Former UCLA volleyball player brings deadly kills to US national team

It seemed like a tall order for Karsta Lowe.

It was less than a year after the outside hitter completed a four-year run at UCLA that she managed to land an unexpected spot with the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team.

“As a rookie it’s really hard. Especially this summer before the Olympics’ year, it’s hard to make roster because there’s a lot of veterans in this program, girls who’ve been in the program for so many years and it would’ve only been my first year,” Lowe said. “I thought I’d be able to do it and I believed in myself, but you never really know.”

Even though the odds didn’t seem to be in her favor, Lowe did have some numbers on her side. She ended her final year as a Bruin as the NCAA leader in kills per set with 5.96, shattering the previous UCLA high of 5.68.

“Karsta’s just been a monster,” said UCLA coach Michael Sealy after the team’s senior night game.

Although Lowe played for the UCLA beach volleyball team as a sophomore and junior, she decided to forego adding a third year to her resume in order to focus on developing a post-college indoor career.

Instead, Lowe began her journey to the national team by attending a tryout for college athletes in January hosted by U.S. coach Karch Kiraly at the American Sports Centers in Anaheim.

While waiting for a callback, Lowe committed to traveling south to Anaheim once a week in order to get herself acclimated to the practice facilities of the U.S. national team.

“It definitely helped me adjust and gave me a little head start,” Lowe said. “I was basically training indoors and opted out of playing sand. I was playing a lot of indoor volleyball, working out a lot, getting stronger through the summer.”

By May the good news Lowe wanted to hear finally came.

Lowe showed that the months of training she put in between tryouts and her call up didn’t go to waste. In Hawaii, Lowe said she felt at home as she made her debut on the international stage, scoring a match-high 16 points in Team USA’s 3-0 defeat of China in a USA Volleyball Cup matchup.

“There are definitely more eyes on the game,” Lowe said. “A lot of people are paying attention, a lot of people are watching. It’s exciting.”

The former Bruin would continue to feature in games with the national team. She most recently contributed to the U.S.’s historic run at the FIVB World Grand Prix.

“She really turned it on,” Kiraly said in an interview with the Universal Sports Network after. “But she’s still got so much to learn, she’s only in her first season, but it was awesome to see her turn it on in terms of being more engaged in what she needed to do and where she needed to be.”

On a Saturday afternoon, not to be lost in a crowd of veteran players, the rookie did once again what she helped make a familiar sight in Westwood – end a match with a Karsta Lowe kill. Her kills as a college senior helped pen a personal legacy in the UCLA record books. But this final kill in Omaha, Neb. against the two-time defending champion Brazil made her and her Team USA teammates the first team to clinch a FIVB World Grand Prix title on home soil.

Although the U.S. already had the gold medal in the bag, the team still had one more match for bragging rights against China on Sunday. In her 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix Finals finale, Lowe was able to increase her final kill tally to 65 en route to helping Team USA complete an undefeated run in front of a home crowd.

“Having the finals in America is a really big deal,” Lowe said. “It’s just cool being here.”

Although Lowe has had a successful start to a fledgling national team career, the outside hitter said she doesn’t take her place on the team for granted, knowing it changes with each tournament.

At this point, Lowe is chasing her short-term goals of achieving success with her Italian professional club Yamamay Busto Arsizio and making the Team USA roster for the FIVB World Cup.

But ultimately, her dream lies in representing her country on the biggest stage of all at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Compiled by Aubrey Yeo, Bruin Sports senior staff.