Double Duty: Hockey's Carlson Adds Volleyball to Mix

Sara Carlson, closing in on the busy end of the school year, had an appointment set for 4 p.m. and that time was fast approaching.

But Carlson was having trouble pulling herself away from the volleyball court.

Associate head coach Stacy Barnett continued to feed balls to her and assistant coach Morgan Thatcher took a turn smashing the ball her way. Carlson swung her right arm to smack balls across the net and alternately dug shots out.

She smiled and laughed often as she worked. And then, finally, after squeezing every possible minute out of the afternoon session, Carlson hustled off to her appointment.

"It's so much fun to get back into it," she said later. "I haven't played for four years, since I was in high school, competitively like this. It's just been so much fun to get back in the gym and practice with the coaches and the girls. I kind of feel like I have to make up for the last four years of not playing so any time I can get my hands on a ball I really want to do it."

Meet one of UNH's newest volleyball recruits: Sara Carlson.

Does the name ring a bell?

It should.

Carlson has been one of the leaders of the Wildcat women's hockey team the last four years and wrapped up her collegiate career in that sport in March.

On Tuesday night at UNH's annual awards banquet, she was named the female winner of the Jim Urquhart Student-Athlete Award. Andrew Chaput of the men's soccer team was the male winner of the Urquhart Award.

Carlson has earned various academic awards and she collected Hockey East's Sportsmanship Award in early March.

Besides being a captain her last two seasons in hockey, Carlson was one of the team's most versatile players. After three years of playing mostly at forward, she willingly filled a team need and became a defenseman for her senior season.

Her hockey versatility was nothing compared to Carlson's next endeavor.

Let's stop here for a moment and back the story up.

It was exactly three years ago and classes had ended for the year and the volleyball team's annual Volley for Holly fundraiser – created and named in honor for former Wildcat Holly Young, who died at the age of 22 in January of 2008 after a three-year battle with Ewing's sarcoma - was taking place in Lundholm Gymnasium.

Assorted UNH teams and groups in the athletics department sign up and compete in the mostly-for-fun tournament and the women's hockey team, as usual, had entered a team.

One player in particular caught the eye of Barnett, the top recruiter for head coach Jill Hirschinger's volleyball team. Barnett didn't know her name, knew nothing about the player, but sure loved her game.

It no doubt was the first time she did her recruiting 200 or so steps from her office door.

"I was walking around Volley for Holly and I noticed this girl and I was like, 'Who is that?'" Barnett said. "They all dress different and you can't tell which team it is if they dress up. One of our players, Cassidy Croci, knew her because they were in the Paul College together. She said it was women's ice hockey and that was Sara Carlson. I said, 'Where is she from?' She said Minnesota. I said, 'I guarantee she'll play with us fifth year. I want her for fifth year.' They were all laughing at me."

Barnett talked to Carlson briefly at Volley for Holly the next year and then again last year. Hirschinger and Barnett stressed they could not get serious about Carlson playing volleyball until after her hockey career ended.

Carlson was interested and within about a week of this year's season – and her UNH career – ending in March, she was back in touch with the volleyball coaches and within two weeks she was working out with them.

A dual major in international affairs and finance, Carlson has a busy offseason ahead.

It features a month-long visit starting in early June to Uganda with seven other UNH students with Newmarket-based ChildVoice International, an organization that seeks to restore the voice of children silenced by war.

"We're going to be working at a camp for rehabilitating child soldiers," Carlson said.

She will graduate in December.

Bottom line is, the interest Barnett and the Wildcats showed in Carlson matched up perfectly with her interests and when the opportunity came, it was a no-brainer.

"I guess it's just my love for sports and having this opportunity I really couldn't say no to," Carlson said when asked what motivated her to play a season of volleyball. "Being able to devote the last four years to hockey has been so great and it's always been one of my dreams, too, to play Division 1 volleyball as well. I always thought it was just kind of a far off dream and I would never actually be able to do it."

A native of Hutchinson, Minn., Carlson decided early on in high school to go the Division 1 route in hockey, which left no time for college volleyball.

It was far from an easy decision.

"Volleyball was equally my favorite sport in high school," she said. "I ultimately chose freshman
and sophomore years to just look at schools for hockey. I told my volleyball coaches if any
school tried to contact me, don't tell me about it. I didn't have the capacity to deal with that,
too."

It's all worked out for the best.

"I wouldn't have changed a thing because I wound up here," Carlson said. "I just love UNH. I
wouldn't want to put on another jersey other than UNH."

Early on at UNH she had trouble watching volleyball games.

"It was really hard for me to come watch the volleyball team my freshman and sophomore
years just because it hurt so hard," Carlson said. "It hurt my heart watching them play because I
missed it so much."

Now she's back playing volleyball - and with a team that lost much to graduation after winning
its third straight America East championship last fall - and she, Hirschinger and Barnett could
not be happier.

There were a couple of lingering questions as her hockey gave way to volleyball.

"We needed to see if she could play at our level," Hirschinger said. "It's a much faster game than what she played when she was in high school. She didn't want to come in and hold us back at all.
It was mutual, why don't you come in and see how it goes, how you feel and how we feel? She came in and after the first practice I said, well, are you ready to commit? We just saw a ton of potential in her. She's really focused. She's a hard worker. . . . It's a great recruit. I think she's really going to help us out and be an impact player for us. Not only with her skills and competitiveness, but also her maturity on the court."

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Players Mentioned

Sara Carlson

Cassidy Croci

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

University of New Hampshire Athletics