Jim Moore has been coaching college volleyball for longer than most of his players have been alive. He’s coached two Olympians, seven members of the American national team and 24 All-Americans. So when he calls a current Duck one of his all-time “favorite players,” it’s not something to be brushed aside.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=113244@@
When assessing the career of sophomore middle blocker Ariana Williams, Moore couldn’t stop himself from gushing.
“She will, without question, go down as one of my favorite players to ever coach in my career,” Moore says. “She’s just fun to coach because nothing rattles her. You can, not literally, just beat the kid to death, and she doesn’t get upset. She doesn’t take it personal.”
That calm demeanor helps Williams thrive in the face of adversity. It was also the quality that nearly prevented her from getting a spot on Oregon’s team in the first place.
When the Ducks first saw Williams playing with her club team in high school, they were taken aback by what they perceived as her apathy for the game.
“We were questioning very much whether we should take Ari,” Moore says. “Ari’s not a real emotional kid. And her club team, the entire team was not emotional, so she really looked like it wasn’t that important to her. We almost, to ourselves, said no.”
The next season, however, Williams’ improvement was palpable, both in attitude and performance. Oregon decided to extend her an invitation to join its volleyball program.
“Then club season for that year ended,” Moore said. “And we kept watching her, and the next year she got around some kids that were pretty happy to play, and she got much better and we were very happy.”
Two years into her Duck career, it’s apparent Oregon made the correct choice in bringing Williams aboard. The Riverside, Calif., native is the team’s starting middle blocker. She leads the Ducks in hitting percentage and is third in kills and blocks.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205180435&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“She’s our best hitter out of the middle by far, and she gets up, she’s on time, that’s the main thing,” Williams’ teammate Katherine Fischer says. “She’s really tall and hits hard and then blocking — she’s relentless getting out there and pressing over.”@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=3704023@@
Williams began playing volleyball as a high school freshman, later than many collegiate players. She initially attracted college attention from smaller schools but soon drew interest from Memphis and Tennessee.
Those schools didn’t appeal to Williams. Neither did Oregon when it started recruiting her.
“My mom (said I) should look at Oregon, and I was like, ‘No way. I would never go there. Oregon, c’mon, let’s be serious,’” Williams says.
A visit to Oregon changed her mind and dashed her perception of the Eugene area.
“I just pictured Oregon as being a bunch of random ponds and nothing to do and grass and the school and nothing else,” Williams says. “But it’s not like that at all.”
Thrown into the fire
While many athletes take a year or two to acclimate to the rigors of college play, Williams was forced into a starting role as a freshman, if for no other reason than Oregon’s lack of depth at the middle blocker position.
“We didn’t have anybody,” Moore says. “She was it.”
The adjustment from club-level play to the nation’s premier volleyball conference wasn’t an easy one.
“It’s pretty tough because even the highest club level isn’t anywhere near the Pac-12,” says Fischer, who also played often as a freshman. “The game is just so fast. Everybody hits so hard, the serves are all tough. Everything is just really hard to cope with, but she did a great job.”
Indeed, Williams impressed in her first collegiate season. She was fourth on Oregon in kills, second among rotation players in hitting percentage and second in blocks.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=204965517&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Williams’ even-keeled attitude helped her deal with the adversity all freshman encounter better than most.
“I’m really not that anxious,” Williams says. “Because to me, after something happens, you can’t control it. It already happened, so what’s the point of being like, ‘Oh my god.’ I’ve never been the type to freak out over anything.”
Taking off as a sophomore 
Williams has been even better this year. She’s improved in hitting percentage (.312), kills per set (2.56) and blocks per set (0.59).@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205180435&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“I’ve seen her improve a ton,” Fischer says. “Over spring, she worked on hitting, and she’s just really good at that stuff off one foot now. She can put it anywhere, bounce it straight down. That’s gotten a lot better, and her blocking has improved immensely since she’s been here.”
Williams’ leadership abilities have also been on display.
“If we’re down or something she’s like, ‘C’mon guys, let’s go, let’s go,’” Fischer says. “She’s optimistic about it.”
There is one thing Williams continues to struggle with, and it’s not a skill generally associated with playing volleyball. When she jumps to block, she has a tendency to close her eyes. Remedying that problem is easier said than done, but Williams seems to be on the right track.
“There’s a million things you can do,” Moore says. “I stand there and toss balls at the net, and they have to keep their eyes open. That person has to make a conscious effort that all (they’re) going to do is leave their eyes open. Today was the first day I saw her keep it open all of the time. That will be a big, big difference.”
If Williams can keep her eyes open, and she continues to improve at a rapid pace, Moore thinks she has virtually unlimited potential.
“She doesn’t have much of a ceiling,” Moore says. “She can be really good. She’s come so far in such a short period of time. She can get to the point where she’s really scary, so we’re pretty excited about that.”
And like always, Williams would merely take it in stride.