Mana Wahine Wednesday: Hawai’i women’s volleyball defensive specialist Victoria Leyva

HONOLULU – For Rainbow Wahine volleyball fans, Victoria Leyva has come in as one of the early-season revelations for an extremely youthful Hawai’i squad. For UH coaches, she has forced her way not just onto the floor but into being a player Hawai’i does not want to take off of it. 

But who is the standout freshman that made the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic all-tournament team and snuck her way into the starting seven only three matches after the season began? 

The freshman defensive specialist grew up in El Paso, Texas, a border town that she estimates is about 15-20 minutes away from the Mexico-United States border. As someone who comes from a family of immigrants, one of the best parts of Leyva’s childhood included the ability to connect with her Mexican roots and unique town culture around her. 

She eventually found her way into sports, but not immediately to the volleyball court. As the younger sibling, Leyva would be packed up with the rest of the family to her older brother’s baseball events and started to pick up a love for athletics from there. 

“Growing up, he played baseball – it’s actually what he went to college for – and from there I was always toted around at the tournaments,” Leyva recalled. “As I grew older, I started getting into the sports and I started out playing t-ball, and then coach pitch and then I played baseball as well.” 

She had a built-in fan as well. Despite never going to the same school simultaneously because of the age difference, Leyva found she always had backup in her relationship with her older brother. 

“It was very much a supportive sibling dynamic, I think we always stood there for each other,” the freshman said. “Just being very supportive of each other’s goals and all that.” 

Middle school was the time her interest was piqued by trying other sports. After starting with baseball, Leyva flipped to the softball diamond where she thought her future in athletics was. 

“To be honest, I don’t think looking back at it that middle school me would have ever imagined coming to college for volleyball,” she chuckled. “Growing up, it was always softball-baseball-softball-baseball and that was what me and my brother were going to go to college for.” 

Leyva briefly dealt with an environment change when her family moved to New Mexico before shortly returning to El Paso. Upon her return, Leyva found there were no open spots on local softball teams, leaving her with two options: play a new sport or play nothing. 

Thankfully, the decision was made easy when an old softball friend from when Leyva was eight years old had just switched over to the court to play volleyball and invited Victoria to come and try out for the team.  

“I was never the kid to shy away from a challenge,” the defensive specialist said. “I think volleyball, I saw it as another sport that I was probably going to pick up on the side [of softball].” 

Leyva heads to the bench during a home match for Hawai’i. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

While she dabbled in basketball during her middle school days as well, it was admittedly mainly softball and volleyball as the main focuses for Leyva as she entered her first year of high school. Those focuses quickly became one singular focus to become the best volleyball player she could as fast as possible. 

“A lot of my teammates had been playing since they were eight years old and I think at the time, I really felt the challenge of [volleyball] and I’m a person who loves a challenge,” Leyva said of her decision to pursue the sport. “I really wanted to push myself to pick up volleyball and get to the level of where those girls were at and then once I got there, just exceed my skills and what I thought I could do in the moment.” 

Softball “plateaued” for Leyva as she focused her efforts on her volleyball skills, becoming one of the state’s best defensive players on the court. That doesn’t mean the defensive specialist won’t still get a few swings of the bat in if there are batting cages nearby though.  

“I still have a love for the sport of softball … [but] it was the speed of [the game of volleyball] that I fell in love with,” she said. 

The rapid rallies required the former middle infielder-turned-volleyball star to think quickly on her feet, showing off a defensive acumen unlike many other players in all of Texas. By her junior season, Leyva had already eclipsed 1,000 career digs for Pebble Hills and finished her impressive prep career with 1,331 in her time for the Spartans, garnering recognition as one of Lone Star Preps’ top high school defenders in the class of 2024. 

Despite her defensive mastery and success on the court, Leyva didn’t expect her June 15 to be an overly loud or busy day on her end. Playing for a border town school far away from Dallas and Houston, where the sport had taken off in popularity and exposure, the first day that college coaches could officially contact incoming high school juniors was quiet. 

June 16 and on, however, her volleyball path started to become clearer as schools with interest in her made themselves known and she saw the level of competition she could play at. Her recruiting began to roll, and slowly she pared down the programs she would consider. 

She thought she had found her next home, committing early during her junior year to the University of Denver after connecting with the coaches and enjoying multiple things about the school itself before a coaching change for the program led to Leyva re-opening her recruitment in March of her junior year. As a rising senior, she would have one final cycle of club volleyball before leaving the high school scene. 

Hawai’i finally connected with Leyva for the first time at her final club tournament in July of 2023, seeing the defensive specialist/libero in Chicago and quickly courting her to join the program. Leyva officially announced her commitment to the University of Hawai’i on July 28, 2023, and signed later that November. 

“Weirdest timing, but it was the fastest recruiting conversations I had ever had with the coaches, and it all happened within a span of about a month [from] when I started talking to them to when I committed,” Leyva remembered.  

The talented student-athlete, who finished sixth out of 750 students in her graduating class and graduated in December to enroll at Hawai’i one semester early, made the decision to quickly connect with veteran Rainbow Wahine teammates Kate Lang and Tayli Ikenaga during a spring session that included three scrimmages. With help, Leyva got her feet under her as she made the rapid transition from high school to college more than 3,000 miles away. 

Due to the Texas connection, Leyva gravitated towards Lang for advice on being a successful member of the Rainbow Wahine program and certain rules and systems at UH. In Ikenaga, the connection was immediate as a pair of players with similar games who could push each other to be better while still rooting for the other to be the best possible version of themselves. 

“Most people would think that [playing the same position] would turn into this competitive, nasty relationship where we wouldn’t want to talk to each other and it’s just like competition all the time,” she said of her relationship with Ikenaga. “Tayli and I, we really connected from the get-go and we’re able to help each other … I think [Tayli] is the biggest relationship I have on the team right now.” 

Hawai’i’s senior libero/defensive specialist, who surpassed 1,000 career digs in UH’s 3-2 loss at UNLV on Tuesday, took Leyva under her wing immediately upon arrival in Mānoa. It does not mean the two don’t compete hard against each other in practices, pushing to be the best versions of themselves as the Rainbow Wahine have started 2024 with six wins in eight matches. 

Leyva and Tayli Ikenaga (16) share a high five during a home match for Hawai’i. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Leyva has been a key piece to that, playing excellent defense (67 digs, 5th-most among UH players) and providing a consistent spark at the service line with nine aces, 2nd-most behind only Caylen Alexander’s 10. The freshman is one of six Rainbow Wahine to play all 38 sets so far this season for Hawai’i, joining middle blocker Miliana Sylvester as first-year students to do so for UH. 

While the Hawai’i program will have big dreams for Leyva’s future as she develops her skills further, the freshman has big dreams of her own outside of the court. Despite the time constraints that come with being a student-athlete at the Division I level, she chose a S.T.E.M. major for her studies as she prepares for medical school and the pursuit of a career as a surgeon. 

For now, Leyva is living in the moment as her star continues to shine brighter on the floor for Hawai’i. The future will come, she is focused on the work right now.