Johnson making an impact

Mattie Johnson has provided the University of South Dakota volleyball program with all she has to offer over her time at the school. It is paying off now both for her and for the Coyotes.

As a player who appeared in a total of 20 matches in her first three seasons, Johnson had to adjust the ways she was going to be contributing. It’s a process that, if executed correctly, involves individual progress as a player in the absence of time on the court.

As the Coyotes enter the Summit League part of their schedule they will do so with Johnson, listed as a 6-foot outside hitter, now in the starting lineup as a back-row defensive specialist.

It’s a move that reveals Johnson to be a player with talent, versatility, and resiliency.

“Mattie is the true definition of the type of student-athlete you want in your program,” said USD head coach Leanne Williamson. “She works hard, she is a great teammate, she supports the people around her and she’s constantly pushing herself to get better.”

Johnson, an accounting major who will graduate in December and then begin grad school, makes regular appearances on the Summit League’s honor roll and Commissioner’s List of Excellence.

That has always been the case. Regular appearances in the lineup are something she recently added to her routine.

“It’s so much fun for me cheering for teammates but being out there and having an impact on the game itself has been the biggest change,” Johnson said. “I’m having a blast with it. Playing volleyball with my teammates and for my teammates and finding ways to win – that’s been incredible.”

As Johnson describes it, staying motivated prior to this year was pretty simple. It essentially comes down to staying in the moment and doing the right things.

“You look at it like, ‘What can I do to put myself in a position where I can be useful to the team?’” she said. “How can I impact everyone else around me on the court in the best way possible? I just try to keep those things in mind.”

Johnson grew up in Potter, Nebraska, which lists a population of 345. It’s located in the Nebraska panhandle near the Colorado border. It’s also 20 miles from Sidney, Nebraska, the town where she attended high school.

Potter, though located in a state that borders South Dakota, is 438 miles from Vermillion. In nearby Sidney, where as a six-rotation player Johnson had career totals of 1,363 kills, 1,288 digs and 200 service aces, the town’s Wikipedia entry tells us that one of its five most famous people was a fellow named Luke Short. Short, who died of natural causes in 1893, was a renowned gunfighter.

Clearly, in some ways Vermillion is a long way from home.

An intermediary was necessary, then. For Johnson, her road to USD involved Lisa Roberts, her mother’s cousin. Roberts was a volleyball player for the Coyotes from 1996-99. 

“She was on campus for an alumni weekend – I think it was the year the SCSC opened,” Johnson said. “That was the start of my recruiting journey. She sent a text to my mom and told her I should check out USD. So, I started emailing and that led to phone calls.”

Which ultimately led to Johnson becoming a Coyote. 

“Everyone was so welcoming,” she said. “It’s still true. I’ve made some of the best friends ever through being here. The support and friendships that I’ve built over the years has been huge. Obviously, it’s a great academic school and the community is great. I came from a smaller town and going to college in a smaller town was something I was looking for.”

The Coyotes, who have won the last three Summit League tournament titles, have been navigating their way through a schedule that was front-loaded with some of the toughest teams they’ll see all season. After losing five of their first six, they’ve reeled off five wins in a row leading into the conference opener at Omaha on Saturday.

“Just getting those wins under our belt and finding our groove right before the conference season is really important,” Johnson said. “This week is when we really start determining the kind of season we’re going to have.”

Earlier this year during the tough stretch, Williamson talked about the areas where the team had room for improvement. She asked everyone to buy into seeing what they could do to contribute. 

“Mattie set herself apart that week,” Williamson said. “She definitely had an impact on the team that first weekend when she started at the right back position. Over the last two weeks you can just see her confidence continue to grow. She’s just a gritty player…She doesn’t take days off. At this point in her career that is paying off for her. We’re extremely happy for her that she’s finding that success.”