STARKVILLE — Just about every emotion has run through the body and mind of Mississippi State University freshman volleyball player Taylor Scott this week.
As Scott has prepared for her debut, she has tried not to allow the nerves to overcome the talent that coach Jenny Hazelwood saw in her and wanted to have in Starkville.
“I find myself thinking about what all my firsts will feel like in my college career because I just don’t know,” Scott said. “I begin to imagine what my first kill, set, and match will be like, and then I begin to feel the nervous energy begin to pick up.”
Scott will get to experience all of those things at 7 tonight when it plays host to Jackson State in day one of the MSU Maroon Classic at the Newell Grissom Building.
Scott likely will be one of four freshmen who will start tonight when MSU takes on the defending Southwestern Athletic Conference champions, who also advanced to the NCAA tournament. Those new players won’t have much rest, as MSU will play host to the University of Louisiana at Monroe at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Kennesaw State University at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Hazelwood traveled across the country to find a talented outside hitter who could lead the revival of the program in the competitive Southeastern Conference. She found Scott on a club team called Club West Volleyball near her hometown of Claremont, Calif.
In her final season of high school volleyball, the 5-foot-10 Scott led her team with 276 kills, 185 digs, 25 aces and 53 blocks while earning first-team All-Sierra League and Sierra League Most Valuable Player honors. Scott guided her team to a 21-9 mark and the quarterfinals of the California Interscholastic Federation playoffs.
“College volleyball is such a step up from even as competitive as club volleyball is in my home state of California, and I know that going in,” Scott said. “What has helped me is the fact I was here in the summer getting myself acclimated to my environment on and off the floor at Mississippi State.”
Scott, who dreamed one day that she would play for the University of Southern California, will get her chance to play in front of friends and family next weekend when MSU participates in the USC tournament in Los Angeles with Boston College University and the University of Northern Iowa.
“I won’t lie when I say my dream, like a lot of California girls, was to play at USC, and now in front of my parents for the first time this season I get to show USC what they missed by not recruiting me,” Scott said.
Scott, 18, likely won’t have transition period because Hazelwood will look for her to play a primary role. MSU begins the season with just three upperclassmen on its roster.
Scott likely will fill one of the open outside hitter roles left by the graduation of the former All-SEC performer Caitlin Rance, who is now a graduate assistant at MSU.
“If we didn’t think she could handle this responsibility of what we’re asking her to do as such a young age and with no previous college volleyball experience, we would’ve recruited somebody else,” Hazelwood said. “We went after a player like Taylor Scott because she’s capable of great things right away.”
Hazelwood will showcase a young team that likely will be without sophomore middle blocker Lainey Wyman. The 2011 All-SEC freshmen team performer isn’t expected to play this weekend after she violated team rules.
Wyman’s absence is just another opportunity for Scott to make an impact in her first weekend at MSU.
“Our goal for not only Taylor but for the whole team is to make sure they don’t get too overconfident or frustrated in what occurs during this opening weekend,” Hazelwood said. “We want them to still feel like after this weekend that they’re still learning so much but also able to compete with the best volleyball in the Southeastern Conference.”
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