The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Standouts Ochaya, Durra commit to Akron
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, or so they say.
In the case of area volleyball standouts Jen Durra and Teagan Ochaya, what happens in Vegas ends up in Akron.
While in Las Vegas for a recent volleyball tournament, Riverside’s Durra and Mentor’s Ochaya found themselves in their hotel room discussing their college futures. The pair of juniors then placed an impromptu call to Akron volleyball coach Tom Hanna and gave him the good news.
They were verbally committing to be Zips following their 2018 graduation.
It was a pretty good day for Hanna — one phone call, two verbals.
“We had our coach make the call,” Durra said of Junior Olympic coach Rob Cline, coach of the Eastside Volleyball Club’s 17 elite. “So (Hanna) probably thought it was a random phone call and probably didn’t think anything of it.
“He put us on the phone and we said, ‘We’d like to commit to you and the Akron program.’ ”
Durra and Ochaya are two of the top players in the area, if not Ohio.
A 5-foot-11 left-side hitter, Durra piled up 266 kills and 194 digs this year for Division I district runner-up Riverside.
A 6-foot-2 right-side hitter, Ochaya was limited to 60 kills in 16 sets this year for Division I district champion Mentor, missing a majority of the season with a shin injury.
But as a sophomore, Ochaya led Mentor with 246 kills and 84 of her team’s 163 blocks (65 of which were solo block-kills).
“We didn’t plan it happening like it did,” Ochaya said of the double verbal. “We were sitting there talking about colleges, the pros and the cons. We both realized Akron was just a great fit. We really like the program, the coach, and it’s closer to home. So we decided to make the call and do it at the same time.”
Ochaya chose Akron over Toledo, Miami (Ohio) and others. Akron recruited her in basketball and volleyball, but Ochaya said she’s going to stick with playing volleyball only.
Durra also considered Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Duquesne, Cleveland State and LaSalle.
That Durra and Ochaya are going to play college volleyball together is no big surprise.
Even though they play on rival high school teams, they have played Junior Olympic Volleyball together for five years. Even their families are close.
“Our families went on vacation together,” Durra said. “We just get along really well. The (Mentor-Riverside) rivalry is fun, but we always hang out after. We’re all good friends because we play with each other (in JO) and against each other (in high school).”
Durra plans to major in business, with a concentration in chain supply management. Ochaya isn’t set on a major yet, but is thinking about psychology.
Ochaya welcomes the good news of a college verbal commit in what has been an otherwise difficult junior year.
Not only did she miss most of volleyball season with a stress fracture in her left shin, but the injury also robbed her of her junior year of basketball.
Ochaya had surgery Jan. 23 to fix the injured shin, with a rod and screws inserted to help with the healing.
“It’s been frustrating, and it’s a long process,” she said. “But I can already tell a difference after the surgery. I am hoping to get cleared to jump in the next few weeks, and we’ll go from there.”