In preparing for the 2024 season, the Utah women’s volleyball team bought into the saying, “Above and beyond.”
It became a rallying cry and teaching tool for a Utes squad that returned largely intact from a difficult 11-19 season in 2023.
The net result has been more than “above and beyond,” to steal a phrase — Utah has turned its struggles of the past couple years into excellence and opportunities this season, as the Utes went 24-5 and 15-3 in Big 12 play during their first year in the league.
“We all had to buy into the things that maybe didn’t work so well last season. Our coaches did a really good job identifying things that we need to work on, both as a team and individually,” Utah senior outside hitter/defensive specialist Kamry Bailey said.
“Each person kind of had their own above and beyond, whether that’s extra reps, or watching more film, or making sure you sleep more, whatever it is that they thought that individual people needed and we all bought into it and we all realized the importance of those things continuing throughout this season as well.”
As a result, Utah earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and is serving as a host for the first two rounds of postseason play this week at the Huntsman Center.
The first round of NCAA action will kick off at the Huntsman on Thursday, with No. 5 seed Marquette and Florida Gulf Coast meeting at 4:30 p.m. MST. After that, Utah will face the College of Charleston at 7:30 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.
The winners from Thursday’s first round will play in the second round on Friday at 7 p.m., with the chance to advance to the Sweet 16.
It’s just the fourth time that the Utes have hosted during the opening rounds of the NCAAs — they’ve also done so in 2001, 2005 and 2017. Utah advanced to the Sweet 16 when they hosted in 2001 and 2017, while the Utes lost in the second round in 2005.
That accounts for half of Utah’s four Sweet 16 appearances — the other two came in 2008 and 2019.
For the eight Utah players who this is their final season, hosting the NCAAs gives them one more chance to play in front of the home crowd — and a chance to advance in the postseason, with the fans in their favor.
“It’s so awesome. It means the world, especially for my last season, to end on this high note, to be back in the Huntsman Center, hosting and back to the tournament. I’m just so excited,” said fifth-year middle blocker Allie Olsen.
It’s also a reward for a season where the Utes have exceeded outside expectations — Utah finished tied for third in the Big 12, after being predicted to finish ninth in the league’s preseason poll.
“I just think, the 10,000-foot view looking back at everything we did, it really makes it feel just all worth it. It’s really satisfying to know that all the work that we put in compiled to this one moment, and we met the goals that we made for ourselves at the beginning,” Bailey said.
Utah coach Beth Launiere, who’s in her 35th season in charge of the Utes volleyball team, said it’s “business as usual” getting ready for the NCAA tournament.
“This group, they just put their head down, and then it’s really important for this team to have fun as well. That’s been a part of our identity all year, is to play loose and play fun,” she said. “You know, have fun, but they’re gonna put the work in and we’ll be ready.”
That work has been months in the making — and it included honing in on those “above and beyond” focuses during the spring season, as well as a European trip this summer that gave Utah a chance to further strengthen its bonds while also experiencing some new styles of play firsthand.
“I think we came in the first day of spring, and we all kind of decided that we knew that it was going to take a lot of hard work, and that we were all just, a new collective buy-in of the hard work,” said senior setter Grace Hammond, of a 2024 team that included 13 holdovers from last season and four newcomers.
“We knew what it was going to take, and our coaches really pushed us and kind of gave us the expectations really early that it was going to be difficult and that we were going to have to attack every single day really hard. ... We had a saying, ‘Above and beyond,’ we were willing to go above and beyond in every little thing that we did, just to set the expectation a little bit higher.”
The European trip, which included visits to Italy, Slovenia and Greece, gave this group opportunities to learn and grow together.
“Getting exposed to different styles of play was amazing. I mean, it’s crazy how different volleyball can be around different parts of the world. So we definitely got to see some unique kind of competition over there,” said sophomore outside Kamryn Gibadlo.
The experience also helped prove to the Utes just what kind of squad they could be.
“I think we started proving to ourselves that we could do hard things together. Because as fun and as glamorous as traveling through Europe is, you know, there were early mornings, late nights, we had to overcome some of the language barriers,” Hammond said.
“There were definitely obstacles that we had to overcome. And I think it’s helped us start to learn that we can do these things together, and that it was taking all of us top to bottom to be able to make our experience in Europe really special.”
Once the regular season arrived, Utah turned those lessons it had refined during the offseason into tangible results — the Utes lost just once prior to conference play, to No. 8 Purdue, then won five of their first six Big 12 matches.
That included back-to-back win over ranked TCU and Baylor teams at the Huntsman Center in mid-October.
After that weekend, “There was teams that were starting to notice us, and we felt like we had a pretty good team. I think that gave us the confidence moving forward,” Launiere said.
Another “prove it” moment for Utah came when the Utes won in straight sets over rival BYU on Nov. 8 — that was the second of seven straight victories for the Utes to end the regular season.
“I already knew we were a good team at this point, but when we swept BYU, that was amazing. It just kind of proved to me that we can really take on whoever. We can compete with anyone,” Gibadlo said.
That’s all led up to the opportunity to host again in the NCAA tournament.
The first task at hand is facing a College of Charleston team that earned an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament by winning the Coastal Athletic Association championship match over Delaware on Nov. 23.
“They’ve got good size. They’re a good blocking team. They also run an offense that is a little bit different than what we’ve been seeing in terms of they’re moving their point of attack around a little bit,” Launiere said. “They have a couple of very effective slide hitters and some really great outside hitters so a little different style than we’re used to seeing.”
Utah’s coach is confident her team will be ready for the moment.
“They really love each other. I think that’s really kind of what defines this team that we haven’t had. They’re very protective of the experience that they were having, because they’re really enjoying this season and this process,” Launiere said.
“And I think everybody in the program has been very aware of the fact that we’ve got a good thing going, and let’s stay focused on what’s important, and that’s what this team does, and they enjoy it, and they have fun together.”