STARKVILLE — Warm weather is a recruiting tool for indoor sports, too.
Lainey Wyman sat down with her parents one evening to map out what was important in her college choice. In the living room of their suburban Chicago home, Matt and Kathy Wyman realized that map needed to include the southern United States.
“I knew I wanted to go far away and I wanted to go toward warm weather because it’s cold in Chicago — not my favorite thing in the world, trust me,” Wyman said. “That kind of cut out part of the country.”
It didn’t take long after Wyman had narrowed her geographical focus that Mississippi State volleyball coach Jenny Hazelwood figured out she had a chance to sign a player nearly every Big Ten Conference school wanted. Hazelwood had seen Wyman play on the club circuit for the Sports Performance program and began to sell her on the idea of being a starter and helping MSU build a more competitive program.
“She was so heavily recruited before she got to our campus, so the whole time was spent trying to figure out how can we get her here,” Hazelwood said. “Once we get a kid to our campus I feel like we’ve got a shot to get anybody.”
Wyman, a 6-foot-1 middle blocker, was told she would have the opportunity to play as a freshman and would be a major part of MSU’s attack.
Now she is making the most of that opportunity.
The four-year starter and first-team all-state performer at Joliet Catholic Academy in Joliet, Ill., had one of the best performances of her young career last weekend in helping MSU (6-5, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) go 1-1 against the University of Florida and South Carolina.
Wyman had 26 kills, a hitting percentage of .276, and seven block assists in a 3-0 loss to then-No. 7 Florida on Friday and a 3-2 win against South Carolina on Sunday to earn Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honors.
“I don’t want to use (the fact she is a freshman) as an excuse to not perform well, so I’ve decided to not think I’m a freshman and she’s a big, bad senior (across the net) and amazing,” Wyman said.
Wyman’s parents have made the 12-hour drive twice to see their 19-year-old daughter play at the Newell-Grissom in Starkville. Lainey said their support has helped her feel more comfortable.
“My parents knew I was going to go far so they gave up on that dream, but they were always supportive,” Wyman said. “When my dad and I came down for an unofficial visit, we went to a baseball game and that’s when he told me he could see me being happy here.”
Hazelwood, who admits she has to recruit out of the state of Mississippi to help MSU remain competitive in the SEC, wasn’t convinced Wyman was going to choose MSU until she verbally committed during her senior season at Joliet Catholic. It turns out MSU had the advantage in that it was the school that was far away from home.
“She and her parents were going out to a school in California and I just kept thinking, ‘Please don’t go to place where your family can’t drive down here,’ ” Hazelwood said. “We didn’t find a sleeper. We stole
a great kid out of a strong volleyball area.”
Wyman isn’t a typical quiet freshman who is trying to fit in. She admits she is “a big talker” on and off the court. Hazelwood has noticed the intensity in her freshman’s post-match self-evaluation sheets she requires her players to complete.
“She’ll have what I thought was a good, solid match in her development then I’ll look at the sheet and it’s a laundry list of I didn’t do this, this, this, and this right at all,” Hazelwood said. “She will not allow herself to be satisfied with where she is.”
Some of those evaluations were extremely harsh, especially the first two Wyman filled out after experiencing the unfamiliar feeling of suffering back-to-back losses.
In her final two years of high school, Wyman played on a team that was a combined 75-8 and made consecutive trips to the Illinois High School Athletic Association state finals.
After losing four of its first five matches, Mississippi State has rebounded to take five of its last six, including wins against Baylor and South Carolina. The run has put MSU back in the top 80 nationally in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
“The goals have not changed because if we continue this stretch of good play the NCAA committee is going to look at our team and see we’re playing our best volleyball as the season went along,” Hazelwood said. “We see the NCAA tournament and SEC Western Division championship as goals we can get.”
MSU can put itself at the top of the West this weekend when it plays Friday and Sunday at division leaders Arkansas and LSU.
“It is a big weekend,” Hazelwood said. “This is the one where we can set a tone of we’re going to be a team to reckoned with.”
MSU coaches have gone away from Wyman’s strengths as a hitter who is proficient at the slide, a move in which the hitter goes behind the setter and makes her attack off one foot, and are trying to strengthen other fundamentals of her game because they know SEC coaches already are preparing for her.
“I don’t think I’ve hit a wall yet in my development, which makes me a little nervous about it happening soon,” Wyman said. “I have a lot in my blocking and everything but the slide to really improve on before I think I’m good in this league.”
Hazelwood doesn’t have that fear for Wyman.
“We have a number of young players on the court, and where that hurts a team is when freshman aren’t vocal and timid,” Hazelwood said. “She’s none of those things and doesn’t shy away from that.”
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