When Paige Whipple first put on an Arizona uniform four years ago, she was well aware of the high expectations.
As an outside hitter, she was next in line to take the baton from Kendra Dahlke. Before Dahlke was Kalei Mau, who came right after Madi Kingdon.
That’s quite a legacy to live up to.
Whipple also knew how integral the position is to Arizona from the many conversations she had with coach Dave Rubio leading up to her freshman year. The Wildcats run a lot of their offense through the outside, Whipple said, “and he made it known that outside hitters get the job done for his team in his program.”
Anyone else may have felt the pressure; not Whipple. She was excited for the opportunity to contribute right away — and a little bit nervous.
“Anytime you ask a freshman to step into the role that Paige had to step in, I mean, that’s a tall order,” Rubio said. “…If you talk to Paige … she can tell you how scared she was. … Now that I know Paige and how she handled it, you expect what you get from her. I’m not surprised that she was able to handle as well as she did, with the calm and composure that she shows all the time. At the time, though, I didn’t know that well, ‘My god, she’s really handling this pretty well.’”
Arizona opens its Pac-12-only season on the road Friday at No. 10 Utah. The Wildcats will stay in Salt Lake City and play the Utes again on Sunday at noon.
Whipple, coming off a season where she was the seventh UA player to reach 1,000 career kills and was sixth in the Pac-12 averaging 3.94 kills per set, was named to the preseason All-Pac-12 team on Wednesday. It’s been five years since a Wildcat has earned a preseason league honor.
The 6-foot-1-inch senior has developed into “a really complete, high-level player,” Rubio said.
“How she goes about her business every day is something I really admire and has been a really good role model for the players, especially the new players in the program,” he continued.
“She’s a quiet leader. But, in my mind, she’s exactly what a student-athlete should personify. She is so calm and level-headed, focused on the task at hand, driven to be as best as she can.”
So much goes into being an elite outside hitter. Rubio compares them to basketball players who put in a great effort on both offense and defense.
“Paige has got to be a great server, a great defender, a great passer, big enough and strong enough at the net to be able to score and then be proficient in all of those skills,” Rubio said. “… That’s why it’s so hard to find an outside hitter to be able to do that and if you don’t have it … then you’re not going to have a lot of success in the league.
“Can you find someone that’s big enough that score in the front row and hang in the front row with the big guys and then skilled enough in the back row to be able to play like a libero? When you have a player like Paige that has been able to do it for so long, then they have a rare quality.”
Whipple’s journey as a Wildcat been bumpy.
In the summer before her sophomore season, she underwent umbilical hernia surgery. As a sophomore, she was one of five Wildcats to suffer concussions in a five-week time span. As a junior, Whipple and the Wildcats were so injury-prone that they were down to eight players at one point.
Whipple’s senior season was delayed because of COVID-19, and now Pac-12 players are wearing masks during matches.
Through it all, Whipple has been consistent.
“I’ve really put my nose down and worked as hard as I possibly could,” she said.
“I’m just really proud of the growth that I’ve seen in myself, not only as a volleyball player, but just especially as just my confidence as a person. Before, I placed a lot of value on who I was as an athlete. I think going through college, I realized that at some point athletics ends. I’m so much more than that. I think that that’s the biggest thing that I’ve taken away from these four years. It’s been incredible and I’ve experienced things that I never imagined experiencing. It’s been the best experience in my life, but there is life after volleyball. And I really had to realize that I’m a human, I’m not just an athlete.”
Whipple can return to the Wildcats for a fifth season, but isn’t sure if she will.
That decision can come later. For now, she is focused on the value she brings to a young UA team.
“If this is my last year, I just want to be a good leader and show the young team what it takes,” she said.
“I’ve tried to tell stories of my freshman year. (If) a freshman is feeling down or feeling confused or frustrated, I just tried to make it known that, ‘Hey, I was in that exact same spot.’ It might look like I know what I’m doing now, but when I was in your spot, I had no idea what I was doing.
“Trying to give them that confidence that as they move forward in the program, things do get easier; the game does slow down; you do gain confidence. Regardless of how the season goes, wins or losses, how well I do or don’t do, I just want to show them that they have what it takes, and they’re here for a reason. And it will come with time.”
Extra points
- Rubio said he likes the Pac-12’s new schedule, where teams play the same opponent twice in a row.
“I like the opportunity to make the adjustments that we’re going to need to make from one night to the next,” he said.
- Utah was picked by the coaches to finish at the top of the league. What are Rubio’s keys to compete?
“Our swing percentage has to be 90%,” he said. “The swing percentage means that we’re setting the ball and our hitters are getting up and hitting it a least 90% of the time, whether it’s in serve receive, or whether it’s in transition. If we’re giving them free balls and down balls, it’s going to be lights-out for the Cats quickly.
“We have to serve tough and get them out of their system and even when they are out of their system it’s going to be tough to defend because their hitters are so good. It’s going to be a race to 25 (points). …. The kids will fight and try hard. It’s just they are young and trying to compete against a team that has a lot more experience than we have.”
