Tears flooded Melina Violas’ eyes.

She had woken up at 6 a.m. with her father, arrived at the gym for her team’s travel basketball game long before anyone else and still sat on the bench for its entirety.

“I was bawling my eyes out,” Violas said. “I was a little eighth grader and they wouldn’t let me play. My dad was there and instead of a normal Dad saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK,’ my dad was like, ‘You’re just going to have to work harder.’ I worked harder and I’m here now so I guess it was good advice.”

Since then, Melina has risen from the end of the bench of her eighth-grade basketball team to playing almost every minute and scoring double-digit digs in every game except one on the Syracuse volleyball team’s recent 9-3 run.

Violas grew up in a family of athletes. Her dad, Guy Violas, played basketball throughout his childhood and one season at Division III SUNY Cortland. Her uncle Peter was a kicker at Buffalo and her other uncle Nick played lacrosse. Violas’ mother also surfs and skies.

“He has two daughters and to this day he will always say, ‘I didn’t know what to do with two daughters,’” Violas said. “And he grew up with all athletes. That wasn’t even an option for me. I was going to be an athlete one way or another.”

Going into her sophomore year of high school, Violas decided volleyball was the sport she truly loved, and so gave up basketball, soccer and track and field. It was at a club-level tournament during her sophomore year, with her team down 23-17, when her dad realized how much potential his daughter really had.

“I had my camera in my hand but I was so nervous I could not take any pictures,” Guy Violas said. “She scored eight serves in a row and we won the game. And right then I kind of knew, ‘Wow, that was pretty special.’ Not many kids can pull that off. Right then is when I kind of knew that she had a shot at playing college.”

As much as Melina wanted to pursue a collegiate career, she had a problem: She is small for a setter. She is only about 5 feet 8 inches tall and was told she would not grow much. So at the club level during her junior year of high school, she was switched from setter to defensive specialist, a transition that took a while for her to get used to.

“I would say she was average,” said Nabil Mardini, her head coach for the Santa Monica Beach Volleyball Club during her senior year. “Because of her hard work she just got better and better. By the end of the year I could not keep her off the court.”

Violas knew playing for a Division I team would be difficult because she switched from setter to defensive specialist late in her career. She didn’t receive a D-I scholarship offer.

But she refused to give up that dream. Her grandfather, Peter Violas, played basketball against Jim Boeheim. Her family has been Syracuse fans ever since. That and academics drove her to play at Syracuse as a walk-on.

“I knew that since I was so behind on making the transition to being a DS, I wasn’t going to get a scholarship anywhere,” Violas said. “And I just, I wanted to play, I wasn’t ready to give it up. I can’t even imagine not playing volleyball anymore, so I did what I had to do.”

She continued to work hard to get any playing time. During her freshman year, she only stepped onto the court for three points.

But in her junior year, she has had the breakout season she has been working for.

“She’s stepped up this season,” head coach Leonid Yelin said. “She definitely made big improvement.”

Team captain and roommate Nicolette Serratore said Melina’s energy on the court helps the team stay focused during matches.

“She has a really great energy on the court,” Serratore said. “I think that’s what she builds off of. Obviously, her skills are awesome. She’s just very talkative and confident and supportive on the court so it really helps us when we’re in slumps and stuff like that.”

After all the hard work she put in throughout her career, Melina said she could feel this breakout season coming.

“I felt it coming, but I still knew I needed that one more extra step,” Violas said. “Now that I feel like I have taken that extra step, it feels good. I just feel like I am playing with a lot more confidence than I was before, due to the experience.”

Published on November 20, 2013 at 12:22 am

Contact Ryan: rlraigro@syr.edu