The net is up once again for the Utah Tech University women’s volleyball team as they continue through the offseason with a full head of steam.
The Trailblazers finished the 2024 season with a 15-12 overall record and landed in fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference standings, going 9-7. They ended the season on a five-game slide that included a 3-0 loss to California Baptist University Nov. 16 in the WAC tournament.
Despite that, the team has been hard at work fine tuning their skills and team chemistry during the offseason.
“You can see the fruits of their labor,” head coach Camilla Hafoka said. “Having everybody returning helps with chemistry… I think it has helped put them in the mental aspect of that.”
Hafoka said working on getting the team into the right mentality has been a focus this offseason, and that was the case in the spring volleyball game that took place March 29 in the Student Activity Center on UT’s campus.
It was the second of three scheduled spring games for Utah Tech, and their opponent was the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds.
These spring games are considered friendly since they don’t count toward any official records or statistics, but they act as a chance for the participating teams to flex the skills they’ve been building during the offseason.
In the regular season, the Trailblazers and the T-Birds split the docket and each took a win on their home floor back in October, but Utah Tech showed dominance across the four sets that were played, winning by at least six points in each set.
The chemistry Hafoka spoke about was apparent in the energy on the bench and on the court. The players dictated the electric atmosphere in the SAC, which the small group of spectators was able to feed off of.
One of the returning leaders this year was libero and defensive specialist Mya Laufiso, a junior communication studies major from West Jordan.
As a defensive specialist and libero in 2024, she had 364 digs and 64 points, leading other specialists on the team.
“My focus is taking it one day at a time [and] stacking the little wins to progress as a person for my team,” she said. “I want to work on leadership and taking control of the back row.”
She was one of the most vocal players on the court and was a leader alongside outside hitter Tessa Treanor, a junior family studies and human development major from Salem.
“I think that’s been a big thing for us, is everyone showing up,” Treanor said when asked about staying sharp during the offseason. “Even on their hardest days, they’re still giving one hundred [percent].”
Treanor averaged over two kills per set and had 25 total aces in 2024, which was the second-best for outside hitters on the team.
When asked about team goals, Treanor said, “Believing in ourselves and working with each other and helping each other grow in our individual parts and together [has helped].”
The Trailblazers have one more spring game in the SAC April 12 vs. the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which will be fueled by their team chemistry and bonds they’ve built this offseason.
