South Bend, Ind. – For a long time, Murphy alumna Cailey Dockery had dreamed of being a Division I athlete. Her freshman volleyball season at the University of Notre Dame came with the set of challenges typical for college athletes, like balancing coursework with practice time and travel, as well as working with a coaching staff different than the one that recruited her to Notre Dame.
However, Dockery was able to carve out a role as a key defender for the Fighting Irish, making an impact in her freshman season.
“She brought so much and we’re grateful that she’s here,” Fighting Irish Head coach Salima Rockwell said. “And it was an awesome first year for her.”
Dockery admitted to being a little naive about certain parts of the college volleyball experience, especially after her years of driving from Cherokee County to the Atlanta area for club volleyball practices.
“You never realize how much time in the day goes into your sport until you’re actually doing it,” Dockery said. “I used to go to Atlanta for volleyball all the time and I was like, ‘Oh, when I get to college this will be easier because I’m only going five minutes to practice.’ ”
A typical fall semester day included three or four classes, with the first one at 8:20 a.m. and the last one ending at 1 or 2 p.m. Then she’d either go to the library or team lounge for an hour to do homework. Practice would start between 3:30-4 p.m., usually lasting about 2.5 hours.
Afterward, they’d do what she called a “maintenance lift,” which is not for strength but to stay explosive during the season. Then came dinner, study hall and, of course, more homework.
If the team had to go on the road, they would usually spend all of Thursday traveling, then play matches on Friday and Sunday. The Atlantic Coast Conference stretches most of the east coast, though Notre Dame took charter flights to avoid most of the airport hassle.
On the court, Dockery carved out a role as a defensive specialist, primarily in serve-receive. Rockwell said Dockery stood out in that area throughout the preseason and season, and things clicked whenever she was on the court.
Though hitters tend to get most of the glory in volleyball, they don’t get opportunities without a good first pass. Dockery finished the season with 161 digs, playing in 86 of Notre Dame’s 108 sets this fall.
“She was pretty solid and competent as a passer,” Rockwell said. “And that’s huge obviously with everything. It was nice that we could get in there and steady things out, and have someone we could count on that way.”
There were still some adjustments to be made transitioning from high school to college. For defensive players, those tend to be the pace and spin of the serve and player IQ. Both Dockery and Rockwell said hitters in college are much better at picking out weaknesses and spots on the court, able to not give away as much with their position in the air.
Dockery also has a tendency to try to “be everywhere,” Rockwell said, trying to read hitters throughout play. That can work in high school but not in college, where hitters are better at reacting off of visual cues.
Going forward, Rockwell said she needs to be stopped more on defense, relying on her reaction time while not giving away where she wants to move. Rockwell also wants to see her be more confident in her ability to cover more of the court as a defender and increase the velocity on her serve so she can get teams out of system.
Dockery is getting touches to stay in the swing of things, and will take a workout packet from the team’s strength and conditioning coach back to Murphy for winter break. The NCAA allows teams to play a few matches in the spring, though it doesn’t count towards a team’s record and is not as intense as the fall season.
Hopefully that will lead to improvement in the fall, as Notre Dame tries to build off going 10-18 this year after playing a lot of underclassmen.
“I’ve talked to a few of the other freshmen about this,” Dockery said. “But we all talked about how a lot of us got time on the court, and are trying to grow into those roles so that we can get better as a team over the next few years and work on our chemistry together.”