Athlete of the Week: Emily Tucker

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Signing to play at your dream school doesn’t happen to everyone. And when it does, sometimes you’re asked to play a new position. So what do you do? You say yes and flourish at it. Emily Tucker is your Athlete of the Week.

The Palisade native thrived as an outside hitter in high school, helping the Bulldogs to an Academic State Title. But when se became a Maverick, it was a different story. She transitioned to libero.

“She does such a great job in the back row what really caught my attention was her ability her hustle for just pursue balls. We thought she would be a little under size but wanted to give her a shot. Size isn’t everything and she can still be a pretty good outside hitter for us but she really loves the back row,” says Head Coach ,Dave Flemming.

Emily has been an outside hitter her entire and is used to being at the net. She says transitioning to being the one trying to get as many digs as possible has been different. In her first start in the back row, Emily picked up 14 digs against Regis. She holds a career high of five aces, leading the RMAC in service aces and ranks second nationally.

Emily tested positive for COVID-19 but has recovered well having no symptoms.

“It didn’t really bother me too much I did feel like coming in I was more out of shape than what I was expecting but once we started practicing and getting into it was good.”

Emily has recovered 1 00% and was named RMAC Defensive Player of the Week in February. She set a new career high of 18 digs against Westminster and snagged her first double-double with 13 digs and 10 assists against Northwest Nazarene. But it doesn’t matter how many records she holds or how long she’ll lead the RMAC for, her goal is to always be better than yesterday.

“I honestly didn’t really know about it but I thought it was really interesting really awesome but I just want to keep getting better and help the team as much as I possibly can, says Tucker.