Can officiating become more universal in NCAA women’s volleyball? Perhaps.
Last week, the announcement came that the Big West, Big Sky, Mountain West, Pac-12 and WCC had formed an officiating consortium specifically for women’s volleyball, called the Women’s Volleyball Western Consortium (W5).
As the news release said, “the five conferences will collaborate on all women’s volleyball officiating matters including recruitment, training, scheduling and evaluation of game officials. The consortium includes 55 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball programs.”
And the best part is the lead officials, Joan Powell and Margie Ray.
Powell, regarded as one one the best officials in the sport’s history, who in 2011 was named the NCAA’s inaugural national coordinator of officials, will serve as W5 coordinator of officials for the W5. She’ll be responsible for Big West, Mountain West and Pac-12 officials.
Ray, who has called five NCAA Division I championship matches, will serve as deputy coordinator and cover the WCC and Big Sky.
We caught up with them earlier this week and covered a lot of ground:
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