Arizona volleyball head coach Rita Stubbs doesn’t like to make her players responsible for the mental and emotional state of their teammates. She remembers how that felt as a player. Still, she knows how important
it is to have players like Sydnie Vanek and Haven Wray, who take it upon themselves to play hype women on the sidelines or on the court.
“They know they can do it, and they know that that’s something that they own,” Stubbs said. “But I work hard never to make them be the sole source of it, because at some point that becomes draining. I remember as a player, Dave [Rubio] told me—I’ll never forget this—he goes, ’Rita, when you come into the gym and you’re in a bad mood, it affects everyone.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, no, no, no! You put that pressure on me? You’re in control of your own self.‘ But as a coach now, I understand what he meant. I did not understand it as a 19, 20-year-old, so I work hard never to put that amount of pressure on one player to have to do that. It’s like everyone has a role, and at the end of the day, if everyone just did their job, it would be enough.”
Vanek doesn’t feel pressure from the role of emotional support. In fact, she invites it.
“I feel great about it,” Vanek said. “I feel like I’m an outgoing person. Everybody knows that about me. I love to hang out. I love to talk. I’m a big talker. So I think for me personally, I like being in that position. I love to always be like, ‘Okay, guys, let’s get going. Let’s have a great practice today.‘ Always just trying to encourage people and uplift other people the best I can.”
She’s learned to take on that leadership role whether she’s on the court or not. For most of her Arizona career, the time off the court was far more than the time on it. Stubbs has tried to get her on the court more by moving her to different positions depending on what the Wildcats needed at any given time.
“What makes me most excited about Sydney is that her energy level is always high,” Stubbs said. “And going to a new position, there was some leeriness on my part, whether she could still be who she is, while going back to a new but a position she had played before, and she’s owned it.”
As Stubbs mentions, it’s an “old new” position. Although Vanek was a middle blocker when she was very young, she switched to outside hitter while still in high school. That’s what she was when she first arrived at Arizona, but the Wildcats were pretty loaded at the pins, especially on the left.
Her sophomore year, she moved to the right to back up Jaelyn Hodge, who was also making the switch from the left side to the right side. With Hodge playing the role of primary offensive threat for most of the season, there just weren’t many opportunities to substitute her out in favor of backups.
Up Next for Arizona Volleyball
No. 21 BYU Cougars (18-5, 6-5) @ Arizona Wildcats (12-9, 6-5)
When: Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. MST
Where: McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
Streaming: ESPN+
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
Texas Tech (9-12, 1-8) @ Arizona Wildcats (12-9, 6-5)
When: Friday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. MST
Where: McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
Streaming: ESPN+
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
So, this year, Stubbs had another idea. Switch Vanek back to the role she had when she was very young. Make her a middle blocker again.
Arizona was in need of a middle. Stubbs prefers to have four on the roster, but she wasn’t able to get one she felt would help the team from the transfer portal. She also had relatively young middles with only one upperclassmen. The other returning middle blocker didn’t play much last year. Then, there was an incoming freshman. But Stubbs also had a team player already in Tucson who had the athleticism to make up for being shorter than most middles.
“I am the smallest,” Vanek said. ”I mean, it’s a little like, I see all my friends, they’re like, ‘Wow, you’re so tall, Sydney.‘ I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not. I’m really not that tall, guys, if you see my other middles.‘ But, I mean, I feel like I jump well and stuff, so I’m able to hang out in there. I don’t feel small when I’m out there.“
Still, moving around and not knowing when or if she will play require her to stay in the game mentally as much as physically.
“I just have to keep trusting God’s plan for me,” Vanek said. “I’m very high with my faith. So I feel like whatever position I’m being put in, I know it’s for the best and that Rita wouldn’t put me in a position she knew that I was not capable of doing. So I feel like just knowing that what I can do in the middle is helpful and beneficial for my team is what I want to be able to do.”
Vanek is also on the Arizona track and field team, where she does long jump. She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials her freshman year with the Wildcats. That athleticism certainly helps her on the court, but it’s not the only thing she brings from track to volleyball.
The players and coaches have repeated one phrase for the past few years. They say, “Just do your job,” when asked what needs to happen for them to be successful. Vanek thinks that’s even more important in an individual sport like track and field, so she already has that outlook.
“I kind of just bring my experience of an individual sport,” Vanek said. “In an individual sport, you are solely focused on your own performance and stuff…You don’t score as a team, if that makes sense. And with volleyball, it’s like you all have to be performing well to win. So I think I bring over being able to handle myself individually.”
Vanek has done her job in ways people might not expect. Despite both of them being undersized for the positions they play this year, she and opposite Ana Heath are tied for third on the team with 0.66 blocks per set. Vanek is eighth on the team with 1.03 kills per set, a stat where one might expect a former pin to excel.
All of Arizona’s players did their job in their last outing. After a damaging loss at Texas Tech, the group bounced back to sweep No. 13 TCU. That undid much of the damage the TTU loss had done to their NCAA Tournament chances.
Now, they have to do it again. The Wildcats host No. 21 BYU on Wednesday, then they get to stay home and try to get revenge against the Red Raiders on Friday. They must stay focused against TTU in a match that will take place at 11 a.m. to allow local school children to attend.
The Cougars have been a bit inconsistent lately. They are 3-3 over the past three weeks, including a loss to a UCF team that is 4-7 in the Big 12. On the other hand, they played three ranked teams. They pushed both ASU and Baylor to five sets, and they beat TCU.
TTU will come with a chance to prove that its sweep of Arizona last week was no fluke. Stubbs doesn’t think revenge on the Wildcats’ end would mean much. A focus on that could actually be detrimental.
“The opponents have an opportunity to be good, as well,” Stubbs said. “And I can’t take anything away from Texas Tech. They had a plan, and they stuck with it. But I don’t want us getting so amped up that, you know, I got to prove a point, because at the end of the day, the loss stays. It’s not like it gets wiped away. And so we want to be just focused on our side of the court, and be able to enjoy being home for an extended amount of time, which doesn’t seem like we’ve had a lot of that.”
