Christian Stringer: Hi and welcome back to Home Stretch, The Daily Utah Chronicle’s sports podcast. My name is Christian and I will be your host. Today Kamry Bailey from the women’s volleyball team will be joining us. Kamry is a senior here at Utah and is an outside hitter and defensive specialist. Hi Kamry, and welcome to the podcast.

Kamry Bailey: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Christian Stringer: Yeah so congratulations on the big win last night against Texas Tech to open up conference play. With that win, the Utes are on a seven-match win streak and are soon to be ranked in the top 25. In your eyes, what has been the key to the team’s success as of late?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah, I honestly just think that our coach talks about this a lot, that it’s just like finding a way. So we’ve had games where we’ve had really good serve receipts. We’ve had games where we’ve had really good out of system attacking but they’re not always on at the same time. And I think with our team especially this year we have such a good group of girls, it’s just trusting each other and trusting that we’re going to be able to find a way to win the match.

Christian Stringer: You brought up how good this group of girls really is. This team actually has 13 players who have returned from last season. How big of an impact does that have on y’all both on the court and in the locker room?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah, honestly, it’s made a huge impact. So last year, we pretty much had close to the same people playing but it didn’t end up being a great year for us. And I think the difference now is we’ve just become so close. So we went to Europe for a couple weeks and just got super close, and now we do a bunch of stuff together outside of volleyball. So I just think forming those relationships has made a huge impact — we really, truly, love, trust and respect each other. And we’ll do anything to help each other and make each other better. And those relationships help on the court all the time because we just know what each other needs at that moment. So yeah, that’s been awesome.

Christian Stringer: Yeah that is awesome. Now I want to bring up the University at Albany match where you finished with 14 digs, four kills and three total blocks. What was it about that match in specific that allowed you to excel in all those areas?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah, let me think about that … so that was a tournament weekend. I honestly just think that it comes down to team preparation. We had a really good scouting report. Our coaches work really hard to give us block lineups and what we should do against specific people. So like defensively I was just in the right spot because we knew what they were gonna do, same with the blocks. And what was the other stat?

Christian Stringer: Fourteen digs and four kills with the three blocks.

Kamry Bailey: Four kills yeah, four kills isn’t a ton of kills. I mainly just ball control outside … but yeah the four kills — probably props to my setter. I honestly don’t really remember that match super well because it was tournament weekend. But yeah, it was a good game overall.

Christian Stringer: Nice. So you did mention defense a lot in there. What exactly goes into the process of scouting a team defensively, and then how do you prepare for opposing teams’ hitters?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah so we just get … personnel film is what it’s called. So we just look at the tendencies of what the hitters do and then we just form a game plan on that. So if they swing line a lot, then we’re gonna have our blockers line up line, and we’re gonna put the defense, like, back row defense, in a position to be able to dig whatever ball they hit the most, and then adjust to other balls. So yeah, that’s a lot of our coaches putting together film for us and scouting report. And we have an amazing defensive coach. She played at Penn State. Her name is Alyssa. she played at Penn State and won four National Championships. And yeah was the Libero, so she definitely knows what she’s doing. So from a defensive technical standpoint, she’s been amazing for this team.

Christian Stringer: So for you personally, what’s been the difference for you this entire season, since it is your last season, how has that affected your approach to some of these matches?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah, so mindset-wise, I don’t want to play pro volleyball, so this is going to be my last little stretch of college athletics. So mindset-wise, for me it’s just making the most of the opportunities that we have. And the girls have made this so much easier. Like we’re so silly and fun, it’s never a dull moment with us. So just having that with a combination of “Let’s make the most of this” has kind of made it fun instead of stressful. When we’re on the court, we’re all honestly just having a lot of fun with each other and that’s made all the difference.

Christian Stringer: So lastly, I just wanted to open it up and ask what the biggest challenge has been for you and your career as a collegiate athlete, and how did you work through that?

Kamry Bailey: Yeah so two come to mind actually. One of them is I have had a couple of knee surgeries. I tore my meniscus, and then I ended up tearing it again, and that has caused a lot of, obviously, issues. I was actually not able to jump for my first two years here, most of my first two years here. But then it started doing well, and I started being able to jump and hit again, which has been super nice. So that was a big challenge. Mostly, the mental aspect of being injured is a big challenge. So there is that, the other thing is just managing the schedule. I chose a pretty hefty major, and I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned from that is just what and when to let go of things. And that’s been amazing for this season. I literally just learned that lesson. So just learning that maybe sometimes sleep is more important than getting an A-plus-plus on an assignment, or just prioritizing in general has been a big challenge, but it’s definitely … I’ve learned a lot. The character development has been real.

Christian Stringer: That’s awesome. I love to hear it. That’s some great advice right there. And you’re a trooper putting up with those torn meniscuses. Thank you for sharing your thoughts today, and thank you for listening to the Home Stretch, The Daily Utah Chronicle sports podcast. Stay tuned for new episodes coming every other week.

Transcribed by Otter.ai

Host: Christian Stringer — [email protected]

Producer: Brooke Hale — [email protected]  | @brookehale

Guest: Kamry Bailey