Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Mary Lake got back to her apartment in Provo and cried.
It wasn’t that she was sad to be heading into her senior year with the BYU women’s volleyball team, a senior leader on a team that returns 10 players from last year’s No. 1-ranked squad for much of the year — including four AVCA All-Americans.
Lake is excited to get to the season. She knows what it takes to compete, not just locally, or even in the West Coast Conference, where the Cougars have won the last five league titles.
But she knows what it takes to take BYU to a national level.
And now, after her whirlwind of a summer vacation, she knows what it takes to compete internationally.
But first, back to that return to Utah.
“I'm pretty sure the first couple of days that I was back in Provo, I would look up at the mountains and cry a little bit,” said Lake, a native of Palm Springs, California. “I'd talk to my teammates and cry a little bit. But being home has been amazing.”
For the past few months, Lake has been with the U.S. women’s national team. Not a junior team, or a team made up of select college standouts. The senior national team for women’s volleyball, practicing and competing and playing with and against professional athletes from around the world.
First, it was the Volleyball Nations League, where the United States took first place.
Then, Lake was among the rare college athlete to be called in to represent the USA in Olympic qualifying. And not only did the Americans compete; they booked passage for next year’s Summer Games in Tokyo.
“Of course, it felt surreal, especially the first time putting on that USA jersey and playing volleyball for the USA for the first time,” said Lake, who was one of two college players with the full senior team roster. “We probably took it for granted more than we'll look back and be like, 'wow, that was incredible.' I didn't feel like I was worthy of representing USA — but it was so much fun.”
It’s been a long summer for Lake, filled with frequent flyer miles, trips around the world, and hustling for her passport. The whole her teammates and coaches were cheering her on, most of them back home — though a few BYU fans ventured to those national team matches across the globe, singing the Cougar fight song for her and U.S. assistant coach Luka Slabe, a former BYU men’s volleyball coach.
“I was super just proud of Mary for representing first and foremost the USA and being such a big part of that team,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said of her star libero. “It was fun to watch her compete and represent the United States of America and to represent BYU, and to represent us proudly.”
As such, it’s easy to wonder how much gas will be left in the tank for her senior season with a BYU program ranked No. 9 nationally and coming off a season that finished 31-2 and a trip to the national semifinals.
But the long season also allowed Lake to learn a few things: about herself, about her game, and about her potential contributions to BYU women’s volleyball — which have already been plentiful, with 1,494 career digs (or 300 away from the most in a career in BYU history).
“I learned what my strengths were, and that my teammates — even at that level — appreciated my energy,” said Lake, who also has 361 career assists and 70 aces. “They appreciated that I was nice to them and wanted to get to know them off the court.
“And so it was a testament to me that people like playing next to people that they like. That's how I felt about a lot of those girls is that even though they were professionals and had a career that I couldn't even get close to right now that they were still my teammates, and that volleyball is really similar.”
In the end, volleyball is volleyball — even if you’re playing at a level where every attack could give you a concussion and ever serve could impact your nation’s representation in Tokyo. Lake will be better for her international trip — and BYU will be better for her experience ahead of this season, which started Friday with a win over Boise State and continues Saturday against No. 16 Marquette in the BYU Nike Invitational in the Smith Fieldhouse.
“It was really exciting to see her play and compete and bring her energy every day,” Olmstead said. “She got better at volleyball and she got better at her assertiveness and her competitiveness. And she's bringing that all back to our team.”
