After coming off two consecutive wins, Mesa College’s gym was packed with excitement on a late September evening. Mesa’s Women Volleyball was taking on Ventura College in a game that began to become a nail bitter. After playing the first set of three sharply and coming out with a 25-14 win, Ventura slowly began to creep up. Points were becoming more difficult to come by as Ventura started digging into Mesa’s lead. The rallies became longer, more intense as both teams started to feel the pressure. The only way to stay on top was to bring energy to the team and sophomore, Olivia Tomlin was just the player for the job.
With the number two on her back, Tomlin, Mesa’s middle blocker jumped up over the net and blocked the ball just at the right time and Ventura couldn’t defend it. The crowd roared with excitement. Tomlin had no doubts in her team. She came pumped and with all the confidence in the world and left with her fellow Olympians in a 3-1 victory.
For the past 10 years Tomlin has found herself playing for the Lord and her own love of the game. She was previously a setter her whole career until attending Foothills Christian High School. There she made the switch to Middle Blocker and never looked back. Since then, Tomlin has progressed and developed into a star at Mesa College. Happy to have changed positions she has racked up 49 kills and 11 total blocks in only seven games. Tomlin said she hopes to transfer to a university after Mesa to continue her volleyball career.
Still early in the season, Tomlin said she believed she had gotten better already since last year and felt stronger and more confident thanks to her coaches’ guidance. Head coach Kim Lester said, “I think Olivia brings leadership, passion, and energy to our team.”
With a large part of the season still remaining Tomlin said she thinks the team will do very well this year because of the talent and how well they get along with one another so early in the season. However she isn’t the only one, Coach Lester also said “I think as long as we take care of our side of play and control first ball contact, that we have all the right tools to be very successful. We have strong players at every position, we just need to play Mesa volleyball.”