Transfer Milana Moises brings in fresh energy for Iowa volleyball

IOWA CITY — The Moisio family might as well go ahead and throw out any orange they have in their house.

Milana Moisio grew up in an Illinois household. Her dad, specifically, is a Fighting Illini fan. Then Moisio chose to play three years at Miami, another orange-based household.

Ahead of her final season of collegiate volleyball, Moisio opted to break the orange tradition and head to Iowa.

“The Midwest is where I'm from. It’s home for me,” Moisio said. “So yeah, just everything kind of fell into place. And I was like, when I stepped foot on this campus, I was like, ‘this is exactly where I want to be, and I want to end my college career here.’ Yeah, just kind of felt right.”

Moisio earned the nickname “Mo,” pretty quickly. She transferred to Iowa in January, just in time for the spring semester to start. Since then, she’s been working through Iowa’s system, learning where she fit in.

It didn’t take long to adjust.

Moisio solidified herself as the Hawkeyes’ newest libero, winning the job after head coach Jim Barnes brought in a handful of liberos during the offseason.

“Mo, within three weeks, we're like, ‘oh, she is the one,’” Barnes said. “She's so confident, so smooth, learns really well, quickly, and is one of those steady players that the other players relax around her.”

The Hawkeyes haven’t had a winning record in a decade, when Iowa went 19-13. In year four of the Barnes era, the head coach said if there’s a marker for change, this season will do it.

Moisio, along with the rest of her teammates, can feel the excitement heading into this season. They’ve spent everyday of preseason camp together, doing everything from training to movie nights and playing sand volleyball for fun.

There’s a palpable energy they haven’t experienced before — and it’s been a welcomed change.

“It is just such a close bond with everybody, and like, I know most of the teams say that, but like, ours is like, the closest,” Claire Ammeraal said. “I love every single one of them. And just not only the bond, but the intensity. Like everyone has such a strong want for like, success and like doing well, and so that's really nice to see.”

Moisio said she’s been used to playing in a very structured, rigid system at Miami. Everything had its place and it stayed that way. It was a different style of volleyball than what she played in club and high school, and it took some time to adjust.

Iowa was entirely different. Barnes encouraged Moisio to play with some extra freedom and make decisions, and he gave her that ability almost immediately.

“That really helped me even find confidence in myself,” Moisio said. “That someone had trust me that much, just for only watching me play for really a semester.”

“And along with that, like having the confidence, and then having the coach that also gives you that confidence, you just feel like you're unstoppable on the court.”

The best part for Iowa? Moisio considers her serve receives to be the best part of her game. At its core, serve receives are one of the hardest parts of collegiate volleyball, because it sets up the remainder of the volley and it’s solely dependent on how controlled the receive is.

Moisio said she’s done a plethora of mental exercises to keep her confidence and consistency sky-high, focusing on the serve receives.

“I know for liberos, there's a lot of expectations and roles that you have to take on,” she said. “But I definitely say my serve receive, even just feeling confident in that platform, like I just every single serve, ‘I'm gonna nail this,’ and if I don't, like, ‘I'm gonna nail it again.’”

That positive mindset helped earn her the “ray of sunshine” description Moisio gets from her teammates. Ammeraal even said Moisio’s personality helps the rest of the team relax on the court — they trust that she can handle whatever happens.

“She is just so fun to play with, because she's always just having a good time,” Ammeraal said. “So you look at her, you're like, ‘I can't have a bad time right now.’ Like, this is so fun. So I literally cannot have a bad time when I'm around. And I think it's the same for everybody else.”

Moisio always thought she’d graduate wearing orange — specially Miami’s orange. Things changed, and now she’ll dawn black and gold instead. The move was intimidating, but Moisio said she’s enjoyed the new experience and finding her place back in the Midwest.

With the season right around the corner, too, she’s excited to see how she can be part of a catalyst season for Iowa volleyball.

“Now that I'm here, I literally can't imagine my life anywhere else,” Moisio said. “It's so awesome: The culture here, the team, the coaches, like everything. And if I didn't take that bet on myself, I wouldn't be here.”

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com