy Martin jumping in, who is a player-of-the-year candidate and would absolutely be program-changing for the team that gets her. Wisconsin maybe? That's a different article.
The biggest news for Wisconsin is that last year's starting libero, Lola Schumacher, is shopping for a new school for next season.
Libero Lola Schumacher has decided to transfer out of Wisconsin
Lola Schumacher started last season as a freshman, and as she is going into her sophomore year, a handful of liberos have gathered around her. Aniya Warren and Kristen Simon, as mentioned in the social media post above, are both star high school players. Simon is the Gatorade volleyball player of the year in Kentucky, while Warren was rated the No. 1 libero in high school last season.
It's not just those two pushing for a spot; there's also a transfer named Jada Cerniglia out of Northern Illinois. While Cerniglia isn't projected to start and may only have a more minor rotational role, she's a team leader and won't exactly back off the idea of taking the position.
That's a lot of players that have slowly congregated around Schumacher, and hearing the footsteps may have led her to go to the portal. She may have also been informed that she would have a reduced role. To put it another way, she realized that the opportunity might be better at a new school, which is why she decided to jump into the transfer portal as soon as it opened.
Kelly Sheffield won't just watch players leave in the portal; he will also look to add a couple of players, especially with the season-ending injury to Grace Lopez.