As Utah enters the NCAA Volleyball Tournament this week, coach Beth Launiere is certainly grateful for the contributions of junior outside hitter Madelyn Robinson.
During the season, outside hitter Zoe Weatherington suffered a season-ending knee injury, which expanded Robinson’s role.
“We were extremely excited about the fact that she was interested in Utah. We played them a number of times and she always did really well against us. We had a lot of respect for her. When she showed interest in us, we were excited about it.” — Utah coach Beth Launiere
“Madi is a great competitor. She is a worker. She had a lot of experience. Both she and Zoe were playing before Zoe got hurt,” Launiere said. “We felt like Madi was going to have a big role on this team without knowing exactly what that was going to be. Obviously with Zoe going down, that role increased even more.”
Robinson began her career at BYU before transferring to Utah in January 2020, just before the pandemic.
She said she left BYU for “personal reasons. I thought BYU was great. I just decided I needed to move on.”
This season for the Utes, Robinson has amassed 125 kills and has a .265 hitting percentage.
“She has one of the highest hitting percentages for an outside hitter in the conference. She does a lot of things for us that maybe don’t always get noticed,” Launiere said of Robinson. “We have some other players that take a lot of swings but Madi has played extremely consistent all year. But she’s such a great competitor and worker. She’s made an impact on our team in a lot of ways — with her role, how she prepares for practice every day.”
Utah, the No. 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, will play Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s match between Pittsburgh and Long Island University.
Leading the way for the Utes this season has been outside hitter Dani Drews, who was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year. Drews recorded 324 kills this season. She became the first Utah volleyball player to earn that honor.
What did the accolade mean to the program?
“First of all, I’m just happy for her. She works hard. For that recognition for how hard she works and she’s been a great leader for us this year,” Launiere said. “She’s talented. It is a nice thing for our program. We’re all proud of Dani and as Dani said to her team, it’s a team award. It’s pretty significant for the team and the program as well.”
Robinson, who hails from Highland and played at Lone Peak High, competed against Drews before beginning her college career at BYU.
Launiere was aware of Robinson at that time, of course.
“We talked to Madi in high school. We definitely knew who she was. She came to our camps. She committed to BYU and that was that. It was the typical process,” she said. “I didn’t know she wanted to leave BYU. She ended up in the transfer portal and as soon as we saw that, we reached out.
“We were extremely excited about the fact that she was interested in Utah. We played them a number of times and she always did really well against us. We had a lot of respect for her. When she showed interest in us, we were excited about it.”
Robinson’s transition to Utah has been smooth, Launiere said.
“She knew a lot of our players from club. She played with some of the players on our team. I thought it was pretty seamless for her,” she said. “We have similar styles in our training philosophy. I think she’s thriving here and we’re really happy with her. She’s thriving and her contributions have been very significant. We’re very pleased with what she brings to our team.”