By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
The Springfield women’s volleyball team has started the season on a tear, winning its last 13 games and starting off 5-0 against NEWMAC opponents. Ahunna James, a junior on the team, has been a key contributor to the Pride’s early success. The outside hitter from Plainville, Mass. is an all-around player, third on the team in kills (117), digs (146) and second in blocks (43).
Before making her mark at Blake Arena, James’ volleyball journey first started back in middle school. Her friends were on the team and there wasn’t access to a lot of sports for James. Tennis was the only sport she had played before, but when she started playing volleyball James noticed how her skills transferred from one court to the other.
James’ first position in volleyball was a middle blocker. Her job was to defend the middle of the net by blocking the ball and being able to attack quickly off the setter. Then at King Philip Regional High School, James switched to an outside hitter, requiring her to be more versatile from where she hit as well as being ready to receive serves and to dig out opposing attacks.
The idea of playing collegiate volleyball came to James when she was a freshman. James had moved from New York to Massachusetts and tried out for a talented club team. The other girls on the team had aspirations of playing for college, and James saw that as something she wanted to do herself.
James committed to playing volleyball at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn. She was excited to have fun and meet different girls with different backgrounds. However, the one semester she spent at Southern Connecticut State wasn’t what she sought.
“I realized that they didn’t have a strong culture with what I was expecting when I got there,” James said. “It wasn’t the fit I imagined when I first got to campus. Going through the season, I realized I didn’t have enough support from my teammates, coaches and even from the school that I thought I was going to get.”
After the 2023 fall season, James made the decision to enter the transfer portal. Originally she wanted to stay in the Northeast-10 conference and continue to play Division II volleyball. Head coach Moira Long saw James’ name in the transfer portal and reached out to her. In the email that Long had sent was a video about their 2023 season where the team went to the second round of the NCAA Division III championship tournament.
What hooked James was that in the video, past players and alumni of Springfield women’s volleyball spoke about the program. James was seeking good culture, and saw it through the video and when she and her mom visited the school in December 2023.
“When I first visited with my mom, everyone was so inclusive and said your mom can stay with us if you want,” James said. “My mom said ‘No, this is for you to experience. I want you to go out and be with your team.’ All the girls during the lunch were so warm and welcoming and the coaching staff were dead set on getting me there. I felt valued and an instant connection. From the coaches and my teammates, everything clicked for me.”
Long was intrigued by James’ personality and was looking forward to adding a player of her caliber to the team.
“If you know Ahunna, you know she has the greatest energy, is super positive and wants to be challenged,” Long said. “I loved her from the moment I met her, a great human and I just knew she was going to be a great addition. She has a drive in her to be a good leader and to be a good player but a great teammate. She walks in the room and you want to be around her.”
James’ closest relationships are with the other juniors on the team – Tori Colosimo, Olivia Nealy and Jodi Saelua.
“When I first got here they’re the ones who really brought me in and those are my sisters,” James said. “Those three are my ride or die.”
Long has noticed how close the junior class is, and describes how they bring out the best in each other on the court.
“The four of them together and individually bring a lot of joy and life as soon as they walk into a room,” Long said. “Their relationship is really close and I think it’s grown over the last couple of years to be great friends and great teammates that can say the hard thing to each other. They’ve been outstanding this year [at] being able to say ‘Hey, we need you right now. We need you to be better.’”
This season, James’ performance has evolved on the court as a player and a leader. James has become one of Long’s most reliable players.
“We look to her on the court,” Long said. “She has this feistiness and this energy that our team feeds off of. She’s really contributing in every facet but it’s what she gives to her team that we really focused on. Ahunna is exactly where I thought she was going to be.”
The relationship James has with her coach is an important one to her.
“She’s like a second mom,” James said. “She’s able to tell you the real things even when you don’t want to hear it, but she’s able to deliver it in a sense that’s going to make you grow into a better person. She’s someone that I look up to and if I become a coach at one point, I’d want to become someone like her. The way that she treats her players, her family and people she doesn’t know, she sticks up for other people so well.”
Just like on the court, one of the most important things for James off the court is to stick close to the people important to her, as well as making an impact.
“Making sure that the people around me feel supported and know that I treasure them as people,” James said. “My mom, my brother and my friends. Also making sure that what I do on campus and what I do in the future holds some value in life.”