Volleyball player finds home at The Beach

By Michelle Fithian, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, October 28, 1998

The Long Beach State women's volleyball team has witnessed a star being born in junior outside hitter Anja Grabovac. From the moment she stepped onto the court Oct. 2 to play against UC Santa Barbara at the Thunderdome, Grabovac began transforming into a team leader.

Against the Gauchos, Grabovac pounded a career-high 29 kills and added a career-best 19 digs as The Beach defeated the then No. 4 team.

In Game 1, Grabovac recorded 11 of her 29 kills, including going perfect to start the match. The "double-double" vs. UCSB was her third in a row and her fourth this season. She is averaging 2.95 kills per game with a .300 hitting percentage.

"There were a lot of emotions," she said. "The crowd was huge. I think it was a great match to watch."

In her second season with The Beach, Grabovac showed her power on the court. She made a triumphant return from a season-ending knee injury in 1996 and was named All-Big West Conference. That year, she averaged 2.05 kills, 0.25 aces and 2.94 digs per game. Grabovac was named first team GTE/CoSIDA District VIII Academic All-American honoring her 4.00 GPA in business and was named to the 1997 Big West All-Academic Volleyball Team.

All this from a Croatian girl who did not want to play volleyball from the start.

"I was really shy and I really didn't want to talk to people," Grabovac said. "My mom wanted to get me involved in some kind of activity where I had to be with other kids and communicate more."

"Finally, she decided she'd gather kids from the fifth and sixth grade and she was going to coach," she said. "She told me that I was going to be on the team too, but I didn't want to."

Despite her initial dislike of volleyball, Grabovac soon found her passion.

"It became something that I couldn't live without," she said. "When I was sick, I wanted to go to practice."

Grabovac grew up in a large city by Croatian standards. Rijeka is the third largest city in the country with about 200,000 inhabitants and sits near the Italian border. She grew up in a part of the world that is often shaken by civil war.

"We didn't feel the war except through refugees coming from other parts of Croatia, the economy and the government," she said.

She focused on volleyball and played four years at the First Croatian Grammar School of Rijeka. She was coached by her mother, Vlasta, who was a successful volleyball player herself. Grabovac's 1991-92 team finished first in league play.

In 1993, she joined the Croatian Junior National Team and then made the Croatian National Team in 1995, which finished third in the European Cup that year.

Even though her success in Croatia could have led her to a successful professional career, Grabovac had other plans for herself. She saw that volleyball could be the key to getting a college degree.

With the United States and college on her mind, Grabovac looked to her dad, Milan, a basketball player and coach, for help. Her dad had coached a girl that had gone on to Long Beach State.

Her dad called the girl to see if she could help. The girl knew Brian Gimmillaro, the women's volleyball head coach at LBSU, and called him to see if he needed any volleyball players. Shrugging his shoulders, Gimmillaro told Grabovac to come to his volleyball camp that summer. She impressed him and received a full scholarship before the camp ended.

"Everything was new to me when I came here - new country, new language, new culture. I was sad. My teammates and the coaching staff really helped me a lot. They are amazing."

After two years in the dorms, Grabovac looked forward to moving off campus and into an apartment near campus with three fellow players.

Grabovac shares her apartment with senior middle blocker Benishe Dillard, junior outside hitter Mariah Marquis and sophomore defensive specialist Silvia Panak.

"When I am done with school I'll probably go back ," Grabovac said. "Even though Croatian volleyball isn't that big of a sport, I want to play volleyball until I can't do it anymore and then maybe coach."