Rivals Turned TeammatesFreshman volleyball players Casey Garvey and Alexis Bauer have played together for most of their lives. They've just been on opposite sides of the net.
Before Bauer landed the job of Samford's starting libero, she was an All-American setter out of Louisville, Ky. While playing with the Kentucky Indiana Volleyball Academy (KIVA), she helped her team to three gold medals and three silver medals at the AAU Nationals and two gold medals and one silver medal at the Junior Olympics. As a senior at Sacred Heart High School, she helped her team earn a No. 16 national ranking.
Back-up setter Garvey played for the MidAmerica Volleyball Association (MAVA) for six years, her teams never finishing lower than third at AAU Nationals and fifth at the Junior Olympics. She also was an AAU All-American for three consecutive years.
A commonality that ties the two together, besides being All-American setters, is that they both were coached by members of the Garvey family.
Garvey's brother Todd coached her high school team at Mercy Academy while her other brother Eric coached Bauer's high school team at Sacred Heart. The Garvey brothers, along with their father Ken, are well-known in Louisville for their success in coaching youth volleyball.
Mercy and Sacred Heart just happened to be rivals as did Garvey's and Bauer's club teams.
"We go back from like 12s," Bauer said. "We've always been across the net from each other since I can remember. Every single one of our huge tournaments always ended up with two Louisville teams in the finals - and it was always her and me."
Although on the court it may have looked like a setter's dual was shaping up, the duo said they never saw each other as enemies off the court. They barely even knew each other personally.
"We've been rivals since we were 11," Garvey said. "We knew who each other were but we never hung out or anything.
"I was more vocal than she was so I was more of the bully at the net," Garvey said. "She's just really quiet and internally aggressive, whereas I've always been more vocal. But we've always had a good rivalry."
When they found out that they would be coming to the same college, playing on the same team, both were a little anxious to see how their puzzle pieces would fit together in the grand scheme of Samford volleyball.
It worked out that Samford would be looking for a new starter at the libero position. Bauer went up against two upperclassmen and won the role leading the Bulldogs' back row defense. Garvey would help starting setter Hillary Fountain run the offense.
The two freshmen turned out to be just half of the production that came out of the 2009 class of newcomers. Four of the team's seven freshmen saw significant playing time, earning starting positions for the majority of the season.
Bauer led the Bulldogs in digs in her freshman year, notching 403 (3.50 digs per set). She finished just nine shy of tying Sarah Gardner (2006) for fourth place on the single-season digs list and 13 away from tying Courtney Gay (2008) and Brook Skinner (1994) for second place.
Garvey racked up 270 assists on the year (2.35 per set) while also grabbing 181 digs (1.57 per set). She also led in service aces with 37 on the year, ranking her eighth in the Southern Conference in that category.
Most freshmen usually come in not expecting so see a lot of playing time. That was not the case with the 2009 class.
"A lot of people come in as freshmen and they plan to see the bench," Bauer said, "especially in a bigger program or in a year when you are not rebuilding. But that didn't really happen here. I would hate that. I love contributing."
The duo came in and helped their team to its second most successful year in the history of Samford volleyball. With the help of fellow classmates and upperclassmen and guided by second year head coach Derek Schroeder, the Bulldogs posted a string of 22 consecutive wins in the Pete Hanna Center since it opened in 2007. They also earned their second consecutive North Division title in their second year in the Southern Conference and made it to their second year of post-season play since 2001.
Samford reached the four-team Southern Conference Tournament last weekend as the No. 1 seed in the North for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs ended their season after a tough loss to College of Charleston in the semifinal round.
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