When Carly Trueman of the University of Utah volleyball team was growing up, she spent a lot of time outdoors, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that she now uses nature as a place of refuge and a way to recharge.
From snowboarding to fishing to motorcycle riding, Trueman loves to take advantage of what this world has to offer. Usually when she can sneak away from the city, she doesn’t go by herself. Trueman has somebody eager to go on adventures with her — her father.
“I do most of the things I like outside with my dad,” Trueman said. “It’s a good time for us to hang out. It’s just relaxing.”
But the athlete inside of Trueman was quick to speak out when she said she has “a little bit” of a competitive drive with her father, especially when it comes to fishing and snowboarding. That desire to succeed doesn’t only come out when Trueman is on a dirt road, on the lake or in the mountains, it also appears on the court.
As a senior, Trueman has been a member of the team long enough to watch how Utah has flourished since joining the Pac-12. For her, seeing the Utes grow into a force to be reckoned with is rewarding.
“It’s been really great because every year our end of the year ranking has gone up, and I hope that it just keeps going up and up and up until we’re the best, of course,” Trueman said. “But it’s pretty cool seeing how a program has developed into a more competitive Pac-12 team, I guess from the early years.”
Not only has the team grown, but Trueman has experienced personal growth as well. It hasn’t been a smooth ride for the collegiate athlete. The economics major knows firsthand how difficult it can be as a student-athlete trying to balance everything, but that doesn’t slow her down. She has learned to rely on her friends and family to give her energy and motivation to keep her moving forward.
“My teammates have made the whole five years a lot more fun, a lot easier to get through the tough parts of it,” Trueman said. “We have a really demanding schedule … going from class to practice to homework, having to get a good night’s sleep so you can do it all over again the next day. Sometimes after a few weeks of training everybody is starting to feel a little tired, maybe practices are getting a little harder, you’re stressed out with tests, midterms or whatever. Having your teammates there to really push you in practice is really helpful.”
While managing her heavy work load, she has still been able to catch head coach Beth Launiere’s eye. What stands out to Launiere about Trueman is the transformation she has made five years into the program.
“Carly is a key player for what we do,” Launiere said. “We’re one of the top teams in the conference and in the nation offensively, and Carly is an absolute amazing athlete that has turned herself into a very good volleyball player. She has the ability to get big kills for us in key moments and we rely on that from her. Both her and Adora [Anae] being on the left side as seniors is very important to our success.”
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