It’s never really over: USU Eastern women’s volleyball team works toward next season
For collegiate athletes, it can sometimes feel like the season never ends. Such is the case for Utah State Eastern’s women’s volleyball team. Even though their season won’t start back up until August, the team is already prepping for the upcoming year.
The Lady Eagles, led by head coach Danielle Jensen, finished out the 2023 season with 22 wins out of 32 games total. They play in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, which they ended up ranked third in. Now that they’ve tackled this season, Jensen says it’s time to focus on other things, namely recruitment.
“I’m just finishing up the recruiting I have left,” Jensen said. “We’ve even started our 2025 recruiting.”
Jensen explained how the recruitment process works for USU Eastern. She works with her husband, Calvin, who is also an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator for the program.
“We look through the high school teams,” Jensen said. “We look at clubs, too. We have a lot of different connectors.”
Jensen mentioned how recruiting can be a difficult process for both the coaches and the athletes. Coaches have to be constantly searching for new players and networking to connect with players, while athletes have to perform at their best and then “make a really big decision.”
“Recruitment works differently depending on the athlete,” Jensen said. “It can be an exhausting process; it never ends.”
The NCAA has strict rules when it comes to recruiting athletes, such as when the coach can contact a student-athlete. A contact “occurs any time a college coach says more than hello during a face-to-face contact with a college-bound student-athlete or his or her parents off the college’s campus,” according to the NCAA website.
There are also times when the coaches can not contact the athlete in certain circumstances, such as a quiet period where the coach can only talk to the player on a college campus, or a dead period where the coach may not contact the player at all.
At the end of the recruitment process, the athlete must sign a National Letter of Intent, which is when the athlete agrees to go to a college.
However, recruitment isn’t the only thing done for volleyball in the off-season. The team continues to have practices, even though they don’t practice nearly as much as they do during the season.
“We only do it so many days because of rules for off-season,” Jensen said. “We’re limited to eight hours a week.”
According to NCAA rules for practices in the off-season, teams shall limit the amount of practices they have not to inhibit the academic progress of a student-athlete. Along with this, the NCAA has well-defined playing seasons for teams.
The players are happy to be practicing, even if it’s less. Rachel West, a sophomore on the team from Cedar Hills, discussed what they’ve been working on.
“We have focused more on skills, and broken things down this off season,” West wrote in a text message to the Utah Statesman. “We’re also super focused on increasing strength, verticals, and speed, so we’ve spent a lot of time in the weight room.”
West explained how the Lady Eagles don’t just focus on the physical; they take a holistic approach to training.
“We’ve also started to work on our mental side of volleyball, and have been meeting with a sports psychologist,” West wrote.
The team doesn’t just play at practice, though. West loves playing volleyball just for fun as well.
“Sometimes I’ll go play for fun with old teammates, but it’s not structured,” West wrote.
West and her team are excited for the upcoming season, even if it’s a distance away.
“I’m super excited to see how we do this next season,” West wrote. “We set some big goals, and have been working hard, so I’m excited to see the results of that.”
Those interested in women’s volleyball at USU Eastern can learn more at usueasternathletics.com/sports/womens-volleyball.