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Setting the table
Freshman Taylor Carico has taken the reins of the USC women's volleyball team with great success.
Alex Delanian
Issue date: 10/24/06 Section: Sports
Taylor Carico is impressive.
Not because the freshman is the most recent recipient of the Andi Collins Award, given to the top high school setter in the nation, nor because of her abilities on the volleyball court. Those just make her good.
What makes her impressive is what makes record executives powerful. Everyone wants to be around them, show off for them, hope to fall in their good graces. The way every aspiring musician wants two seconds of a mogul's attention, people will do anything to elicit Carico's wry smile, which women's volleyball coach Mick Haley says is "what melts everybody," on and off the court.
On the benches outside Heritage Hall after a tough practice, two guys roll up to Carico - one on a bike, one on a Razor scooter - and make small talk. One casually drops in the statement that she's the best volleyball player ever, earning him a giggle. The other asks Carico, still drenched in sweat, if she wants to see a trick on the scooter.
He jogs a few steps away and sets himself.
"Ready?" he yells out, waiting to be validated.
"He can't do a trick! It's not even his Razor," Carico says, and watches him extend one foot out like a figure skater and ride away, smiling.
She smiles back, and a few minutes of acting silly are suddenly worthwhile.
-
Carico represents a philosophical change in the USC women's volleyball system under Haley. In the past, Haley had preferred to run a 6-2 system, where two setters would rotate into the back row to allow for three hitters at all times. With the big bodies the team was blessed with in previous years - outside hitters April Ross, Keao Burdine and Staci Venski; middle blockers Emily Adams and Bibiana Candelas - it was a logical decision.
Past setters such as Toni Anderson and Tracy Lindquist and current setter Kimi Freeburg are talented but don't have the size to be legitimate front-row threats. Last year, Haley took the first step in a new direction by giving then-senior Nena Siljegovic full control of the offense as the team's lone setter. It was an off year for the Women of Troy, however, losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament after four consecutive Final Four appearances, including two national championships.
Enter Carico, who committed to USC after her sophomore year in 2004, as the new breed of Trojan setter.
Her hands alone make her one of the best distributors in the nation. The volleyball lays on her fingertips for half a blink and floats effortlessly wherever it needs to go - outsides, opposites, quicks, pipes and everything in between. What puts her on another level, something Carico acknowledges and Haley says makes her "special," is her athletic ability.
One of the tools a setter can use when playing in the front row is the dump, used to catch blockers off-guard by quickly redirecting a pass onto the other side of the court instead of setting it to a hitter.
Carico doesn't dump, however. Possessing a powerful left hand and some of the biggest hops in the nation, she's able to size up and swing away at the ball with such ferocity that USC's sports information named her powerful swing a "310," an ode to her area code in the mold of Reggie Bush's eye black.
"They have to treat me more like a hitter," Carico said. "That gives my hitters more options and a better opportunity if the other blockers are jumping with me."
This vast skill set only complements Carico's attitude in practice, which has quickly won over her teammates. After matches, when asked about their play, other players answer briefly but regularly end up complimenting the setter's performance. It's one thing to impress the fans, but to have your own teammates fawning over you is rare.
"She's had so much success and she expects to win," Haley said. "You see that - she's got one of those April Ross auras, and she's so good with her teammates that they all root for her because she works hard for them.
"And she likes to do the cerebral stuff - how fun is that for coaches? To get somebody who wants to talk about it, discuss it and has some opinions, that's really exciting for us."
Having the aura, the determination and the desire to get better is one thing, but Carico had the opportunity to put her tools to use last Friday night against the UCLA Bruins in the final match to be played in the Lyon Center.
-
Carico and her teammates entered the Lyon Center Friday hoping to continue the school's recent domination of the Bruins. USC had won 11 times in a row, never losing under Haley's tenure at USC.
After a strong blocking performance in the first game, the Women of Troy made multiple mistakes to give UCLA the next two games. After a burst in momentum tied game four at 20-20, the Bruins called a timeout.
The score remained even until 22-22, at which point USC fell apart. After two UCLA points, the sequence of events was difficult to watch. Opposite hitter Jessica Gysin was blocked on a set too far off the net. Middle blocker Bethany Johansen swung into the net on the next play and Haley subbed in Freeburg for Carico. After a double error by Freeburg, Carico immediately re-entered the game.
At 22-27, things didn't get much better. Carico set Asia Kaczor in the pipe, a wise play considering UCLA did little to stop Kaczor until that point, but the 6-foot-4 outside hitter was blocked. A slide to Johansen went into the net on the next play.
With the Bruins one point away from the game, Carico took matters into her own hands. On a tight pass, Carico swiveled her hips, unleashed her left arm and fired one of those patented "310"s at the Bruins.
Blocked. Match over, lessons learned.
"They just made a lot of exceptional plays in the end, and we weren't able to recover from it," Carico said.
It was the second loss of the season; many dismissed the women's volleyball team's loss to Stanford on Oct. 12, attributing the poor play to the pressure of playing the inaugural match in the Galen Center.
Against UCLA, the pressure was strictly on the court, and it was Carico's chance to truly measure herself against a Final Four-caliber team and for Haley to see how much more growth his setter required.
Haley, though disappointed, saw enough in Carico's play to be excited about the future.
"I can't be disappointed in Taylor in any way, shape or form," Haley said. "You tell me one freshman that comes in and plays at a Final Four level right away."
But all Carico could learn - in a game full of ups, downs, backs, forths and eventual disappointment - was something she wasn't entirely used to in her prep career.
"That it's not fun losing," Carico said.
No smiles this time. For a player who is tougher on herself than the coaches are on her, the hurt will linger for a while, but the competitive spirit will eventually take over.
Because there's always room to be a little more impressive.
Setting the table
Freshman Taylor Carico has taken the reins of the USC women's volleyball team with great success.
Alex Delanian
Issue date: 10/24/06 Section: Sports
Taylor Carico is impressive.
Not because the freshman is the most recent recipient of the Andi Collins Award, given to the top high school setter in the nation, nor because of her abilities on the volleyball court. Those just make her good.
What makes her impressive is what makes record executives powerful. Everyone wants to be around them, show off for them, hope to fall in their good graces. The way every aspiring musician wants two seconds of a mogul's attention, people will do anything to elicit Carico's wry smile, which women's volleyball coach Mick Haley says is "what melts everybody," on and off the court.
On the benches outside Heritage Hall after a tough practice, two guys roll up to Carico - one on a bike, one on a Razor scooter - and make small talk. One casually drops in the statement that she's the best volleyball player ever, earning him a giggle. The other asks Carico, still drenched in sweat, if she wants to see a trick on the scooter.
He jogs a few steps away and sets himself.
"Ready?" he yells out, waiting to be validated.
"He can't do a trick! It's not even his Razor," Carico says, and watches him extend one foot out like a figure skater and ride away, smiling.
She smiles back, and a few minutes of acting silly are suddenly worthwhile.
-
Carico represents a philosophical change in the USC women's volleyball system under Haley. In the past, Haley had preferred to run a 6-2 system, where two setters would rotate into the back row to allow for three hitters at all times. With the big bodies the team was blessed with in previous years - outside hitters April Ross, Keao Burdine and Staci Venski; middle blockers Emily Adams and Bibiana Candelas - it was a logical decision.
Past setters such as Toni Anderson and Tracy Lindquist and current setter Kimi Freeburg are talented but don't have the size to be legitimate front-row threats. Last year, Haley took the first step in a new direction by giving then-senior Nena Siljegovic full control of the offense as the team's lone setter. It was an off year for the Women of Troy, however, losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament after four consecutive Final Four appearances, including two national championships.
Enter Carico, who committed to USC after her sophomore year in 2004, as the new breed of Trojan setter.
Her hands alone make her one of the best distributors in the nation. The volleyball lays on her fingertips for half a blink and floats effortlessly wherever it needs to go - outsides, opposites, quicks, pipes and everything in between. What puts her on another level, something Carico acknowledges and Haley says makes her "special," is her athletic ability.
One of the tools a setter can use when playing in the front row is the dump, used to catch blockers off-guard by quickly redirecting a pass onto the other side of the court instead of setting it to a hitter.
Carico doesn't dump, however. Possessing a powerful left hand and some of the biggest hops in the nation, she's able to size up and swing away at the ball with such ferocity that USC's sports information named her powerful swing a "310," an ode to her area code in the mold of Reggie Bush's eye black.
"They have to treat me more like a hitter," Carico said. "That gives my hitters more options and a better opportunity if the other blockers are jumping with me."
This vast skill set only complements Carico's attitude in practice, which has quickly won over her teammates. After matches, when asked about their play, other players answer briefly but regularly end up complimenting the setter's performance. It's one thing to impress the fans, but to have your own teammates fawning over you is rare.
"She's had so much success and she expects to win," Haley said. "You see that - she's got one of those April Ross auras, and she's so good with her teammates that they all root for her because she works hard for them.
"And she likes to do the cerebral stuff - how fun is that for coaches? To get somebody who wants to talk about it, discuss it and has some opinions, that's really exciting for us."
Having the aura, the determination and the desire to get better is one thing, but Carico had the opportunity to put her tools to use last Friday night against the UCLA Bruins in the final match to be played in the Lyon Center.
-
Carico and her teammates entered the Lyon Center Friday hoping to continue the school's recent domination of the Bruins. USC had won 11 times in a row, never losing under Haley's tenure at USC.
After a strong blocking performance in the first game, the Women of Troy made multiple mistakes to give UCLA the next two games. After a burst in momentum tied game four at 20-20, the Bruins called a timeout.
The score remained even until 22-22, at which point USC fell apart. After two UCLA points, the sequence of events was difficult to watch. Opposite hitter Jessica Gysin was blocked on a set too far off the net. Middle blocker Bethany Johansen swung into the net on the next play and Haley subbed in Freeburg for Carico. After a double error by Freeburg, Carico immediately re-entered the game.
At 22-27, things didn't get much better. Carico set Asia Kaczor in the pipe, a wise play considering UCLA did little to stop Kaczor until that point, but the 6-foot-4 outside hitter was blocked. A slide to Johansen went into the net on the next play.
With the Bruins one point away from the game, Carico took matters into her own hands. On a tight pass, Carico swiveled her hips, unleashed her left arm and fired one of those patented "310"s at the Bruins.
Blocked. Match over, lessons learned.
"They just made a lot of exceptional plays in the end, and we weren't able to recover from it," Carico said.
It was the second loss of the season; many dismissed the women's volleyball team's loss to Stanford on Oct. 12, attributing the poor play to the pressure of playing the inaugural match in the Galen Center.
Against UCLA, the pressure was strictly on the court, and it was Carico's chance to truly measure herself against a Final Four-caliber team and for Haley to see how much more growth his setter required.
Haley, though disappointed, saw enough in Carico's play to be excited about the future.
"I can't be disappointed in Taylor in any way, shape or form," Haley said. "You tell me one freshman that comes in and plays at a Final Four level right away."
But all Carico could learn - in a game full of ups, downs, backs, forths and eventual disappointment - was something she wasn't entirely used to in her prep career.
"That it's not fun losing," Carico said.
No smiles this time. For a player who is tougher on herself than the coaches are on her, the hurt will linger for a while, but the competitive spirit will eventually take over.
Because there's always room to be a little more impressive.
