During their time at Sac State, senior outside hitters Bridgette Smith and Caitlin Volkmann developed a friendship while on the volleyball team and eventually succeeded in their five-year-long effort to win the Big Sky Championship for the first time since 2007.
Smith and Volkmann have played volleyball since they were little and are now captains in their fifth year at Sac State.
Both were able to play five years at Sac State as the NCAA gave those whose play was affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic an extra year of eligibility.
Smith not only had to adjust to moving away from her hometown of Salem, Oregon, but she said the biggest adjustment was the fear of starting at Sac State during the pandemic.
“Especially during COVID, the weekly testing and all of that, and not ever knowing when you’re going to be locked away or get sick,” Smith said.
Throughout their time at Sac State, Smith said she and Volkmann have motivated one another and had each other’s backs.
“Being girls it could go either way, could be best friends or enemies, then knowing we’re the same position as well, like it’s going to be hard and like we’re competing,” Volkmann said. “Just having someone like Bridgette, I feel very supported and it’s just been fun to be together for the past four and a half years now.”
Their play didn’t come without facing challenges from either injuries or bad practices.
During those times of adversity, Volkmann and Smith said they constantly battled with remaining confident.
“I was out last semester, so that was hard and taught me a lot about mental toughness and how to get around it,” Smith said. “I was out from January to the beginning of April, I had concussions that showed lasting symptoms I had to deal with.”
Both Volkmann and Smith said hardship and leaning on their teammates during those times has helped shape them into the players that they are.
“Going through adversity, five years, obviously a lot of stuff doesn’t go the way you want or the way you thought it would,” Volkmann said. “It’s built me into a really strong person and able to work with anything.”
Volkmann and Smith said head coach Ruben Volta has impacted them in their time at Sac State and has pushed them to be the players that they are.
“He’s never the coach to sit there and just compliment, he’s never going to get complacent with you no matter how well you’re doing,” Smith said. “He always says you can do more, yes it’s frustrating, but we have that mutual understanding that it’s not because he’s frustrated with us, he expects a lot out of us.”
Volta said that Volkmann and Smith have been fun to coach and described them as being open-minded and smart.
“They have been great since they got here,” Volta said. “They both work really hard to be good volleyball players, they try to improve every year, their work ethic. They’re good teammates.”
Volta had high praise for both of the fifth year seniors and said they aren’t afraid to try new things and are eager to learn.
“They’re so fun to coach because they just work so hard,” Volta said. “They love playing, they love to compete.”
Volta said Smith is “one of our best passers we’ve had in recent years” and Volkmann is ”one of the best right side players we’ve had in the history of our program.”
Smith has 1,820 career kills which places her second in school history, 1,286 digs, 216 service aces and 198 total blocks. Volkmann has 1,448 career kills which is fifth in school history, 638 digs, 91 service aces and 296 total blocks.
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Volkmann said that her and Smith’s leadership role has built over the years given their experience, especially given the extra year due to COVID.
Volta said the strong team chemistry that Hornet volleyball has is led by the leadership role Volkmann and Smith took on.
“You hope when you recruit them that you’re going to get the best out of them while they’re here,” Volta said. “For both of them that has certainly been the case, I think that they just have gotten better and better every year.”
The dynamic duo has complimented each other all year long, leading in the kill and service ace column for Sac State.
“We have a lot of trust with each other, obviously being with each other for this long,” Smith said. “We’ve also been on beach together, so even subtle tendencies that maybe people don’t see on serve receive.”
They both said they have so many favorite memories throughout their collegiate careers, but they both agreed upon a time when they were playing beach volleyball.
“Neither of us played a lot of beach, but then we stepped in, it was a lot of wind as indoor players we’re not really used to, but we were able to work together and fight through the wind,” Volkmann said. “It was a lot of fun, it was very competitive.”
Volkmann and Smith both said they hope when they leave Sac State that the underclassmen feel empowered and confident enough to get things done on the court on their own.
“I just want to leave a legacy that Sac State is a good volleyball school, we’ll always be there and we’ll always be atop the Big Sky,” Volkmann said.
Smith and Volkmann were named first team Big Sky Volleyball All-Conference for the 2024 season.
Congrats to our First Team All-Conference #ExperienceElevated pic.twitter.com/iM1Xxqah9x
— Big Sky Conference (@BigSkyConf) November 26, 2024
The Smith and Volkmann led Hornets dominated in the Big Sky Conference tournament, booking Sac State a trip to the NCAA tournament.
During the ESPN selection show on Dec. 1, it was announced that the Hornets will face the Stanford Cardinal in the first round of the tournament on Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. in Palo Alto, California.
