Hodge has become one of the top pins in the Big 12 while Tucker is doing something few Wildcat middle blockers have done in recent years
Fifth-year pin Jaelyn Hodge and sophomore middle blocker Journey Tucker couldn’t have taken more different paths to Tucson. The Arizona volleyball teammates had very different preparations for their college careers but both have risen to the occasion to lead Arizona into the second season of the Rita Stubbs era.
Hodge arrived before Stubbs took over the program. The pin from Queen Creek, Ariz. was a star on the prep volleyball scene. She was the No. 20 recruit in the nation according to PrepVolleyball.com. She led Basha High to a state title and a second-place finish in her final two years of high school. She was the 2019 Arizona State Gatorade Player of the Year and made either the 6A or 5A first team all four years of high school.
Former head coach Dave Rubio said Arizona got her because she wanted to be close to home. Also, former assistant coach Gregg Whitis was the “only person who could make her laugh,” according to Rubio. The Wildcats were in no way her only option for high-level volleyball, though.
Things were very different for Tucker. She didn’t have many options for college volleyball due to things outside her control.
“I was definitely not expecting it, because when we were talking during my senior year, they did say that they were looking for someone more in the transfer portal, someone with experience,” Tucker said. “And then I had a tournament and Rubio came and watched me. And then that same night, Rita called me and offered me and I took it that same night. I think because I wanted to play at a Power 4…previously Power 5 level…and to have that opportunity when just a week before we had that conversation.”
Tucker started playing volleyball when she was in high school. Then, she was diagnosed with a form of brain cancer that had killed her older sister several years before. The diagnosis meant more time away from the sport. She was tall at 6-foot-2 and she was strong, but she was extremely inexperienced.
Things changed for both Arizona and Tucker over that week. Middle blockers are difficult to come by in the portal. Everyone is looking for quality and experience at the position. Whether the Wildcats couldn’t get the one they wanted or they just had a change of heart, it worked out for both sides.
Things were different for Hodge and Tucker when they arrived in Tucson, too. Hodge became a Wildcat in 2020. She experienced all the disruption that came with the pandemic. She was part of the No. 7 class in the country when she signed in 2019. The class that included former teammates Sofia Maldonado Diaz, Emery Herman, and China Rai Crouch. Rubio had high hopes that this group of players would get Arizona back to the NCAA Tournament and make it competitive in the Pac-12.
Being a young team during the pandemic was even more difficult than for older teams. There were no spring development periods for the players’ first two years in college. Herman graduated from high school early in order to join in time for the spring of 2020. Instead, their first season was actually played in the spring of 2021.
The next year, other teams were allowed to bring back seniors for a fifth year and not count them against the scholarship limit. As a young team, Arizona didn’t have that option. The only possibility was senior Paige Whipple, but she had been dealing with back pain and chose not to take her fifth year. The lack of experience relative to other teams plus the lack of development time made it even more challenging.
What Rubio had expected to be a needle-moving recruiting class had the cards stacked against them. They never made the tournament as a group. Crouch got pregnant and eventually left the program. Herman transferred after her sophomore season, and Maldonado Diaz left after her senior year.
Confidence was an issue for Hodge. Maldonado Diaz was the star, winning the 2020 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year award. Maldonado Diaz led the team in kills in three of the four years they played together. Hodge led once but was third on the team in two of the four seasons. Still, she’s been consistent enough to pass 1,400 kills at Wednesday’s close loss to ASU.
“I’m just excited,” Hodge said after the ASU match. “I think that’s a big milestone for me, and I came a long way since my freshman year with my confidence in hitting and knowing when to go all in and when to take a step off.”
Battling confidence is an issue that Hodge and Tucker share, but for Tucker the reasons are different. Her lack of experience makes the game a little more difficult for her. She has worried about whether she could play against those at this level of NCAA volleyball.
Whether it’s about improved confidence, development, a more complementary set of teammates, or some of each, Hodge and Tucker have both taken leaps forward this season. They have been critical in Arizona’s improvements.
The Wildcats are 12-4 with all four losses coming against teams in the top 20 of the RPI. They got their first win over a ranked team in two years and have been competitive in losses to two other ranked teams. All five of their Big 12 opponents so far have been either ranked or receiving votes.
Hodge has led the way. She averages 4.02 kills per set, a dramatic improvement over her career best of 3.27 during her sophomore season. She is second in the Big 12 this year, trailing only TCU’s Melanie Parra. It ranks 46th in the nation.
Hodge is scoring while improving her efficiency. Her .259 hitting percentage is also the best of her career, outpacing the .223 she had as a junior.
A move to opposite was discussed with Hodge in the past, but she was never in favor of changing position. She still wasn’t enthusiastic about moving to the right side this year, but roster composition—especially the departure of Maldonado Diaz and the addition of top freshman Carlie Cisneros—required it.
It has worked out for both the team and Hodge on the offensive end. She is having a career year, but there are still things she’s doing to become more consistent.
“Overall, I feel a lot more comfortable on the right side, a new position,” Hodge said. “So I think just getting the reps, getting more comfortable, finding more shots because if they take my number one option away, I need to find shots to score.”
Earlier in the season, Hodge had a string of matches in which she had single-digit kills and hitting percentages that ranged from -.167 to .200. Those have almost completely disappeared since Big 12 play started.
Against TCU, Hodge had 5 kills on -.067 hitting, but she has been spectacular in the other four conference matches. Even with her struggles against TCU, she has 4.47 k/s on .281 hitting since the schedule got more difficult. Without the TCU match, she averages 5.00 k/s on .337 hitting against Big 12 foes.
What does Arizona need from her going forward?
“Well, for her to stay consistent,” Stubbs said. “If she can put up those numbers every time, we’ll take it…but the key is, we can’t have the high with the low.”
There are always things to work on when changes are made, though. Hodge said she’s still working on blocking on the right side. She has 0.52 blocks per set so far this year. That’s just below her career high of 0.54 set in 2022 but much better than last year’s 0.34 b/s.
As a team, Arizona is blocking better this year. The Wildcats have 2.13 blocks per set compared to 1.77 last season. Tucker is the biggest reason for that.
After spring practice was concluded, Stubbs raved about Tucker’s improvements. It was still a surprise to see the inexperienced sophomore in the starting lineup when the season tipped off. She has remained in that spot almost all season, making contributions both on offense and blocking. It all goes back to that spring work.
“Being more confident on the offensive side, being an option, making sure that I’m aware of what to do during serve, making sure I’m watching the pass, and just being better at going into gaps and being smart as to where I’m hitting and stuff like that,” Tucker said. “That’s what I would say we worked on in the spring.”
Arizona brought in highly-touted senior transfer Kiari Robey in the middle, but it’s Tucker who leads the team with 1.12 blocks per set. The pair of starting middles are good for 2.07 blocks per set. Last year’s starting pair of Alayna Johnson and Nicole Briggs accounted for 1.46 b/s. Briggs led the team with 0.77.
Tucker was third on the team with 0.65 b/s last year, just a hair behind Johnson’s 0.69. She didn’t get a lot of playing time, though, playing in just 20 sets all season.
The biggest surprise has been Tucker’s offensive contribution. She was known to be a solid blocker, but her offense has lagged behind. She has had a consistent impact this season, and came up especially big in Arizona’s upset of then-No. 20 BYU. Tucker had 5 kills on 9 swings without an error in that match. She threw in a career high 11 total blocks.
“For her, it’s a confidence booster, because there are so many things she just still doesn’t know, and so we’re watching film later today on the bus,” Stubbs said. “But as I’m watching it ahead of time, I mean, there’s times the ball was behind her and she has no clue that the ball is behind her. So it’s just teaching her to do the little things in terms of being off and going in and just be physical and not think about it.”
While Robey leads the middles and is fourth on the team with 2.07 kills per set, Tucker is chipping in 1.12 k/s in 33 sets played. She is the first Arizona player to average at least one kill and one block per set since Zyonna Fellows’ fifth year in 2022. Fellows became a starter a few matches into her freshman year.
The work in the spring has put Tucker in a position to be an all-around contributor.
“I would say definitely off of transition balls, making sure that I’m up and an option,” Tucker said. “I think that’s somewhere I’ve been succeeding. Like doing fast transition, getting up when the ball comes over and just making a play so we can get the ball back. That’s where I would say I’ve been more of an option. I think on a serve receive, the ball, it’s more than likely to go to either pin, but transition ball, I think getting up fast enough, it’s definitely easy to be an option.”
With Tucker and Hodge having career years, Arizona has its sights set on the NCAA Tournament. For a player like Hodge, who had high expectations when she arrived in town five years ago, it would be a storybook ending to a career everyone thought would be different. For Tucker, it would be the next step in writing her story of overcoming.
“I definitely feel that it has been the case,” Tucker said. “I mean, it’s my story regarding my tumor. It’s nothing that I’m ashamed of or unhappy about. It’s just instead of maybe it being like some sad story, maybe I would like it to be like something that I’ve overcome and to see how I’ve progressed from there to now because it was something that I dealt with that did have a lot of negative implications…So to come from that to being here and doing what I have been doing, I think, it is definitely the story I want it to be.”
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics