10 Questions with Women's Volleyball Player Holly Mauldin
9/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 30, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Columbia, S.C., native and senior volleyball player, Holly Mauldin, has been one of the strongpoint for this year's volleyball team. Last year, she recorded 24 kills, 447 assists, 29 service aces, 182 digs and six blocks during the course of the season. She posted the school's first double-double at the Division I level, recording 17 assists and 10 digs against Navy.
This season, Mauldin has played in 43 games, earning 16 kills and 47 attacks. She leads the team with 275 assists, and is tied for second-best on the team with 92 digs. She also excels in the classroom as she has been recognized on the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic team.
Mauldin and the Spartans are currently 5-10 overall, including a 2-5 record in Conference play. She recently had one of the finest matches of her career, helping Upstate post their first Conference sweep of the season with a 3-0 win over Stetson. She posted a career-high 41 assists to match a career-high five kills. She also added 12 digs for her fourth double-double of the season while passing the 1,500 career-assist mark in the match, becoming the seventh player in school history to do so.
Mauldin recently sat down with Sarah Hurd, of upstatespartans.com, to discuss her experiences at USC Upstate and her goals for the rest of the season.
How would you describe the difference in competition between the Division II and Division I level?
The competition in Division I is obviously much more intense and quicker paced. The players are stronger and more skilled, and the team has to work much harder to keep up with the faster paced game of play.
You recently became the first player to post 40 assists in Division I competition during the past match at Stetson. You also crossed the 1,500 career assists mark. What are your thoughts on this accomplishment?
It means a lot to me. I've been working hard since my freshman year, and now that I'm a senior, I just want to go all-out all the time and keep improving.
What's your mentality before playing a match? How do you pump yourself up?
I listen to "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly. I think about the upcoming match and what I need to do, and also what goals I'm going to accomplish throughout the games.
The team is about half-way through the season schedule, with the majority of your remaining matches being at home. Compared to away games, does your team's style of play change at all when playing at home on a court that is more familiar to you?
I think it's about the same. We generally do the same pre-game things whether the match is home or away, though playing at home is nice because we have generally have more home fans.
What does it mean to you to be playing under Jennifer Calloway, the youngest coach in the NCAA with 250 wins?
I feel very honored to be playing for her. She was hired at such a young age and she has built and transformed our volleyball program. We have all learned so much from her and all respect her greatly.
What adjustments do you think you have to make as a team throughout the remainder of the season?
We need to keep working hard and playing together as a team. We just have to fix some of the kinks on the court, but as long as we keep working hard, I think we're going to keep improving.
What's your favorite part about being a setter?
I love setting the ball and watching teammates just kill it on the ten foot line. After they hit it and get the kill, they usually have a look of excitement on their face and I love seeing that.
Where do you hope to be a year from now and what would you like to be doing? Do you plan on continuing to play volleyball?
Well, a year from now I'll be in Texas. I'm moving there with my roommate, Jenna Leslie. I plan on going to graduate school and trying to get a grad assistantship with a volleyball team, or finding a job as a personal trainer. I might try to keep playing in a casual volleyball league, but I would definitely like to become involved in coaching.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I'd like to go back to England. I've been there before and it was an awesome experience. I went there to play soccer and I really loved the atmosphere there.
You lived in the campus apartments that burned down from a tragic fire in late July. Can you describe what your experience was like?
It was like nothing you would ever see in a movie. Never in my life did I think something like that could happen to me. My roommate, Jenna Leslie, and I went to bed like a normal night, and we woke up to pounding on our door in the mid-morning. I still have the man's face in my head who woke us up and told us to get out of the building as fast as possible. It was scary because we had all different emotions running through our heads at the time. At that point, it didn't hit us that we would lose everything. It really changed my life, knowing that day we had nothing and we would have to start all over. This was right before preseason too, so it was very stressful.
