Volleyball is Just Part of the Story
May 05, 2023 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Her first free day after spring volleyball exhibition season is no vacation at all. It's Monday at 2:30 p.m. Aliyah Carter has a chemistry exam in five hours. Currently, she's headed to the Student-Athlete Enhancement Center the at Vanier Family Football Complex to speak with her academic advisor and study some chemistry notes. Being a student-athlete is hard work, even in the offseason. She was up at 7:30 a.m., lifted weights for an hour, grabbed breakfast to go, finished writing an Exercise Physiology paper, went to class, and then studied with her tutor. But the end is in sight.
"After this chemistry exam," she says, "I'll be done — for tonight."
Carter, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, embarks upon her senior season next fall with goals, big goals for the Kansas State volleyball team, which will seek an NCAA Tournament berth under first-year head coach Jason Mansfield. But volleyball is just a part of Carter's student-athlete experience in Manhattan.
Carter just received word two weeks ago that she would be able to graduate with a degree in Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology in December. She serves on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and is on the executive board for PALS — Positioning African-American and Black Athletes for Lifelong Success. Over the weekend, she joined the volleyball team in volunteering for Special Olympics in the Shamrock Practice Facility. At the end of May, she will attend the Black Student-Athlete Summit at USC in Los Angeles. She attended last year's summit in Houston, which featured more than 400 black student-athletes and 200 administrators, coaches and professors during the three-day event at Rice University.
"Going to the black student-athlete summit last year was memorable," she says. "Even though all the members of PALS weren't able to attend, myself, Ayoka Lee and Phillip Brooks did attend. It was just amazing to be able to meet a whole different range of black student-athletes from different universities. I'm so looking forward to this year's event. I've never been to LA, so it should be pretty fun."
K-State volleyball should be fun next fall as well.
"I'm going to say we're looking pretty darned good," Carter says. "We've been the best we've been in a while, and I'm really, really excited to see what the fall brings, especially in our new arena. We all worked really hard this spring and learned a bunch of new things. We're bringing in some transfers and we have four freshmen coming in, so we're going to be a pretty elite team, I believe."
Greatness came early for Carter, a native of Dubuque, Iowa. In the eighth grade, she received her first volleyball scholarship offer from Iowa. She dreamt of playing soccer for Team USA. She was a two-sport star, capturing state titles in the long jump and placing in the high jump. She was one of three finalists for the 2019 All-Female Iowa Athlete of the Year Award by the Des Moines Register, honoring the top multi-sport female athletes in the state.
She led Wahlert Catholic to two straight 4A state titles and was voted 2019 MVC Valley Division Player of the Year.
Although K-State was one of her final recruiting visits, she fell in love with Manhattan. It felt like home.
She became the first K-State volleyball player in history to earn unanimous first team all-conference honors as both a freshman and a sophomore. She also became the first K-State player to be named All-Big 12 First Team in consecutive seasons since Katie Brand in 2014-16.
She'll enter the fall on pace for 1,300 kills, 1,500 points and 700 digs in four seasons with the Wildcats.
"I've always been playing volleyball and I have two older brothers — Joshua played college basketball and Noah currently plays basketball at Missouri — and so just growing up and seeing them be successful in their sports and just being the people they are, I really expected no less from me because I wanted to be just like them," she says. "I love it. God is good. At the same time, I'm striving to be even better."
She'll look to reach her goals with Mansfield on the bench. Mansfield was hired on December 27, 2022 and has been a part of seven NCAA Final Fours and one national championship during stints at Stanford and Washington.
"I actually met Coach Jason my sophomore year in high school when I visited Illinois and he was an assistant coach at the time," she says. "Once he got hired here, he went out of his way to introduce himself. Our first conversation was great.
"From the get-go, I knew that he wants to win. That's his one goal — to win. He cares about us a lot. From the beginning, I knew I'd learn a lot from him. So far I've learned many things."
Whether it be on the volleyball court, in the classroom, or as a leader in SAAC and PALS, Carter has learned much over her K-State career.
"Looking at the big picture, I've learned who I am and how I can communicate with myself," she says. "Freshman year, I was excited and ready to conquer K-State and wanted to be the best player on the team and be great academically. I was pushing myself a little bit over my limit because I wanted to be great. I had a great freshman season and academically got on the spring honor roll, so I was doing pretty well, but with that the next year it wasn't as great as my freshman year. The high of being a freshman was coming down.
"That's when I really got to learn about what I need to be the best me day to day. I've learned kind of what makes me tick, and what I need to work on. I'm still learning throughout the process, but I think I have a good idea of the things I need to work on and the things that help me to stay motivated throughout this whole journey."
The journey isn't yet complete.
That's great news for Carter and K-State.
Her first free day after spring volleyball exhibition season is no vacation at all. It's Monday at 2:30 p.m. Aliyah Carter has a chemistry exam in five hours. Currently, she's headed to the Student-Athlete Enhancement Center the at Vanier Family Football Complex to speak with her academic advisor and study some chemistry notes. Being a student-athlete is hard work, even in the offseason. She was up at 7:30 a.m., lifted weights for an hour, grabbed breakfast to go, finished writing an Exercise Physiology paper, went to class, and then studied with her tutor. But the end is in sight.
"After this chemistry exam," she says, "I'll be done — for tonight."
Carter, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, embarks upon her senior season next fall with goals, big goals for the Kansas State volleyball team, which will seek an NCAA Tournament berth under first-year head coach Jason Mansfield. But volleyball is just a part of Carter's student-athlete experience in Manhattan.
Carter just received word two weeks ago that she would be able to graduate with a degree in Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology in December. She serves on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and is on the executive board for PALS — Positioning African-American and Black Athletes for Lifelong Success. Over the weekend, she joined the volleyball team in volunteering for Special Olympics in the Shamrock Practice Facility. At the end of May, she will attend the Black Student-Athlete Summit at USC in Los Angeles. She attended last year's summit in Houston, which featured more than 400 black student-athletes and 200 administrators, coaches and professors during the three-day event at Rice University.
"Going to the black student-athlete summit last year was memorable," she says. "Even though all the members of PALS weren't able to attend, myself, Ayoka Lee and Phillip Brooks did attend. It was just amazing to be able to meet a whole different range of black student-athletes from different universities. I'm so looking forward to this year's event. I've never been to LA, so it should be pretty fun."
K-State volleyball should be fun next fall as well.
"I'm going to say we're looking pretty darned good," Carter says. "We've been the best we've been in a while, and I'm really, really excited to see what the fall brings, especially in our new arena. We all worked really hard this spring and learned a bunch of new things. We're bringing in some transfers and we have four freshmen coming in, so we're going to be a pretty elite team, I believe."
Greatness came early for Carter, a native of Dubuque, Iowa. In the eighth grade, she received her first volleyball scholarship offer from Iowa. She dreamt of playing soccer for Team USA. She was a two-sport star, capturing state titles in the long jump and placing in the high jump. She was one of three finalists for the 2019 All-Female Iowa Athlete of the Year Award by the Des Moines Register, honoring the top multi-sport female athletes in the state.
She led Wahlert Catholic to two straight 4A state titles and was voted 2019 MVC Valley Division Player of the Year.
Although K-State was one of her final recruiting visits, she fell in love with Manhattan. It felt like home.
She became the first K-State volleyball player in history to earn unanimous first team all-conference honors as both a freshman and a sophomore. She also became the first K-State player to be named All-Big 12 First Team in consecutive seasons since Katie Brand in 2014-16.
She'll enter the fall on pace for 1,300 kills, 1,500 points and 700 digs in four seasons with the Wildcats.
"I've always been playing volleyball and I have two older brothers — Joshua played college basketball and Noah currently plays basketball at Missouri — and so just growing up and seeing them be successful in their sports and just being the people they are, I really expected no less from me because I wanted to be just like them," she says. "I love it. God is good. At the same time, I'm striving to be even better."
She'll look to reach her goals with Mansfield on the bench. Mansfield was hired on December 27, 2022 and has been a part of seven NCAA Final Fours and one national championship during stints at Stanford and Washington.
"I actually met Coach Jason my sophomore year in high school when I visited Illinois and he was an assistant coach at the time," she says. "Once he got hired here, he went out of his way to introduce himself. Our first conversation was great.
"From the get-go, I knew that he wants to win. That's his one goal — to win. He cares about us a lot. From the beginning, I knew I'd learn a lot from him. So far I've learned many things."
Whether it be on the volleyball court, in the classroom, or as a leader in SAAC and PALS, Carter has learned much over her K-State career.
"Looking at the big picture, I've learned who I am and how I can communicate with myself," she says. "Freshman year, I was excited and ready to conquer K-State and wanted to be the best player on the team and be great academically. I was pushing myself a little bit over my limit because I wanted to be great. I had a great freshman season and academically got on the spring honor roll, so I was doing pretty well, but with that the next year it wasn't as great as my freshman year. The high of being a freshman was coming down.
"That's when I really got to learn about what I need to be the best me day to day. I've learned kind of what makes me tick, and what I need to work on. I'm still learning throughout the process, but I think I have a good idea of the things I need to work on and the things that help me to stay motivated throughout this whole journey."
The journey isn't yet complete.
That's great news for Carter and K-State.
Players Mentioned
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