Oklahoma VolleyBall - Sooners add three Spring Transfers to Team

[OUBeliever56A]

Coach Aaron Mansfield announced three 'Spring Transfers' to the Sooners on Monday the 15th of January. Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the three transfers.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/15 ... s-for-2024

With only 9 players on the roster for the Sooners the addition of 3 'spring transfers' to Oklahoma is very important for the team. With 12 healthy athletes on the roster and at workouts each day, many more team concepts can be worked on than you can without 12.

It is good to see the addition of two hitters for the front row and a setter. Oklahoma needs to replace Taylor Preston (OH) who has transferred. With Emma Henry and Rylee Fay transferring or ceasing to play as setter for OU, a setter was needed also.

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I will also add this info in this post. I got this information from a outside source through a friend. It looks like the information that was shared was spot-on so far.

Incoming XFERS:

Leah Wilton-Laboy: 5'8" Setter from Utah State. She'll be a Junior. May wear #5 for OU.
Kind of small for a setter, will be interesting to see if Mansfield has ideas of back row for her, but considering no other setters on the roster behind Chamberlain, maybe she concentrates on sets in case she is needed. She is enrolled for the Spring.

KJ Burgess: 6'2" Middle from Utah. She's going to be a Jr. May wear #9 for OU.
All-Pac 12 Freshman her Freshman year at Utah (). She got injured and missed most of this past year. She's good. I wonder if Mansfield tries her at RS/Opp. Since OU has two good middles already. But she's always been a Middle it appears. But she can jump. So maybe he just runs her in the middle. She is enrolled for the Spring.

Kamille Gibson: 6'1" OH/Middle from Tennessee. She will be a Redshirt FR. She did not play in 2023. May wear #12 for OU.
She's originally from Texas and went to Braswell HS. Played for TAV in HS and can play as an Outside Hitter, Middle or Opposite. So very versatile. This is also very good because OU needs to tap into that old TAV and N. Texas pipeline they kind of got away from the last few years.

The information about the three current transfers that I picked up was very good. The source also states that a fourth transfer will join the Sooners. I guess the player below will join in the Fall.

Kari Geissburger: 6'5" OH from Loyola Marymount. She looks to be a 5th-Year SR. I think she might wear #7.
She played for Mansfield at Loyola Marymount. Led Loyola in Kills per set and points per set. This looks like the Taylor Preston replacement. Check out her Instagram post.



Incoming Freshman:

Carley Butler - Owasso 6'1 Middle/OH/RS.
All State Oklahoma - Lists her approach touch at 10'1" which is good, anything 10' or over is preferred. Video shows a bit of a slower player, but the talent she plays against is so poor that could be why. I also think the 6'1 may be generous and I'd say she's closer to 6' or even just a bit under. Unfortunately, she played for Tulsa Power in Club and they played Nationals in the 18s American. This is pretty much the lowest level you can play at Nationals. So, the talent she played against wasn't great. She's an unknown to me and hard to predict. She committed in Oct of 2022, so this was Pre-Mansfield. Curious how this works out.

OU got a lot bigger with these incoming players from the portal.

If I were to make a guess. Wilton-Laboy will be back up setter to Chamberlain this year. Burgess will play middle, but Mansfield may see if any of the middles can play RS/OPP. Geissburger will replace Taylor Preston at OH. Gibson probably starts out as a RS/Opp and Mansfield sees where she fits best.
 
Welcome to the new Sooner VB'ers!

Here is the current roster for the Oklahoma Volleyball team without the three new transfers.

https://soonersports.com/sports/volleyball/roster

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

Twitter Post from OU_Volleyball