Heather Meyers realizes volleyball’s role in her life.
It gave her a scholarship to a Division I school. It gave her an opportunity to compete in the Pacific-10 Conference. It gave her a chance to satisfy her competitive nature.
Except, for Meyers, a freshman on the Oregon volleyball team, a family member’s near-death experience left her witnessing how fragile life is and clearly defined volleyball’s place within it.
“You can’t take things for granted – just cherish everyday as it comes,” she said.
On Sept. 16, 2006 a head-on car crash nearly extinguished the bond Heather Meyers shares with her older sister, Alicia. Alicia had gone out with friends before the nighttime accident occurred.
“I almost died,” said Alicia, who can’t discuss specifics of the accident for legal reasons. “I was in the hospital for three months.”
Alicia suffered 14 broken bones and even now, a year later, continues to undergo surgery in her ongoing recovery.
Volleyball created a lasting connection between Heather and Alicia. Alicia introduced Heather, a former baton twirler, to the sport as a teenager. Alicia noticed Heather’s raw potential and told her “I love it. You’re tall. Get into it.”
“We were very close,” Alicia said. “We basically did everything together. She was my tag-along.”
An outgoing individual, Heather’s six-year stint as a baton twirler enhanced her ability to compete under pressure. At competitions, there would be three judges and she would do a routine and get graded on her performance.
Sister’s influence
As they grew older, Alicia, 21, left the family’s hometown of Temecula, Calif., and went to play college volleyball for Coastal Carolina in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Heather, 18, visited Alicia, then a freshman, during her older sister’s conference tournament and two years later watched Alicia perform at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles.
Alicia stopped playing college volleyball after her junior year. She became head coach of Great Oaks High’s junior varsity team and assistant coach to the varsity team featuring Heather, then a senior. Alicia’s coaching stint abruptly ended with the mid-September accident.
On the day of the car crash, Heather Meyers was playing at a volleyball tournament in Mission Viejo, Calif. She knew something was wrong when the hospital called, but because she was just 17, they couldn’t legally tell her what happened, so she called her parents and later learned the details from them.
“It was a hard time,” said Meyers, who continued playing that season, but without her sister’s presence along the sideline.
Meyers pushed ahead, and set a high school record with 40 kills against Vista Murrieta High.
“I didn’t have a clue,” she said of the high kill count during the match. “I just remember the whole situation – my coaches said ‘set Heather, set Heather’ so I knew every ball was trying to come to me.”
When Oregon coach Jim Moore first saw her, he gained an idea of her potential. Then again, “To say I knew that she would be this good, I think I’d be lying,” he said.
Leaving her mark
Meyers is third on Oregon with 156 kills. She leads the team with 27 service aces, although she does have a team-high 40 service errors. Meyers has a .392 hitting percentage and three solo blocks.
“Her serve is good,” Moore said. “I think it will get significantly better as she gets older and matures and everything else I think she’ll get significantly better.”
Oregon cruised through the early part of the season until Purdue ended the Ducks’ unbeaten streak at 10 matches.
“I think that those games kind of woke me up and made me like ‘Wow, I’m not going to be able to get away easy with this. I’m going to have to work my butt off,’” Meyers said.
The way Meyers has started the season, it may surprise some people that she initially felt overwhelmed and had doubts about being able to play Division I volleyball. She told Moore she didn’t know if she could do it. He reassured her and her confidence grew.
“I felt after a couple weeks of practice and stuff I was like ‘Hey, I can do this.’”
She made an immediate impact, earning a spot on the Kickoff Classic all-tourney team, and taking home MVP honors from the Baylor Invitational. She was picked as the top server at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge.
“We haven’t forced her to do a lot of other things, but what she’s been doing has been great,” Moore said. “She is very easy to set. You just kind of throw it up to her and she just gets it done so that part’s great.”