After leading the University of California, Riverside (UCR) to a 3–2 victory over the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), senior outside hitter Sophia Ewalefo earned her second UC Riverside Athletics Athlete of the Week honor this season.
The Las Vegas native first got into volleyball after seeing her older sister play for her high school team. “I used to go to the park with my mom after the games and mimic how the girls on her team would serve and stuff,” stated Ewalefo. During her high school years, she split her time between volleyball, basketball and track. However, volleyball has always been her true passion while the other two sports were just for fun.
Ewalefo is having a standout senior season. The outside hitter recorded a career high 26 kills during a home game against UCSD. Her kills per set have increased by nearly 84 percent, going from 1.9 last season to 3.49 this season. Even with the season still underway, she’s recorded 237 kills in just 68 sets, already surpassing last year’s 186 kills in 98 sets.
Going into this season, Ewalefo wanted to be more productive and “overall level up [her] playing style from the past years.” Ewalefo also spoke about having better confidence this season which has helped her play well, commenting that working through mistakes and learning from them as the game goes on has benefited her.
During the off season, UCR’s volleyball team welcomed a brand new coaching staff with head coach Brandon Higa and assistants Maurice Torres and Desiree Sukhov. “I love the new coaching staff…I honestly credit a lot of my success and our team’s success to them,” mentioned Ewalefo.
The belief coaches have in the team and allowing Ewalefo and her teammates to play through mistakes has helped them grow. The team culture has also grown stronger this season: “There’s less internal conflict within ourselves,” said Ewalefo, noting that the group has been able to stay focused and compete together well against opponents.
Moving into the second half of the season, Ewalefo has some goals. One is to be named Big West Conference Offensive Player of the Week. She also noted that there were teams that UCR fell to in the first half of the season that she would like to beat the second time around.
Looking back on her time at UCR, the senior outside hitter spoke about memorable moments with the team. Among her favorite memories is last year’s victory over the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, marking the program’s first-ever win against the team. She also spoke about getting her career high in kills and when UCR beat the University of Las Vegas: “Going to my hometown and beating the hometown school … that was super cool.”
While Ewalefo isn’t planning to play volleyball professionally after graduation, she hopes to keep the sport in her life. “I just love volleyball,” she said. “Whether it’s through training or coaching, I’d like to stay connected to it.”
