The night of November 11 brought 1,108 fans to Memorial Gymnasium, the most spectators at a Virginia Volleyball match since the gym’s 2003 renovation. The Hoos swept the Hokies in a 3-0 win on Senior Night, extending UVA’s lead in the Commonwealth Clash standings, presented by Smithfield. With this win also came Veresia Yon’s 900th career kill. 

Veresia is a 6’1” fifth-year transfer student from Tallahassee, Florida. She chose to stay in-state for her first four years of college as she attended and played for the University of West Florida. She started playing volleyball in fourth grade and has enjoyed the game ever since. “I had the best coach ever so that encouraged me to fall in love with the game,” Veresia said. In high school, she played for both her high school and club teams, and volleyball became more than simply a game for her. “I started to think that maybe I had a future in this and wanted to see where it could take me."

Veresia played for the University of West Florida for four years prior to her transfer to Charlottesville. In 2021, she led the nation in hitting percentage and set a new single-season program record with a .462 season hitting percentage. That same year she was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) South Region Player of the Year as well as an AVCA First Team All-America selection. Veresia finished her season with a team-high 405 kills and 518.5 points. 

“I could tell that at UVA, everyone genuinely cares about the players and their goal is to make each one better as a person as well as a player,” Veresia said in reference to her recruiting process. Veresia graduated from the University of West Florida in the spring of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications/Public Relations. UVA had never been on Veresia’s radar, but after her fourth year in Florida, she decided to start looking for new destinations. “Talking with Coach Chris during recruiting was like a breath of fresh air because it felt like I was talking with someone I had known for a long time. It didn’t feel like I was on a recruiting call, just a conversation,” she said, “I was able to get a sense of home from a place that is far away from my home which was really nice.” 

“The girls on this team are such a big part of why I feel so at home here,” added Veresia. The sixteen girls on the team formed  a close-knit relationship throughout the three-month NCAA season. Coming into a team with a pre-established bond was difficult for Veresia as the dynamic on her old team was extremely different, but she said she “knew it would be okay when the girls started reaching out to me before I had even arrived in Charlottesville.” Veresia said, “I feel like they are some of my closest friends already, and I've only known them for around five months.” 

Veresia plays as a middle blocker, which she describes as “making sure I am putting up blocks to make sure that their hits don't hit the floor on our side.” She added that “Sometimes I feels kind of like a golden retriever, just constantly chasing the ball. That’s my job!”

As far as student-athletes’ schedules go, Veresia’s could not get more full. Between pursuing her Master's in Student Affairs with a Practice in Higher Education, and her role on the volleyball team, her days are oftentimes chock-full. Sometimes she has back to back classes with weights and a three-hour practice all in one day. “By the time practice is over, I go home and have to work on homework,” she said. “Those days are definitely really busy.” 

“The academics at UVA are unmatched,” said Veresia. In graduate school, she works with a cohort of other students with similar academic tracks as her. “Getting to know the different personalities of my cohort is really fun because you have all sorts of people. Athletes, non-athletes, and international students. Just being able to get to know a wide variety of people is really something that's unique about my experience,” she said. She describes her course of study as a “hodgepodge of different subjects involving higher education but with focuses on the athletic side of things.” Veresia has not set her mind on a specific career path as of right now but does have an interest in becoming an academic coordinator for a university. Her inspiration for this is her own academic coordinator, McKenzie Nunes. Veresia said that she “loves what McKenzie does” and believes that “bettering athletes as a whole, not just sports-wise but academic also, is really important.”

Stay tuned for future Hoo Highlight features shining the spotlight on hardworking student-athletes who go above & beyond to engage the community, build their personal brands, and embody what it means to be a Wahoo.