When Madi Nitta was picked up at school by her dad one fateful afternoon, she had tears in her eyes. She had just been cut from her high school volleyball team as a sophomore. This is where most careers would have ended.

Nitta has always had a strong passion for the game of volleyball and has played since she was in 5th grade. She is from Manhattan Beach, Calif. and went to Mira Costa High School, which is known to be a volleyball powerhouse.

In her freshman year, she made it onto the school’s freshman and sophomore team. She had a successful year and played an important role on the team.

Going into her sophomore year at Mira Costa, she had to try out for the team again, but was one of three sophomores who were cut from the team. Getting cut from the prestigious volleyball program was devastating to Nitta.

“It was probably the most difficult part of my life,” Nitta said. “They said I was too short for their program.”

She was ready to quit playing volleyball and find a new hobby, but her father convinced her to keep playing and “to be strong and keep fighting.”

After the disappointment of being cut her sophomore year, she responded by working and training even harder than she had before.

“That’s where the challenge came in,” she said. “It made me into the person I am today.”

She stepped up to the challenge of trying out for the team once again, and for the second time in many years, she didn’t make the team. She had tried her best and still failed to earn a spot on her high school team, so she decided to keep playing beach and club teams.

Nitta traveled around 30 miles to play on the club teams. She started to garner a lot of attention while playing for them, and she caught the attention of various college volleyball programs. Going into her junior year, she recieved her first college recruit letter from East Carolina, a division one school.

She had always wanted to play volleyball in college, but she had never expected to play for a Division I school.

“That was a great stepping stone,” Nitta said. “That’s when I started believing in myself a little more.”

In her quest for looking for a school, she had been very proactive in sending out her own skill videos and game footage to schools across the midwest.

Her search for a college finally ended when she met the Falcons’ head volleyball coach, Denise Van De Walle. Van De Walle was impressed with her tape and offered Nitta a spot on the team as a walk-on.

“I liked her court personality,” Van De Walle said. “She played hard and gave a lot of effort in the back row.”

Although Nitta never played on a varsity high school team, Van De Walle was not concerned about her ability to play at a high level of competition.

“Club teams are made of players from various high schools that are the best players on the team,” Van De Walle said. “The training and competition is really good so I knew she was playing against good competition.”

In Nitta’s first two years playing for the Falcons, she has had limited roles on the court during matches, but has played a key role in practices, Van De Walle said. Nitta is a great teammate and has also done a lot to help improve the players around her.

Friend and teammate Kari Galen said Nitta is a great teammate on and off the court.

“She’s a really good teammate,” Galen said. “She’s really good to go to for advice; I can talk to her about anything.”

As a junior, Nitta hopes to have a more vital role on the team next season.

“She is getting better and better,” Van De Walle said. “There’s intense competition at her position.”

Nitta is no stranger to challenges. One of her biggest came when she was three years old, when her mother was told by doctors that she was suffering from permanent hearing-loss. The cause of her hearing problem is unknown, but she believes it could’ve been caused by antibiotics she took when she was younger.

Her hearing loss has not had a major affect on her life, she said. Nitta wears a hearing aid, which has allowed her to hear and speak without a need for sign language.

“It [Nitta’s hearing problem] has actually made her stronger,” Galen said. “I don’t even notice it when I talk to her on and off the court.”

Nitta has been invited to try out for the Deaf Olympics to play on the women’s volleyball team. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to play for the team initially, but after talks with coaches and her parents, she is excited to try out for the team.

“It will be a great experience, I will get to travel to Brazil, Washington D.C. and Greece,” Nitta said. “I would love to play volleyball and travel.”

She will try out July 23 and 24 in Fremont, Calif. Whether she succeeds or not, she has certainly come a long way and is an inspiration to the players and coaches around her.

“Madi is what I call old school,” Van De Walle said. “She is like players from long ago that came in to work their tails off for no money, but for the love of the game.”