On August 31, 2024, senior Ariella Maika, in her fourth and final year on the women’s varsity volleyball team, made a historic contribution to the Sierra Vista Women’s Volleyball Program. During a high school volleyball tournament hosted by Liberty High School and Coronado High School, the Island Classic, Maika became the first women’s volleyball player at Vista to achieve a whopping 1,000 career kills.
Maika began her volleyball career in elementary school where her rising talent and potential quickly became known. Making an immediate impact during her freshman year tryouts, Maika earned a spot on Sierra Vista’s varsity volleyball team and continued to play on varsity all four years of her high school volleyball career. After her junior year, Maika managed to rack up an average of 280 kills per season, all adding up to achieving her 1,000th in her last season with the Lady Lions. Fast forward to her senior year, Maika continues to set new records for the program by increasing her stats to surpass 1,000 kills.
In the twenty-three years of athletes throughout the Sierra Vista High School Women’s Volleyball Program, Maika became the only athlete to reach and exceed the 1000th kill mark. Fulfilling one of her long-term goals in her high school volleyball career, Maika shares, “It felt really good, especially because I’ve been working on achieving that goal ever since my freshman year.” Maika added, “It just felt so surreal, I even had to keep asking my coach if I was actually the first person to achieve this.” After accomplishing this milestone, Maika found herself swinging with newfound confidence and became pleased to no longer have the amount of kills left to get to 1,000 running through her head. “As a volleyball player, lately I’ve been having a lot more confidence with my swings, knowing that I don’t have this thing in the back of my head saying ‘I’m almost at a thousand kills, I need this much more to reach my thousandth kill,’ it just feels like a reliever just to know that I can rely on myself to just swing away without worrying about having that thousandth kill in the back of my mind.”
Aspiring to learn new techniques, Maika continues to push herself to become the best player, teammate, and captain she could be. Constantly aiming for improvement, Maika explains, “Skillwise, I would say my backrow hitting and my defense, just reading where the ball is going faster, being able to make a move before the ball even gets to me, and just being able to control where my down-ball [hit] goes in the backrow. Off the court, just being a good captain to my teammates, leading them in the way of success.”
Not only does Maika’s love for the sport give her the motivation to continue in her volleyball career, but the unwavering support and guidance from her mom and dad give her an extra boost as well. With her mom as her biggest supporter, Maika expressed, “My mom is always holding me to a high standard for volleyball, she thinks the best of me and she’s always seeing what I’m capable of.” Recognizing her dad as an inspiring role model, Maika continues, “I don’t think anybody would ever be a better coach than my dad, he’s pushed me a lot to get to where I am today and I would not be the volleyball player I am today without my dad.”
Despite her talents on the volleyball court, Maika faces uncertainty on the best direction to take her volleyball career moving forward. In the midst of adversity, Maika remains determined, continuing to reach out to coaches and programs to find the right one for her. Coaches looking for talent, drive, and a versatile player will find Maika ready to take the next step in her volleyball career.
