Women's Volleyball | 8/25/2017 11:47:00 AM

Leiri Melendez walked out her dorm room, turned the wrong way and became completely discombobulated in a land she barely knew existed just months earlier.
Fifty frustrating minutes later, she arrived at Savannah State University's volleyball practice.

She laughs about it now. Lost in translation has become part of the tale of her two worlds -- first growing up in Ponce, Puerto Rico before coming to America to play college volleyball.

Melendez, a libero, was part of the 2017 recruiting class for Tigers coach Edric Poitier. And she helped recruit two others with roots in Puerto Rico -- setter Salma Gonzalez and outside hitter Amanda Rullan Vilanova.

All three are expected to play key roles when SSU opens the volleyball season Friday in Montgomery, Ala., against Alabama State in the SWAC/MEAC Challenge.

"I didn't even know where Savannah was," Melendez admits. But she wanted to continue to play volleyball in college and contacted Poitier, who watched her recruiting profile tape on the Internet website Next College Student Athlete. He learned about her club team, Guayanilla Ladies.

Poitier, from the Bahamas, coached the Bahamas women's national team for nine years and knew a little something about how volleyball is played in Puerto Rico.

"The Puerto Rican (style) is a little more aggressive," Poitier said. "They're rapid fire, high energy. That's good because that's the excitement people want to see in volleyball."

So Poitier not only offered Melendez a chance to play at SSU, he asked her to recommend some other players. She messaged Gonzalez and Vilanova.
"We're both here because of Leiri," Vilanova said. "God put her in a path, and we're definitely grateful."

Poitier, now in his second year with the Tigers, is looking to improve on the school's 2-25 record in 2016. The team was picked to finish fifth in the six-team South Division of the MEAC this year.

"We're much better than we were last year," Poitier said. "So if teams in the conference are where they were (last year), we're going to be good. If they've improved, it will be a tougher fight but I predict us to finish at least third in the conference."

"We're not worried about (last year's record)," Vilanova said. "We're not looking back, we're looking forward and we have what we need to win."

Poitier said a player pipeline from Puerto Rico to Savannah could help the Tigers become more competitive while stretching his recruiting budget. As American citizens, the Puerto Rican natives can apply for financial aid to boost scholarship monies. Vilanova and Melendez also sport excellent high school grade-point averages which made them eligible for academic scholarships.

Volleyball is one thing, but the women also have to wade through a tangled forest of classes, language, new culture and new people. Gonzalez and Vilanova are just 17 years old, Melendez is 18, and they readily admit they get homesick.

"Sometimes I'm practicing and I look at the (bleachers) and I don't see (my mother)," said Vilanova, from Bayamon, just outside San Juan. "It's hard not having your family here. But we're able to follow our dreams. Back home isn't easy. The mere fact that we're here and we got the chance to be here, our families are proud of us."

Gonzalez's journey started a year earlier. She said a coach at St. Francis Academy in Gainesville, Fla., saw her play club volleyball and asked if she would be interested in coming to play in the United States.

It meant leaving her small hometown of Isabela, where "you have many families from school to sports," she said. It meant being away from her mother, who is a cancer survivor.

"I had a goal in my mind, I wanted to get better," said Gonzalez, who eventually went to public school at West Port in Ocala, Fla. "Volleyball has opened many doors. Volleyball has done many good things."

Gonzalez wants to major in biology.

Melendez, who grew up helping her father in a bakery, wants to get a master's degree and eventually become a physiatrist. Vilanova, who has done clerical work, has her sights set on becoming a lawyer.

They said everyone at Savannah State -- coaches and teammates, teachers and classmates -- has been supportive.

Poitier said the personable women have been able to fit in easily. Or is it the other way around?

"Fit in? We're fitting in with them," Poitier said. "They're a welcomed addition. With my little spanglish, we'll make it work."

Of course, the women can always rely on each other.

"Coming here to the United States I have more, how do you say …" said Melendez, looking for assistance from her teammates the way a hitter looks for a good set.

"Opportunity," said Vilanova and Gonzalez, finishing the sentence together.