This year reminds me so much of 2010, where we made the tourney but went on the road and lost a first round game to Creighton. A lot of parallels to that team such as:
We had a highly-rated group of sophomores - led by Landwehr and Straube, this year Bigbee, Hudson, and Nolan;
We had to replace an AA setter in Mann w/an inexperienced Landwehr, this year it was replacing Landwehr w/an inexperienced Hudson;
We lost a key all-around player at an inopportune time - Hockaday to injury then Malloy with an August transfer this year;
We had a returning senior AA libero who we expected to be a team leader, Maas in 2010 an Hahn this year. While each was in their own way, they didn't get much help.
Both times the talent was there, but it was mostly young, and they took a key loss of a player. The freshman class was relatively small. Matlock was a pleasant surprise as a freshman then as was Capezio this year, but the season wore on them. Wilms was highly regarded in that class as was Hahn, but the former took a redshirt while the latter played sparingly with Maas and Mahoney ahead of her on the back row. This year's other two freshman, at least one was redshirted, maybe both.
CJL and the team responded from a down year in 2010 by coming within a fifth set of making the Final Four the next. That year we recruited three in Hurtt, Knuth, and Goetz, next year we have the likes of Conoway, Harris, and Berta coming in. Knuth was highly ranked as is Conoway, although Tory was redshirted because we were three deep with Staube, Matlock, and Stadick in the middle. Still, Hurtt played a key role as a freshman and I suspect at least one the incoming frosh will as well.
Point being, good developing programs respond from a bad year. In fact it may be a blessing and a learning tool for those coming back to take their game to another level. I believe they did that in 2011, we'll have to wait to see what 2014 brings.