Paired randomly with Fort Lewis College sophomore outside hitter/setter Audrey Stansberry at the 11th annual "Fun In The Sun" outdoor doubles tournament on Saturday, May 27, Jessie Roukema seemed to have little difficulty meshing upon FLC's Dirks Field with an unknown teammate.
Good thing too; she'll soon be doing so again, for a much longer time span, and on the other side of the country.
Having effectively made the jump from CHSAA Class 3A volleyball to the junior-college ranks, the former Bayfield Wolverine will pack up everything learned and improved upon in two years at Neosho County Community College and bring it with her to University of Mount Olive in Mount Olive, North Carolina.
But as alien a destination as that probably sounds to anyone from either BHS or Chanute, Kansas, Roukema admits she wasn't too sure about continuing her collegiate career so far beyond even the Mississippi River.
"I guess they found me through my coach, Asya (Herron). And they were like, 'Hey, we want her; she seems like a great player,'" she recalled. "I was like, 'I don't know if I want to go that far...to North Carolina!'"
"Then I was looking at other schools - I'd actually turned that school down - and then the coach called Asya like, 'Asya, we really want this player! Why'd she say no? What should we do to get her back?'"
"And I was like, 'Well if this coach really wants me to play on their team...I've just got to go for it!'"
An impromptu off-season chat with a similarly-sought NCCC teammate-defensive specialist/libero Taryn Strobel, from Wichita, Kansas, helped seal the deal.
"We were actually at a baseball game, and looked at each other like, 'We should just go for it!'" Roukema said. "North Carolina. We're an hour from the beach, we're going to play great volleyball, and be on the opposite side of the world."
An NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas member, UMO went 10-18 overall and a tenth-place (out of 12) 5-11 in the conference in 2016. Even after dropping nine matches in a row to end the season, the Trojans more than doubled their '15 win tota. New head coach Joelle Mafo shouldn't find enthusiasm lacking as she transitions from five years as a Jackson State University assistant in Mississippi.
"We were a little freaked out like, 'We don't know what kind of coach we're going to get; maybe she won't like us!' Then we get our new coach and Asya actually knows her," Roukema said. "She'd tried to get her as her assistant five years ago or something, and Asya's like, 'She's going to be a good head coach!' We were like, 'We're going to take Coach's advice.'"
In other words, the aforementioned 'world' got pleasantly smaller.
"The coach and I talked about how I could be a right-side or an outside, and she was like, 'How do you feel on the outside?' I was like, 'Well I just played two years of right-side, but wherever you put me...' And she was like, 'Good. I just want you to be an all-around player,'" said Roukema. "I'm really excited."
Roukema played in 30 matches (starting six) and 97 games in '16, and logged 163 kills (1.68 per game) at .164 hitting as the Panthers finished 21-12 overall. Roukema also amassed 40 digs (0.41 per), 21 solo blocks and 26 assisted for a total of 47 (0.48 per). Her solo block total ranked fifth amongst Neosho's players, while her kill count tied for third.
UMO collectively averaged 11.13 kpg at .125 hitting, and recorded 1.34 bpg last fall.
"I think I'm really prepared," Roukema said. "Neosho's got me to be the player I am today. If it wasn't for Coach Asya and (Assistant) Coach (Marisa) Compton I wouldn't be ready. We had a lot of spring games where we played Division II schools, and I felt like I was already there."
Having earned her associate of science degree while helping the Panthers go 45-26 overall the last two seasons, Roukema noted biology would be her primary classroom pursuit at Mount Olive, with a long-term goal of going into nursing school.
"It was perfect," she said, of the athletic/academic opportunity mixed with the unique, distant location. "I'm excited to see what happens with all the new people. Some players, they just want to go to a 'good' team, a team that's already 'made.' Here I can just jump in, do whatever I need to do."
