Women’s volleyball hopes NCAA experience bodes well for future
Looking ahead following its second straight trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Utah State University women’s volleyball team finds itself in a familiar situation.
Following last season, the Aggies had to face replacing three starting seniors. Relying on returning players and key transfers, USU made the return trip to the tournament.
“I think this is a very successful year,” Head Coach Burt Fuller said. “It maybe surpassed a lot of people’s expectations.”
This year USU will be forced to replace five seniors, including two Big West All-Conference first-team selections (setter Chelsi Neves and middle blocker Michelle Matheson) and two honorable mention selections (outside hitter Lisa Borom and defensive specialist Heather Olmstead).
Despite those losses, the Aggies will be returning players who saw significant minutes.
“We’ve got some keys back,” Fuller said. “Erin Cartwright [will return], we’ve got Hailey MacKay coming back and Shauni Fluckiger and we’ve got a whole host of other kids waiting for time, so we’re going to be OK.”
Going into next season, the Aggies will also have the experience of two straight 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances behind them.
“Now we have to see next year if those kids are going to continue that tradition,” Fuller said. “That is what winning is. It kind of perpetuates itself and snowballs and you hope you can fill spots with recruits coming in and the kids returning are going to be able to jump up to the level of the seniors that left.”
Olmstead said, “Our team has confidence now and those girls that are going to be playing next year, I think they’re going to have confidence.”
For the Aggies to advance further into the tournament in the future, experience will be a factor, Cartwright said.
“We have a lot of young people now so I think experience will help us,” Cartwright said.
Size and recruitment will be another factor to advancing in the tournament, Fuller said.
“We’ve got to get some bigger kids,” Fuller said. “We’ve got 5-foot-11 [and] 6-foot middles; we’ve got 5-foot-10 outside hitters. We’ve got to get some kids that play good volleyball that are two or three inches taller.
“Recruiting is the life-blood of any program and that’s what we have to do a good job of,” he said. “Hopefully, now with a couple good years finishing here we’ll be able to attract those kids we need to take our program up.”