It took redshirt junior Britt Carlson a long time to become an Arizona Wildcat. The opposite hitter had been on the volleyball coaches’ radar since retired head coach Dave Rubio was still active. Now,
she wants to make her mark on the program.
Carlson was recruited by Arizona and then-assistant coach Rita Stubbs out of high school in Minnesota, but she liked the opportunities being offered elsewhere. Washington State, in particular, was giving her the chance to get on with life beyond high school.
“My senior year, I went on three visits, and one of them was Arizona,” Carlson said. “I knew Rita pretty well. We had a relationship. She was one who mainly recruited me, and then also Dave. I ended up going to Washington State because they wanted me to graduate early from high school, and that just made sense to me because I was pretty much done with all my classes at that point.”
Arizona regularly brings in players a semester early since Stubbs took over. Last spring, three of the five freshmen arrived early. The year before, top recruit Carlie Cisneros was in Tucson for spring tournaments. Rubio had begun bringing freshmen in early during his last years at the helm, but it was not a regular practice.
Playing college volleyball had been Carlson’s goal for a long time. She comes from an athletic family. Three of her four siblings played or are playing college sports. Both of their parents were also college athletes.
Britt initially followed both of the family passions. Her dad Marc Carlson played basketball at Iowa State. Her brother Ben Carlson played basketball at Wisconsin and Utah, and their brother Brayden Carlson currently plays basketball at University of Minnesota Crookston. She followed their example for a time, but it eventually lost out to her love for volleyball.
“I was deciding between basketball and volleyball for college, because I had offers for both,” Carlson said. “And it’s just like the feeling you get when you get a big kill, or when you have a big block, I just think it feels so cool. And being with five other girls in the court…Honestly, I play because I love it. It’s just so much fun.”
She found that fun by following the paths of her mother Sheri Mandell-Carlson and sister Brynn Carlson, but she didn’t rush into it. She started playing when she was 10 and got into club volleyball when she was 13. She had a strong basis in the game long before that.
Up Next for Arizona Volleyball
No. 24 Colorado Buffaloes (13-2, 4-0 Big 12) @ Arizona Wildcats (8-5, 2-1 Big 12)
When: Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. MST
Where: McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
Streaming: ESPN+
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
Mandell-Carlson played volleyball at Division II St. Cloud State from the 1986-1989 seasons, graduating in 1990. She still holds the career records for solo blocks (164), block assists (529), and total blocks (693). She led the team in blocks all four years and is eighth with 1,173 kills in her career. She is also top ten in total attacks (2,873/10th), career hitting percentage (.294/T-10th), and total points (1,706.5/5th). She has been inducted into the North Central Conference and St.Cloud State Athletic halls of fame.
Brynn’s college career came during the pandemic. She played four years at Kansas State from 2017 through 2020 then transferred to Missouri to finish her extra eligibility.
Carlson has experience with the itinerant college life, too. After redshirting her first year at Washington State, she transferred to UCF. Stubbs said that Carlson reached out to Arizona at the time, but roster construction issues made it impossible. When the right side hitter decided to leave UCF, it was finally the right time for both parties.
Why would Carlson keep returning to the idea of playing for Arizona? Stubbs was always a big attraction, especially after she became the head coach.
“She was honest with me,” Carlson said. “I think sometimes it’s hard to find a coach who’s really going to tell you how it is, and she was telling me the good and the bad, right off the bat. So I kind of knew what I was getting with her. She didn’t try and hide anything from me, and I really like that about her.”
Volleyball was obviously a huge part of it, but it wasn’t the only thing that brought her to Tucson. Just as she did in high school, Carlson completed school early. She graduated from UCF with a degree in communications after just three years in college. Arizona was a good match for her masters.
“I had that previous relationship with Rita, and then it was just a program I wanted to be a part of here,” Carlson said. “They have a great business school, which is what I’m going into for my master’s. So it just made sense.”
That’s not to say everything has gone as she might have liked. Opposite was a position of need after Jaelyn Hodge completed her eligibility last year. Carlson was one option to fill that need, but Stubbs had also moved former setter Ana Heath back to the pin to help get her on the floor more in her senior year. Renee Jones also joined the team as a freshman.
Since the season started, it has been Heath and Carlson battling for playing time. They bring different things to the table. Heath is a lefty, which adds a desirable wrinkle on the right side. She’s also a smart scorer. However, she’s only listed at 5-foot-10. At 6-foot-4, Carlson brings a bigger block on that side of the floor. For most of the year, Heath has been the one on the floor.
Stubbs said that it was getting to Carlson, and they had a talk about that recently to try to help her with that confidence. Most important was letting Carlson know that the coaches believed in her even if she wasn’t playing.
“I’ve seen Britt get better each and every day,” Stubbs said. “I did see her get frustrated there for a while and kind of talked to her and reassured her that we made the right decision. Sometimes you just have to give that confidence to the players in terms of just easing their mind a little bit. And so she has said, I can do this. I got this. And I said, I know, I’ve seen you do it. And so it was just giving her a little peace of mind there.”
Carlson started getting more opportunities lately, which has definitely helped her confidence. She appeared in the last four Arizona matches, including all five sets in last week’s win over Utah.
Carlson had seven kills on .429 hitting and threw in three total blocks against Utah. It was one of her two best matches since donning a Wildcat uniform and was critical to getting the win over the Utes.
“It felt great to finally be able to show that on the court, because I stepped up in a moment when my team needed me,” Carlson said. “So I think it was…great to be that person for my team, and, personally, it felt good for me, because I was, like, all right. I proved to myself and my teammates and all that, that I can be that person for them.”
