McCarthy rising to top of her game for Women's Volleyball Huskies
Sport, especially in the post-secondary world, is all about seizing the opportunity when it’s presented to you.
For Women’s Volleyball student-athlete Taya McCarthy she's doing exactly that after stepping into a starting role with the now 5-0 Keyano College Huskies.
“It’s amazing,” McCarthy said of the early-season success before Friday’s four-set win at home. “We’ve come so far. Even in preseason we struggled a little bit to find a way to take the win at the end.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams where we have no support and you can just feel that the vibes on the court are not together and not for each other. This team really does that and we show that we’re playing for one another.”
To play for one another, the bar had to be raised after a 7-12 campaign for the team in 2023-24
Coming off an appearance with Team British Columbia at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games, last season involved a lot of watching from the bench as the team’s veterans options carried the responsibility on the court. McCarthy still found her way onto the court, appearing in eight sets over five matches, but still had to wait her turn like most rookies.
“She knew what her role would be last year, she handled that like a professional,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan said. “Her focus was always still as a starter, her brain functioned that way.
“You get a season to watch and learn and then take those lessons into this year, but I think that’s only possible if you approach that first year with the right attitude and she absolutely did that.”
“Just learning how to be on the sidelines and support your own teammates really creates a mindset of on the court when you’re going to play for one another,” McCarthy added.
Five games into this season, the Dawson Creek, B.C. product has already appeared in 17 sets and ranks third on the team with 42 kills and second with seven service aces.
It’s not by accident or luck either.
Sloan and McCarthy met in exit meetings last spring and set a plan in motion where this opportunity and role could be seized and McCarthy has held up her end of the agreement.
“She took that to heart and put in the work in the summer and we’re seeing the rewards of that,” Sloan said.
“I worked out a lot,” McCarthy added. “Most of my summer plans were to just keep working hard, keep getting reps as much as I could. Where I live, there’s not a lot of gyms to get into, but I definitely found some pepper partners and made the most of the time I had.”
Her early-season success doesn’t mean McCarthy’s work is anywhere near done. In fact, it’s still in its beginning stages. She’s cleared the first hurdle in taking a starting role, but knows there’s more work to come, a challenge she’s embracing each day.
“I’m trying to find some more consistency on the court as well as consistency with my mental health,” McCarthy said of her growth progression. “A big part that’s missed in volleyball is that your mental state fluctuates, especially when you’re going through different wins, different losses, different times in your life.
“My goal is just to stay mentally tough and try my best.”
Her best at the moment has helped the Huskies remain in the dwindling group of undefeated programs in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC). Now, the Huskies stand alone with the defending conference and national champions from Lakeland College.
It has the Huskies in a positive mindset at a crucial time in the development of the team’s younger core.
In the next few years, it’ll be student-athletes like McCarthy leading and setting the tone to allow the next rookie to make that step like Taya did.
“She’s picked up stuff fast so I’m not even sure if we did much special with her,” Sloan said. “We just gave her the season to breathe a bit and then she seemed perfectly ready to go this year.”