(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
In the first match of the season for a young Sun Devils volleyball team, freshman outside hitter Marta Levinska played a strong role in their upset of then No. 8 Washington to give the team a strong first win to the season.
“I wanted to play well,” Levinska said of her debut as a Sun Devil. “I definitely had some nerves at the beginning but I have played a lot of games. Back at home in Latvia, our seasons were so long so I had the game experience.”
The Riga, Latvia, native had a match-high 18 kills and also three blocks in the first match versus UW on Jan. 22 in a 3-0 sweep and in a 1-3 loss versus the Huskies in the second match the following day, she had 13 kills and two blocks. After her performance from her first weekend playing for ASU, Levinska was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Jan. 25.
“Marta is one of the best freshmen in the Pac-12, and I know most of the other freshmen because I have recruited them,” head coach Sonja Tomasevic said. “Marta is an amazing player, she’s very mature for her age so we’re really happy to have her here.”
In the fall of 2019, Levinska said she had yet to even consider coming to the U.S. to play volleyball, but then had some teams reach out to her, increasing her interest in playing at the collegiate level. Levinska, like many first year college athletes and students, said that she never really got the chance to visit ASU prior to coming to campus due to the pandemic and had to make her decision to come to Tempe based on virtual tours and conversations with the coaching staff.
Prior to ASU, Levinska was also named the best women’s volleyball player in Latvia in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons and also named best player in the women’s Baltic league in the 2019-20 season. Fellow outside hitter and sophomore Ivan Isanovic played against Levinska in qualifications for their national teams in Bosnia Herzegovina and Latvia. That was back in 2018, Isanovic said, and Levinska has come a long way since they played each other.
“She has such a good arm and she’s a really, really good player,” Isanovic said. “I expect from her and I know that she’s gonna show the Pac-12 what she shows to me everyday in practice, so I’m looking forward to that definitely.”
In the capital city of Latvia where Levinska grew up there were a lot of volleyball teams. She played with players that formed the best team, Levinska said, and they competed in a Challenge Cup, playing a much longer season than what she is playing in the Pac-12 right now.
Though she was not able to have the experience of meeting with Tomasevic in-person prior to this fall, Levinska said she has been able to connect with her coach because she feels that they can relate to each other.
“I think [their relationship] is good because we’re both international people, so she has been in my shoes,” Levinska said. “She knows how it feels and she was really welcoming, and I knew that I will have to change a few steps from what I learned in Latvia to how they’re playing here, so she was patient with me.”
It’s been challenging, Levinska said, with the adjustment to college in the current circumstances. Still, the freshman outside hitter has used the extra time before the Pac-12’s unusual spring season to build connections with her teammates, the setters in particular.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity to play with the team longer,” Levinska said. “So I had an extra three or four months to just get down all of the things that they do different here, so it was kind of a blessing and a curse.”
A positive Tomasevic said she sees out of this year’s team, Levinska included, is a chance to have almost the same team together for next year and the years to follow to build improvement upon.
“This team is young, minus Megan Beedie. We’re going to have the rest of this team for the next three years together,” Tomasevic said. “So that’s really something to look forward to.”
