Virginia Adriano and Manaia Ogbechie were a bit late reporting to Lincoln for Nebraska volleyball summer workouts, for good reason.
The pair of second-year Huskers took part in a 10-day service trip to Tanzania in East Africa in June as part of the Let’s Keep the Ball Flying Outreach Tour.
“It was an amazing experience,” Ogbechie said. “It was about elementary school age. From school to school, we just helped them set up equipment, play with the kids, clinics, and it was so empowering, honestly. It was nice to see efforts that you make directly make an impact to kids right in front of your face, and it was beautiful. It was really beautiful.”
The mission statement of Let’s Keep the Ball Flying, which launched in 2020, is to “share the love for volleyball, provide access to the sport and empower communities to thrive.”
The founder of Let’s Keep the Ball Flying visited Lincoln, one of many stops across the country, during the beach season to present what his organization does to the team, and the message instantly resonated with Ogbechie, the sophomore middle blocker from Santa Rosa Valley, Calif.
“My dad is actually born in Nigeria, so an immigrant, and then my mom’s parents actually came from Samoa as well,” Ogbechie said. “So just the whole mission statement and being able to make an international impact as well meant a lot to me. That’s something that I really wanted to do, and being able to use my volleyball platform for anything helpful, just to help one kid is my whole goal for being here in the first place, really. So immediately that was something that I was interested in, and I said that I was interested directly after the meeting.”
Ogbechie went through the application process but said there was a breakdown in communication, so she looped Adriano in to help her figure things out.
“I stayed in contact with [the founder] and his girlfriend because she’s Italian, and I actually played against her when I was playing in Italy, which was really cool,” the opposite hitter from Turin, Italy, said. “Such a small world, and so we stayed in contact. I was like, ‘I really want to come; is that still possible?’ I kind of came late because I didn’t know if we were going to be allowed to do it because it was at the beginning of when we were supposed to be back here already …
“I started all the process, all the visas and all the documents, really, kind of late, but I’m so thankful that it worked out because it was truly a crazy, crazy experience getting to see their culture and how they do things, and the kids’ genuine smiles and just happy to have a ball in their hands and happy to play and be around us and it was it was truly, truly amazing.”
While she enjoyed getting to know everyone else on the trip, Ogbechie said she was grateful to have Adriano there with her.
“It was amazing for me, honestly,” Ogbechie said. “I feel like watching her in that environment as well, it just warmed my heart, really.”
Adriano had visited Africa once before in 2024, but that was to a resort area in Tunisia, a completely different world than the one she found in Tanzania. They worked with children with a variety of skill and experience levels, from top-tier athletes to those who had never touched a volleyball before their arrival.
“It was definitely hard because obviously their first language is not English, and we worked with very young kids, so communication was really, really hard,” Adriano said. “But sport and just the contact with the ball and just being together, it was immediately just easy because you were literally just moving, not even talking. You were showing them what they were supposed to do, and they were just doing it. Generally, they were just happy to be there, happy to have a ball in their hands and have us there to help them.”
From a trip full of memories, Adriano shared one that will stick with her forever. Following a match with the kids, Adriano and the other coaches were standing back and letting them huddle on their own, but the children had other plans.
“This kid just takes my arm and puts it in the middle, and I felt really touched because it was the simplest thing ever,” Adriano said. “It was very nothing, but at the same time, it was everything because it was so emotional. I started crying, and a bunch of girls just started wiping my tears and fixing my hair and they were asking me why I was crying. I said, ‘I’m just happy,’ and they were super confused; they did not understand that.
“So truly, an amazing moment. Incredible memories, the people that we went there with, the group, a bunch of strangers. I knew two people. I knew the girlfriend that I only met here; I knew who she was, but I never knew her before. It was an amazing group, very, very kind and humble people. Truly a great experience.”
Ogbechie’s favorite memory took place on the final day of the trip.
“We went to a lake there and played a beach volleyball tournament, and watching the tournament were a whole bunch of little kids,” Ogbechie said. “They’re probably around 6 years old or younger. And towards the end, I was standing with Virginia and a couple of other friends that we made during the trip, and there were little girls, and they’re just hugging our arms; they wanted us to hold them. So we were holding the girls. I was singing a lullaby that my mom used to sing to me when I was a kid and watching the sunset on the lake.
“I feel like the sunset was so symbolic to the end of the trip, and then it was just so beautiful. The girl in my arms, I was just like, ‘Wow, I don’t want to let this girl go. I want to continue to help her. I want to continue to make an impact.’ So it was beautiful.”
Now back in Lincoln, Ogbechie and Adriano are gearing up to chase a championship during the 2026 season with their teammates. However, the summer served as another reminder that volleyball is about more than wins and losses and of how much good the sport can do in the world.
“It was incredible,” Adriano said. “It was truly the best trip that I’ve ever done, by far.”
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