Chloe Newton
Staff Writer
It’s that time of year when seniors and juniors are starting to prepare for college. Emma Smith, a junior at Mira Costa, recently committed to play indoor and beach volleyball for the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
After a long process of contacting college coaches Smith finally made a decision on where she wanted to go to school in two years.
“I started sending emails to colleges my sophomore year and I got a good feel for who was interested in me,” Smith said. “This summer I went on a lot of unofficial visits to meet the
coaches and see which schools I liked most.”
Though Smith has already committed, she plans to keep working hard so she will be prepared for when she graduates.
“I have two years before college so I have a lot of time to improve my game,” Smith said. “It’s important that I stay focused on school and keep my grades up. I also want to make sure I always enjoy the game because what’s the point in doing something you don’t love?”
One of the biggest reasons Smith decided on Hawaii was because she would be given the opportunity to play both indoor and sand volleyball. They are two very different games but she is able to transfer her indoor skills over to the beach.
“I love both beach and indoor so much,” Smith said. “I was looking at some other colleges but I wouldn’t have had the chance to play both. In the end that was one of the main reasons why I chose Hawaii, I wasn’t ready to give up either.”
Smith has been on the Costa girls volleyball team all three of the years she has been at this school. She has helped her team enormously on defense and has led them to many wins.
“It’s not surprising that Emma is going to play both indoor and sand in college,” said Mira Costa’s varsity coach Hayley Lawson. “She is such a force on defense for us, and never ceases to amaze us with her calm demeanor and incredible defense on the court.”
Besides from her incredible defense, according to her teammates she is always calm on the court and is able to help them when they are having a bad game. Her attitude helped her greatly when college coaches would come to watch her play.
“Emma is a very controlled, aggressive player and she helps lead our defense tremendously,” said teammate Hannah Scott. “She always calms me down with her positive attitude. Her consistency will lead us to having many victories.”
According to Smith, after years of putting in hard work everything has paid off and her experience on the Mira Costa girls volleyball program has helped her get to where she is now both on and off the court.
“Costa volleyball has helped me so much,” Smith said. “It’s a lot of conditioning which keeps me in shape and we practice everyday so I get a ton of reps. Also it’s so much fun I love all the girls and the coaches. I definitely would not be where I am today without Costa volleyball.”
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