New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Moravec helped Hopkins reach new heights
Nataly Moravec was in the seventh grade when she joined the Hopkins’ varsity girls volleyball team, and at the time, the Hilltoppers were still struggling to get off the ground, winning just four matches that year.
Times have changed for both player and team.
As Moravec gets set to continue her volleyball career at Brigham Young University, she’s departing from a Hopkins team which won 37 matches and a pair of FAA championships in the past two seasons.
The growth, according to Hopkins coach Dina Ding, has been like “night and day,” with Moravec leading the way.
“Nataly is one of the biggest parts of that change,” Ding said. “She led the team and we fought through difficult times. The kids work really hard and because of the leadership we’ve had with Nataly and other kids from the club team, we were able to win. Collectively, as a team, truly, is how we won the championship.”
Moravec, who lives in Weston, began playing volleyball when she was five years old and said her dream is to someday play professionally. The sport, she said, is an important part of her life.
“It’s muscle memory: Wake up, go to practice,” Moravec said. “Everything is revolving around volleyball in my life. I’m hoping after college that I might be able to play overseas. It’s really difficult to go play pro, so we’ll see, but it is a dream of mine to play professional volleyball.”
Her career thus far is filled with impressive achievements.
During her senior season, Moravec became the first Hopkins player to reach 1,000 kills in a career, and she finished with 1,120, including 394 during the Hilltoppers’ 18-2 campaign.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association named her to its Phenom Watch list twice, and it’s All-American first team, All-Region team, and Best and Brightest second team in 2021. She’s also a fivetime All-FAA and fourtime All-NEPSAC player, and in 2021, earned a spot in the USA Volleyball Indoor National Team Development Program Winter Training Series.
In choosing BYU, Moravec was attracted by the chance to play for coach Heather Olmstead.
Olmstead is a two-time AVCA Coach of the Year who has the highest winning percentage in NCAA Div. I women’s volleyball history. This year, her Cougars were 30-2 with a West Coast Conference championship and an appearance in the NCAA Div. I Sweet 16.
“I really just felt that she would be able to help me grow and develop,” Moravec said. “Their program is really competitive, one of the top programs in the country right now, so I wanted to go somewhere where I’d have good competition and I’d be able to grow and improve as a player.”
Moravec has had experienced coaching from the first day she stepped on the court.
Her mom, Sheena Shen, an assistant coach at Hopkins, is a former player for BYU Hawaii, where she helped win a NAIA national title.
Ding is a former Olympic and professional player, and was the team captain and setter for China’s Tianjin Bridgestone Women’s Volleyball Club, which won seven national titles. She represented China at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was chosen as the torchbearer for the Beijing games in 2008.
Ding also coaches Moravec with the Evergreen Volleyball Club. She said Moravec has shown tremendous growth since her seventh-grade season. That includes physically — Moravec has sprouted from a 5-foot-3 seventh-grader to a 6-foot-2 senior — as well as in skills and leadership.
“She’s much stronger, she jumps higher and she’s grown skill-wise,” the coach said. “When she started she was a middle blocker, so over the years, she’s learned all her offensive tools. Now she hits back row, front row, she’s a true six-rotation pin player.”
Moravec said she became more comfortable with her leadership role this fall. Since the Hilltoppers did not have a 2020 season due to the pandemic, Moravec jumped from being a sophomore to a senior leader in one step.
“I was finally able to have a strong voice,” Moravec said. “As a sophomore, I looked up to the seniors, but then this year, as a senior I was more able to help out the younger ones, the freshmen and sophomores.”
“The value she brought to the team as a senior is her leadership and she’s an all-around player, which is rare in the game of volleyball,” Ding said. “(The other players) really admire her and view her as an example, and she’s a down to earth person. Even after she committed (to BYU), she’s very easy to talk to, she’s kind and she’s great to all the players in the club, on the varsity team and at the school. She’s a very likable person.”
In July, 2021, Moravec was invited to take part in the BYU Elite Volleyball Camp, which included all the future recruits. Ding said more than 400 kids took part in the four-day camp, including 100 in Moravec’s 16-19 age group. Players were rated at their positions as hitters, liberos or setters.
Moravec received the highest score as the best attacker.
“There were so many good players there, so I was kind of surprised actually,” Moravec said. “I was thinking I might not have played as well as I wanted to, and being recognized gave me the confidence that I can handle that and keep up with other people as well.”
“When people think of Connecticut and New England volleyball, they really don’t think we can produce high level players, but we actually can,” Ding said. “Our players can compete at the national level with players from California, Texas and other states where volleyball is very popular.”
With Moravec graduating, Hopkins will look to continue its success with a few returning players such as juniors Rachel Huang, a middle hitter, and Joy Gong, a setter, each of whom play for the Evergreen team as well.
Ding said Moravec will be missed.
“Hopkins is going to miss her, our club team is going to miss her, and all her teammates are going to miss her, but we wish her the best and we hope whatever she does, she’s going to be very successful,” the coach said. “She works very hard and she’s talented, so she has a bright future ahead of her.”