Moving 5,000 miles away from home to a new country and culture can be difficult for anyone, even a seasoned pro. That’s the leap of faith Virginia Adriano made to pursue her volleyball goals in Lincoln, Nebraska.
After playing professionally for a couple years in her home country of Italy, the 6-foot-5, 21-yeard-old opposite hitter signed with Nebraska, joining the preseason No. 1 Cornhuskers for Dani Busboom Kelly’s first season at the helm. Busboom Kelly said the process of Adriano pursuing college volleyball had already started before she accepted the Nebraska job, but the Husker staff sealed the deal in May.
The native of Turin, Italy, said she didn’t know much about Nebraska before she arrived.
“I didn’t know a lot at first,” Adriano said. “I heard when it happened, I heard about the Memorial Stadium match, and I didn’t know about Nebraska, how big this was, the fans and everything, and when I realized it was that team that played that game, it was kind of crazy. The vibes are very, very good.”
The Huskers welcomed Adriano with open arms, most notably Andi Jackson. The junior middle blocker invited her new teammate to her home in Colorado over the summer to give her a taste of what American culture is like.
“Virginia is so fun to have,” Jackson said. “She’s such a good spirit about everything. She loves trying American food. She’s so bold; I know so many Americans that won’t try new food, but Virginia tries everything, and I feel like she likes it for the most part. She’s very adventurous, so it makes it super fun. We’ve tried everything — Texas Roadhouse. She didn’t like the butter, so that was a letdown. But we’ve tried a lot of stuff, and she came to Colorado and tried some stuff there, and it’s been super fun, and I’ve been super grateful I’ve had the opportunity to show around and give her a real American experience.”
Adriano isn’t a fan of cinnamon (the reason she didn’t like the butter) but she does enjoy ranch — “I learned that you guys put it everywhere” — and named Chick-fil-A as one of her favorite food places she’s tried. Adriano said before the season things were getting easier for her every day.
“It was hard at first, just because there are a lot of differences, and I wasn’t expecting it to be those big differences, honestly,” she said. “Also in the game of volleyball, there were a lot of things that I had to basically relearn. I really like this culture, the things I’ve seen here. I don’t know if it’s just because Lincoln is a very, very kind city, but everybody is very, very welcoming, very kind.”
Aside from the many small and big differences in the American collegiate game compared to what she’s used to back home, a positive change she’s getting used to is the support she has from everyone around her at Nebraska.
“I’m learning that I have my teammates with me, for sure,” Adriano said. “It’s something that I didn’t really have in the past, just because I learned here that we talk a lot, we work a lot with mentality and those things, and it was kind of weird at first, because I’m not very used to that, but it’s very helpful.
“I know it sounds kind of weird and basic to say, but just knowing that people are out there to help you when you are feeling down or you’re having bad moments is something that is really, really helpful, incredibly helpful, and I think it’s going to be like that for every game.”
The first few weeks of the season have presented plenty of challenges. Adriano has played in five of No. 1 Nebraska’s six matches, starting four of them. She came off the bench in Nebraska’s reverse sweep of then-No. 7 (and now No. 3) Kentucky and provided a spark with her blocking, helping the Huskers turn that match around. However, offensively, she mustered just nine kills and committed 10 attack errors in her first three matches, hitting minus-.030.
After the slow offensive start, the Ameritas Players Challenge in week three provided an opportunity for Adriano to build some confidence with a strong showing against Wright State as she finished with seven kills on .286 hitting plus four blocks.
“Recently I’m struggling a little bit, just to get used to adjusting my tempo, my approach and everything,” Adriano said. “So it feels great … I’m trying to push hard every practice, to try to get better and better. I’m still struggling a little bit because it’s very different.”
Busboom Kelly said she wanted to give Adriano and setter Bergen Reilly a full match to continue strengthening their connection, so she didn’t sub at those two spots against the Raiders despite Nebraska controlling the action in a sweep.
“It’s important for her and Bergen to feel more comfortable with each other, and for Bergen to know what kind of set she needs,” Busboom Kelly said. “That was great, I thought, tonight; both of them together connected really well and Virginia looked a little bit more like herself than she has the last couple games.”
Adriano followed her strong showing with three kills on .333 hitting against California before Busboom Kelly turned to the bench midway through the second set, giving her 10 kills on .300 hitting in the two matches of the Challenge.
“She’s been working really hard and just intentionally on footwork and timing, and we’ve been working on that a lot in practice too,” Reilly said. “So it was good to see that come out in a game, and I know it’s only going to get better from here, because she has been coming in early, staying late, trying to kind of get that down.”
For Adriano, the bumps along the way have all been a part of the process, one she’s committed to in order to grow as a player and help the Huskers accomplish their goals.
“I was kind of used to, of course, the way we play in Italy, just because it’s where I grew up,” Adriano said. “So coming here has done a lot. I would say I’m becoming kind of a more open-minded kind of player, because I’m trying to understand new things that I didn’t know before, and even if it’s still the game of volleyball, I’m learning a lot of new things. I’m learning to do something different that I wasn’t taught before, and at the same time, I’m kind of losing something that I was used to, so it’s been hard, but I’m enjoying it.
“I’m enjoying the process, and I’m trusting the process.”
