Arizona volleyball freshman outside hitter Carlie Cisneros’ UA career got off to a rough start before she ever even played a match on the McKale Center court.
But as she often does on the court, the top recruit in the country shrugged it off.
“Well, my first call with Rita was actually a funny one because I fell out of my chair during our phone call (laughs) and she kinda comforted me and sent me a picture of when she also broke a chair,” Cisneros said of her early interaction with now-UA head coach Charita Stubbs. “So after that we kinda built a friendship and then we continued to talk about like the culture she wants to start at U of A and what her and (former UA head coach Dave) Rubio can do for me.
“I was just mid conversation and then it just broke I just fell out of it,” she added.
Cisneros would go on to commit in July 2022. She said she picked Arizona because she loved the college community in Tucson and the coaching staff.
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Stubbs admitted she laughed and she and the Kansas City native connected through things like their Christian faith.
Arizona freshman Carlie Cisneros just beats freshman teammate An den Hamer to a serve during the Wildcats’ Red-Blue scrimmage on Aug. 17 in Tucson.
“She was just easy to talk to,” Stubbs said. “It’s interesting because she didn’t come to camp and I didn’t think we were going to get her.
“Typically when a young lady doesn’t come on campus to kinda see what it’s like here they think ‘Tucson, I don’t want to be in that city.’ But once they get here, it’s ‘oh it’s a great place to be, I want to be here,’” Stubbs said. “So I was kinda sweating bullets in that sense so I was just wanting to get to know her as much as possible and make sure that we can align on many levels.”
Arizona, which won its recent exhibition matchup against Northern Colorado, 3-1, opens its regular season by hosting Boise State on Friday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. It also marks the start of the four-team Cactus Classic taking place at McKale over the weekend.
Cisneros is the highest ranked recruit in UA volleyball history and a four-time high school All-American.
UA signed what was the No. 7 recruiting class in the country last fall, led by the 6-foot Cisneros, the top recruit in the country according to PrepVolleyball.
Arizona freshman Carlie Cisneros returns a serve during the Wildcats’ Red-Blue intrasquad scrimmage on Aug. 17 in Tucson.
In January 2023, Rubio retired after 31 seasons at the helm of Arizona volleyball. A day later, Stubbs was named his successor.
Cisneros said Stubbs getting the job was “really important” to her signing with UA.
“Me and Rita had a conversation when I was being recruited that in the chance that Rubio did retire would she take over and she heavily implied that that was a very high possibility and I knew I would only come here if Rita took over,” Cisneros said.
Stubbs played at Arizona from 1991 to 1994, served as assistant coach at the UA from 1997 to 2005 and then as Arizona’s associate head coach from 2013 to 2022.
“She’s a great coach and she has experience at U of A and I feel like she can help start something new and I wanted to be a part of that,” Cisneros.
Her parents were student athletes at University of Saint Mary with her dad James playing baseball and her mom Carrie a volleyball player. Her brother Jeffrey plays baseball at Jacksonville University.
Cisneros twice won Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year before enrolling at the UA in the spring semester.
She said No. 1 recruit title was an honor but she wants to break records — ahem, not chairs — now that she’s in college.
“Rankings aren’t everything,” Cisneros said. “The label is definitely nice to have and it was definitely something that I had to work for but yeah, no there’s always ways to go up.
“I have no records in college yet so I have something to prove.”
Stubbs said Cisneros fits so many needs and since she’s been here she has “literally held our team together.” The coach also said Cisneros is a great scorer because of her vision and high volleyball IQ.
“She sees the game. The game is slow for her — so what’s in front of her,” Stubbs said. “She knows everything that she wants to do but she’s so driven, which (is) one of the things is when you have your better players on the team being your hardest workers, it makes life so much easier.”
During a tournament Stubbs saw Cisneros get dug on a great play; but she didn’t flinch and responded with an off-speed shot.
“She has game and I think it rubs off on the other individuals watching her and seeing what she’s trying to do and what she’s accomplishing,” Stubbs said. “They start doing it as well that’s what happens when you have winners.”
