If you were a member of women’s basketball or volleyball at Arizona, the last week or two was a difficult ask as far as travel. With fewer charters being offered to female athletes at Arizona these days, there’s a lot being asked of young women as they also work their way through college classes. That’s especially true with the move to the Big 12, which requires travel to distant locations that often do not have major airports with direct flights.
For volleyball, the trip meant almost a week on the road. When the schedule first came out, Wildcats head coach Rita Stubbs hoped this trip would include chartered flights because of the logistical challenges. With the financial issues at Arizona and the upcoming House settlement distrubtion—which will benefit volleyball very little—that was nixed.
The Wildcats got on a commercial flight last Wednesday. After a layover, they were headed to Cincinnati. That involved all the things that come with taking commercial flights—hours sitting in airports, most of all. After playing their match on Thursday, they weren’t done.
The next stop was Morgantown, W.Va. to play the Mountaineers on Sunday. There are no direct flights. Instead, the team climbed on a bus Friday morning to take a five-hour ride to their next match. Then, they were in hotels for parts of three days.
After the team played WVU on Sunday morning, it was back on a bus. This time the destination was Pittsburgh, Penn. for the first leg of their commercial flight back to Tucson. The team arrived in town about 12:30 a.m. on Monday. Stubbs said after they got everyone safely home, she arrived at her house about 1:30 a.m.
“One of the things that we talked about this trip all along was just being prepared for it,” Stubbs said. “So we were working hard not to find any excuses. We talked about anything that could happen along the way, and I’m proud of them because they handled that like true champs. It could have went sideways in a lot of different ways, but they handled themselves very well there.”
Just getting back didn’t end the demands. Sleeping in on Monday? Not possible. Some players had obligations as early as 8 or 9 a.m. and classes started around 11 a.m.
Time to sleep after class? Not really. Monday evening was a mandatory athletic department presentation about gambling.
Tuesday was practice, then an evening meet and greet with fans for three of the players. Junior Jordan Wilson was supposed to be in the group, as well, but she had to beg off due to an exam on Wednesday.
Things don’t get easier. The group has to get on another commercial flight on Wednesday around noon. Colorado is next on the schedule.
The time in Boulder will be short. The match against the Buffaloes is on Thursday at 6 p.m. MST. Arizona has to be back in Tucson for a 2 p.m. match against Iowa State on Saturday.
“We’ll get there and we’ll practice there, eat lunch and stuff like that, and then play on Thursday, and then get on the flight and come right back to be ready to play on Saturday,” Stubbs said. “I don’t know how (the Big 12) thought this was a good idea.”
Stubbs was proud of her team not for just how they handled all the travel demands last week but how they performed while doing it. They pulled off their first two-match conference road winning streak since the spring of 2021. They stretched their overall conference winning streak to three matches, the first since the fall of 2021.
That’s not to say she would like to do the same thing in the future. At Tuesday evening’s Bump, Set, Spike fan event, Stubbs once again made her fundraising pitch. She pointed to charters and a Taraflex playing surface as the major goals.
The 16 members of the volleyball team weren’t the only women on campus experiencing the pressures of travel over the past week or so. The 14 members of Arizona women’s basketball have faced some challenges, too.
After the women’s basketball program began having success under head coach Adia Barnes, the department started chartering some of their flights, especially to difficult locations. With many of the top schools chartering for women’s basketball, it put Arizona at a competitive disadvantage not to do it, too. If the support for women’s sports was going to be more than lip service, some funds had to be committed.
Charters allow the travel party to arrive at the airport later, avoid layovers, and travel on a more individualized schedule. Less time is spent away from home. It can also be more accommodating for a group that has many members who are well over six feet tall.
Not only did the charters show that the athletic department was committed to investing in women’s sports, it led to success on the court. That led to the record for season tickets sold being busted one year after another. A new record was set again this year with 6,000 season tickets sold by the program despite some issues with short staffing in key marketing and communications areas.
Many of those perks are history these days, though.
Arizona played four games over the first nine days of the season. The third of the four was in San Diego. The Wildcats faced Tarleton State in Tucson on Thursday, Nov. 7. Sunday, Nov. 10 was the game at UC San Diego. Two days later, they had to be back in Tucson for their toughest game yet against UNLV.
Arizona played its fifth game at 12 p.m. MST on Saturday, Nov. 16 in Chicago. The flights to and from the Windy City were commercial. On Tuesday, Nov. 19 around 1 p.m., they were climbing on a bus for a Wednesday evening game in Flagstaff. They will bus back in time for a game in Tucson against Grambling State on Saturday evening. The driving distance is about four hours.
The Wildcats have overcome the challenges. They are 5-0 heading into their game at NAU. While the schedule is easier this year than last season, the travel demands coupled with the other responsibilities of a college student add extra difficulty.
Barnes has adapted by using her depth this year to try to keep players fresh. All 13 healthy players got into the game at Chicago State. Skylar Jones was the only starter to play more than 16 minutes. At least 10 have played in every game.
“That was a rough, like, 10, 12 days,” Barnes said. “I think it was 11 days. It was a lot, the trip cross country for the game. It was pretty hard. We were kind of a little bit gassed, and I didn’t want to talk about that, because I knew I was gassed. I’m not even playing. So it was just a rough patch, and I knew this turnaround was gonna be hard. Basically today it was kind of like, everybody’s feeling good, but we woke up at three in the morning to travel across country. The time difference. It’s cold. Not an excuse at all, but I knew that game I wanted to play a lot of people and get us kind of rested because this next week is challenging again.”
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics