Western
Nebraska Community College’s Luiza Martins is one that loves to study, whether
it is in the classroom or on the volleyball court.
Martins,
the freshman setter from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has definitely done that at
WNCC in helping the Cougar volleyball team to the national tournament Nov. 15-17
in West Plains, Mo. Her studious nature has paid dividends this season after
being selected as Region IX Setter of the Year and Freshman of the Year after
the Cougars captured their 14th straight Region IX title on Nov. 3.
She,
however, takes all the honors in stride.
“I
think the honors I received are for all of us,” Martins said. “It is just not
for me, it is the work that we are doing together. Those awards show that we
are working hard. I feel good in getting that because it is my first year here
and it is amazing.”
Martins
believes a success season is how the entire team performs and she will take
that attitude into the national tournament. Martins said this team has all the
capabilities of bringing home a national title if they stay focused and play as
a team.
“We
need to work hard this week [the week
before], but we are ready,” she said. “We are fighting to win and we are like
we want the national championship. We need to play like a team and stay
together. We need to stay together to win the championship. If we don’t play
together, it will be hard for us.”
WNCC
opens play at nationals on Thursday at 10 a.m. against No. 15 seed Wallace
State-Hanceville out of Alabama. Wallace State enters with a 33-7 record while
the Cougars sport a lofty 37-2 record and winners of their last 31 matches.
It
still amazes Martins just how far this team has come around as each player as
pushed each other to do their best. And that includes being pushed by Gering
setter Morgan Broussard.
“Playing
with Morgan is amazing,” she said. “She just pushes me and I push her.”
Martins
is ranked in the top five in the nation in setting assists with a 10.8 average.
Broussard, who also plays when the Cougars go to their 6-2 offense, is
averaging 5.4 sets a game. What makes Martins’ and Broussard’s job as a setter
thrilling is the number of hitters they can set the ball to. That, according to
Martins, is one of the reasons the team has excelled.
“It
is hard to decide who to set to,” she said. “Sometimes coach fights with me
saying this is not the hitter. But, I trust all the hitters and that has helped
me a lot. On my first team back in Brazil, there were some hitters I didn’t
trust and here is different because I trust them all to put the ball away.”
Martins,
herself was not always a setter. She started out as a hitter when she was
younger and didn’t start playing volleyball until she was 12 years old. It wasn’t
until she moved onto a bigger club team that she realized that she was too
small to be a hitter and switched over to setter.
“It
is funny because I never thought I would be
playing volleyball,” she said. “I got started because my PE teacher at my
school during a volleyball class thought I was a good player so he invited me
to play with his club. Then in 2008, I was invited to go to a big club. I was
an outside hitter and I was small compared to the other girls. In 2009 I
started to set and then in 2010 I went to the Brazilian national team and that
was an amazing experience. I didn’t stay there because I was the last cut, but
I was there for 2 1/2 months and it was amazing and learned a lot of things.
From that experience, I learned that I need to keep working hard and never give
up for what I love.”
Well, she almost gave up playing volleyball if it
wasn’t for the opportunity to come to the states to play for Giovana Melo’s
storied program at WNCC.
“If I was in Brazil, I would have stopped playing
volleyball,” she said. “I like the way coach Melo teaches us and I like the program,
so I decided to come to WNCC and get the experience and continue playing
volleyball. I am glad Giovana found me. I had a coach who had a friend
here in the United States and he told Giovana about me. He texted and emailed
me and then me and Giovana started to talk.”
Martins
and Melo have plenty in common, but the one thing that Martins has over Melo is
speaking English. When Melo came to WNCC in 2001, she knew little English.
Martins, on the other hand, was forced to learn English when she was 12 years
old by her parents.
“I
can still learn more English, but when I was 12 years old, my mom put me in an
English school so that I could learn English,” she said. “English is an
important language for my parents. They forced me to learn English. I travel a
lot and when I was 15 years old, I went to Australia to learn English and
stayed there for a month. I think that has helped me a lot.
“At
first, however, I didn’t like English. On the first impression, I thought it
was so hard and that I can’t learn that. But after I started to know it, I
liked it and told myself that I can do it.”
Well,
she mastered English and being a top-of-the-line volleyball setter. She is also
mastering her studies and said that she sees volleyball harder than studying.
“Volleyball
is harder for me,” she said. “I like to study so for me it is not too hard. So,
this first semester, I think volleyball is harder because I am learning a lot
of new things that I need to work on and need to change.”
Her
goals are to move on to a four-year university and hopefully to continue
playing volleyball. While she doesn’t want to be a doctor, she wants to work in
a laboratory.
“I
want to go to a good university and have a full scholarship and to graduate,”
she said. “After that, I don’t know if I will go back to Brazil or stay here. I
just want to be good in what I choose.”
This
weekend, she wants to be good at setting and leading her team to a third
national title in six years. Martins can’t wait to get on the courts at the
West Plains Civic Center.
“I
never have played at nationals before,” she said. “I just feel so good to think
about the nationals because I think we have a team to win nationals.”
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