Junior Emmayln Dinh has been playing volleyball since the third grade, ever since her mom encouraged her to participate in a team sport. 

When Dinh was younger, she had taken swimming lessons but never got into it competitively. Swimming was very different from volleyball as an individual sport. In the end, the team aspect of volleyball is what led her to continue playing.

“I think it’s really, really fun and just a good way to make new friends and get into a different community,” she said. 

Dinh enjoys how she can make new friends and connect with others through volleyball. She has played club volleyball since the sixth grade and has played for La Salle since her freshman year. She is currently on the varsity team.

This year, she says that everyone has gotten really close and they help each other improve. 

“We just push each other and we know that we can all do a little bit better each day,” she said. “And so I think because of that, we have started to improve on each other. Both as a team and individually.”

Dinh often plays in the front row as an outside hitter, also known as a left-side hitter. She can also play as a defensive specialist, also referred to as a passer or back row player, which is her favorite position to play.

“I really feel proud of myself when I get a ball up or a really hard hit up or just a good satisfying serve receive pass up,” she said. 

With late-night practices, Dinh makes sure to balance her schoolwork and volleyball by working on homework before practice. That way, after practice, when she’s sore and tired she doesn’t have to worry about it. Alongside that, Dinh likes to plan out her week when she has a chance, often before varsity plays in games. 

Dinh says that the physical strain and the fact that you could get injured in an instant can often make the games seem scary and is the hardest challenge of playing.

“I think the sport is really exciting,” she said. “You don’t really know what to expect.”

Dinh loves to play volleyball and if the chance ever arose to play after high school, she would take it, but for this season, she hopes to improve even more and become more confident in her skills as a player.