When transferring to the Lady Vols during the 2024 offseason, Hayden Kubik arrived as a former top high school recruit.
Kubik has become a centerpiece of the offense, an aspect of Tennessee’s team that only continued to show Friday night at Food City Center as the Lady Vols claimed their eighth straight win in sweeping fashion over Kennesaw State.
Seven of the Lady Vols’ last nine wins have been sweeps.
Now ten games into Kubik’s third season of action, she continues to see growth both mentally and physically as a player. The numbers are finally beginning to reflect it in the statbook, as Kubik has compiled 83 kills in her last nine matches.
Kubik’s performances allow the floor to be opened to a very deep Lady Vols roster, full of both underclassmen and upperclassmen talent alike.
“It just takes so much pressure off,” Chelsea Sutton said. “She has an amazing arm. We were all just talking about how we need to get a speed monitor off of some of her swings, it’s insane.”
Her first season in the league saw Kubik play just eight sets with Nebraska. She tallied seven kills. Her sophomore season brought more of the same theme; Kubik played just ten sets with only three kills.
Kubik’s junior season, and first with the Lady Vols, finally saw her get plenty of action on the court with a career high 101 sets played over 27 matches. She finished the season ranked third for Tennessee in kills and fourth in points per set with 2.36.
The surface was still barely being scratched.
Kubik didn’t see any action during the first matchup of the season against South Florida and again against Wofford. Despite missing two games, the senior has compiled some of her best numbers yet, including a career high 18 kills against Samford on Sept. 5.
“I think as a staff, we’ve always had an unbelievably high opinion of Hayden,” head coach Eve Rackham Watt said. “And I think the growth for her is the belief in herself.”
This performance came just a game removed from her zero-kill performance against Purdue. After the career-high, she only continued to add to her offensive game, scoring 10 or more kills in her next five games.
The challenge has been just as much mental as it has been physical for Kubik, and for good reason, too. The change of scenery has begun to pay more dividends for both sides as Kubik continues to open up opportunities for the rest of the team.
“I said yesterday, she’s one of the most talented players I’ve ever coached,” Rackham Watt said. “And the more she believes that, the more you see it. I think that for her, the confidence, the belief in herself has been tremendous.”
Focusing on the win over Kennesaw State, Kubik finished with just nine kills, yet still led the team in the category with a .400 hitting percentage.
With Kubik taking the attention from the defense, it allows players like Sutton, Paityn Chapman and Starr Williams to receive more looks for the big swing.
“When she’s on, it opens up the court for everybody,” Rackham Watt said. “We’re setting her in the front row, in the back row, and so that keeps the defense really honest in terms of they can’t just release to one player.”
Kubik continuing to grow confidence can only help the Lady Vols, and the pressure her performances have taken off the rest of the team can continue to pay dividends as the schedule turns over to conference play next week.
“It opens things up a lot for Paityn,” Rackham Watt said. “I think you saw that tonight it opened things up for Zoe (Humphrey) quite a bit. If you’re having to respect the outside hitter as much as I think Hayden’s commanding, that just opens up the whole floor.”
