By Sydney Fedinec, Oct. 17, 2023
With two sweeps in back-to-back matches, Cal Poly Pomona’s middle blocker Kaitlan Tucker earned California Collegiate Athletic Association’s Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 25 to Oct.1.
Tucker recorded a season-best of seven blocks against Stanislaus State followed by four against Chico State. On the offensive side, Tucker recorded 10 kills and a .375-hitting percentage against Stanislaus State as well as an additional seven kills against Chico State. The Broncos went 2-0 on the week, as Tucker acquired her second career CCAA Defensive Player of the Week award.
CPP is on a streak, winning all six conference games thus far, whilst Tucker remains modest and shines the spotlight on her team after earning the award.
“It’s fun to win awards,” said Tucker. “It just makes me excited for the team that we get to be recognized. It makes me feel good honestly that I am contributing to the success of our team.”
The Bakersfield native grew up in an athletic household, with both parents being collegiate athletes. Tucker started her sports journey with swim, basketball and soccer before eventually finding her niche in volleyball.
“I was over soccer — it was too much running,” said Tucker. “I just did not like basketball. Then one of my friends invited me to this volleyball camp with her, and I just fell in love with it, and I thought it was super fun.”
In her early years, Tucker played various positions, starting with setter before moving to opposite hitter. In her sophomore year of high school, she settled into the middle blocker position.
Tucker attended Liberty High School, playing varsity volleyball for all four years. With the Liberty Patriots, Tucker won the CIF Central Section Division 1 championship on top of winning the Southwest Yosemite League multiple times. As a junior and senior, Tucker was nominated for the All-SYL First Team.
Tucker’s journey at Cal Poly Pomona started after committing in February of her senior year. Tucker felt welcomed by head coach Traci Dahl and teammates, and the CPP campus felt like home for her.
“Our coach was super persistent in recruiting me and made me feel wanted,” said Tucker. “She had a vision for me in the program and made me feel like I had a place somewhere. Once I came on a visit I felt at home with the campus. All my teammates have been great throughout the years. My current and past teammates are some of my best friends.”
Throughout her career at CPP, Tucker has racked up a variety of accolades in her five years under Dahl, including an All-CCAA Honorable Mention in 2021, the All-CCAA Second Team in 2022, the CCAA All-Tournament Selection in 2022 and two CCAA Defensive Player of the Week awards in 2022 and 2023.
“I couldn’t have asked for something better,” said Tucker. “We have had a lot of success in the program, which is always super fun. I decided to take my fifth year; I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I knew I wanted to stay here and play another year.”
Bronco volleyball is known for its fast-paced offense, and the middle blocker is a key component to finding success and keeping the tempo. Tucker strives to finish the season being a threat both defensively and offensively as the team aims to win it all.
“It’s no secret that we want to be first in conference, we want to win the conference tournament and we want to win it all to be honest,” said Tucker. “We don’t want to stop until then.”
After over a decade of playing volleyball, Tucker looks to hang up her jersey for good and focus on her career path of becoming a physician’s assistant.
“I think this is the end of my career,” said Tucker. “It’s kind of sad to think about, but I’ll always find a way for volleyball to be part of my life. I’m going to apply for physician assistant school. I got my EMT license this summer, so I’ll work as an EMT for a year and get patient care hours before I go to school.”
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics