Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Smith’s Transfer Provides Reunion, Huge Boost To Buffs
April 22, 2016 | Volleyball
Nothing wrong with unwrapping at least one Christmas present early – only the one awaiting CU's new volleyball coach wasn't wrapped.
BOULDER – Nothing wrong with unwrapping at least one Christmas present early – although the one awaiting Jesse Mahoney wasn't wrapped.
Named Colorado's new volleyball coach on Dec. 17, when Mahoney entered his office at the Coors Events Center for the first time, among the growing but still manageable clutter on his desk was a, well, essentially a permission slip.
Purdue had given its OK for CU to contact Alexa Smith. And "very quickly," recalled Mahoney, "it was a scramble to find Alexa's number. It was a quick phone call for sure . . . I was lucky to have that piece of paper on my desk when I walked in the first day."
At Lewis Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, Smith had been a volleyball player of considerable note: PrepVolleyball.com's National Junior Player of the Year (2014), the CHSAA 4A Player of the Year (2014), the state's Gatorade Player of the Year (2014), the High School Player of the Year (2015) by the National High School Coaches Association, and among others, a MaxPreps.com All-American.
But like many instate athletes in every sport, Smith's early mindset was stuck on leaving Colorado. "I thought I wanted to be really far away from home, but it turned out it wasn't that way," she said, adding she was grateful for the opportunity offered by Purdue but "once this opportunity came it just felt so right."
Maybe because of her initial desire to leave, CU didn't pay much attention to Smith in the recruiting process. So she headed for West Lafayette, Ind., and a freshman season in which she played in 33 matches (10 starts) and contributed 10 double-doubles, including 13 kills/13 digs against No. 7 Ohio State.
"She's a fantastic player, obviously," said Mahoney, who had coached the University of Denver for the previous four seasons. "She didn't have the experience she wanted at Purdue and was looking at some other pretty good programs in the area. We're lucky she wanted to take this challenge."
Because recruiting was in a dead period, Mahoney couldn't meet with Smith and her family on campus until after the holidays. They visited Boulder anyway for a look-see and shortly thereafter, Smith – a 6-1 outside hitter – committed to CU by phone.
While it was early January before Mahoney and his early Christmas present met face-to-face, Smith didn't sign on without any prior knowledge of the Buffs' roster. She and CU junior-to-be Gabby Simpson had played for six years together on the same club team.
They were close friends, and in fact, remembered Smith, more than one college recruiter viewed them as a potential package. "We actually had a few offers, coaches saying we'll take the both of you," Smith said. "We laughed but didn't really think it through.
"It feels like we're back in the old days. And all these girls are super accepting; they've been super nice to me and welcoming. It's been an easy transition for sure."
SIMPSON, A 6-3 SETTER/OPPOSITE HITTER who attended Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, acknowledged that her friendship with Smith was instrumental in Smith's transfer: "Yeah, it was helpful that I went here, so the switch for her to come here was easier . . . it's been great so far to play with her since I've already done it for six years.
"I'm very excited because she's a great player and she proved it all through club and at Purdue. And she's proven herself here. I'm very excited to have a player like her join our team."
The Buffs are about to conclude their spring schedule, which Mahoney didn't exactly take an ease-into-things, no-risk approach in setting up. The six matches featured four 2015 NCAA Tournament teams, with the finale on Saturday in Ogallala, Neb., against defending national champion Nebraska.
The other three NCAA Tournament entries CU faced: Wichita State, Kansas, and Colorado State. "Our players feel really good about how we matched up against those teams," Mahoney said. "(And) I think we did really well."
Mahoney obviously didn't believe tiptoeing through the spring would be beneficial for his first Buffs team. Neither did his players. Simpson, whose sister Cierra (CeCe) is a senior-to-be and was one of the team's tri-captains last season, said the adjustment to Mahoney and the challenging spring schedule have allowed the Buffs to "take huge steps" and make "amazing progress."
"When we first got in here (for spring work) we were kind of awful," Gabby Simpson continued. "I would say now we're a very competitive team. I feel like we're . . . I don't want to say ready to play anybody, but I feel like we can take on anybody and know that we can. Before it was, 'We're not very good, we don't know what to do, we just got new coaches, it's all kind of new to us.' Now it's like flowing."
If the Buffs need a barometer to gauge their spring flow, playing the Cornhuskers on Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m. MDT) will more than suffice. "Playing Nebraska in the environment we're playing in is going to be a true match experience – and not just a match experience but like a postseason type of feel," Mahoney said. "It's going to be different from anything else we've done this spring. They're the national champion who doesn't really lose anybody off of that team. And they're playing in Nebraska. They're going to be really good."
The Buffs-Huskers match site, noted Mahoney with a laugh, is "probably going to be an intimate venue." Correct. Saturday's crowd will obviously be pro-Big Red, but it won't be quite as large as last spring's, which 6,006 in the sold-out Heartland Events Center in Grand Island.
Ogallala's venue will be the Prairie View gymnasium, which seats about 1,300. According to a staffer at Ogallala High School, when those $10 tickets went on sale on March 10 they were gone in 17 minutes. "But there are free tickets to watch the (Nebraska) team practice on Friday night," the staffer added.
The Huskers traditionally play a spring match in the western sector of the state. They've also played in Wayne (2014), Norfolk (2012) and made a previous trip to Grand Island (2011).
Reviewing his team's previous spring matches, Mahoney said wins and losses haven't been discussed: "We've talked about getting better. I look at it (Saturday's match) as a great opportunity to get better. If we don't play well, we could look bad. We want to play well. Ultimately that's what we want."
SMITH AND SIMPSON WANT THAT TOO, but they admit there is a buzz among the Buffs about playing the defending national champs. "It's really exciting to be able to play (them)," Smith said. "I had the opportunity to play them at Purdue and they're a super good team. They didn't graduate a whole lot of people, so it'll be fun to play against that caliber a team."
Added Simpson: "I'm always looking forward to playing a top team because you don't really get that many opportunities to do it. When you do . . . I'm just very excited for it."
The Buffs, who finished 19-13 last season (11-9 in the Pac-12 Conference) but weren't invited to the NCAA Tournament, have been "really receptive," said Mahoney, to what he and his staff have presented to them this spring.
There have been offensive and defensive tweaks, such as a faster offensive tempo, different spacing of sets and different play calls, and going to a swing blocking scheme on defense.
But as Mahoney noted, "Volleyball is not rocket science . . . this team was really good; it's not like we didn't have a lot of talent or they weren't really successful last year. Sometimes when you ask someone who's really good to change what they're doing, you might get some pushback. We really haven't seen that."
What he has seen, however, is Gabby Simpson's overall worth on the court. Hit in the face during the middle of an earlier spring match, there was a fear that Simpson had suffered a broken nose. So she left the match.
"When she's not on the floor we're not as good," Mahoney said. "But when she's on the floor we've been playing at a really high level. There are always things to get better at, but there's a ton of potential there."
The philosophy he will carry from spring to fall to off-season and back again is day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month improvement. "I tell them the process is never going to end, from the time they get here until they leave," he said.
"Coaches are pessimistic by nature, right? I feel like we've made some big strides – no doubt about that. I always see what we're not doing as opposed to what we are doing. But that being said we are much, much better than when we started this spring. That's a testament to the kids buying in and doing the work."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
