Isabella Arroyave has an easy-going smile and engaging personality that make her a favorite with her coaches and teammates on the UTSA volleyball team. She has a light-hearted sense of humor as well, playfully suggesting “easy questions only” before a recent interview.

Behind the jovial demeanor, though, resides a tale about perseverance, determination and triumph. Not too long ago, Arroyave, a junior outside hitter, was holed up in her dorm room. It was June 2024, and like so many days that followed, she was melancholy. Arroyave hadn’t been in San Antonio for long after returning with her coaches and teammates from a 10-day tour of Europe.

The trip, with stops in Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, was a team-bonding, culture-learning and sport-growing excursion. Arroyave was now settling into a new world — figuratively, for sure, and almost literally. She felt alone. Her family and friends were roughly 2,200 miles away in Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia, her hometown. She didn’t speak English well. She struggled adjusting to a different culture. The food in the new city was overly processed and irritated her stomach. She yearned for the homemade cuisine of Colombia. In her new surroundings, a “good morning” gesture might not be reciprocated, she said. It was common back home to walk up to random people and start a conversation.

Day after day, week after week, Arroyave spent her first month in the Alamo City in tears. A journey that took her from the familiarity of her life to the unknown in pursuit of athletic and academic ambitions didn’t seem as if it was worth it. Martina Franco, a junior outside hitter at Texas-Rio Grande Valley who is from Argentina and was in the same recruiting class as Arroyave before transferring, and several UTSA professors who hailed from Colombia and helped her with her studies were among those who aided in a tough transition.

“I cried a lot,” Arroyave said. “It was really hard. But now, seeing that everything is being paid off, it’s really good.”

These days, things are going well for Arroyave, 19, on and off the court. She’s been instrumental this season in the Roadrunners having their best start since 1988. She’s had double-digit kills in each of the past five matches and was two digs shy in two of those contests from recording five consecutive double-doubles. She plays fearlessly. The doubts that she had that she was behind teammates and opponents in her level of play because she’s from a country trying to catch up to the rest of the volleyball-playing world in terms of resources and importance placed on the sport are gone. Away from the court, she speaks and understands English quite well. Only an accent is an indicator that English isn’t her primary language. Arroyave is an engineering major and “very smart,” UTSA volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok said.

‘You’re going to make a change’
It’s just before noon on a recent Thursday, and the start of American Athletic Conference volleyball play is a day away. Inside the Convocation Center, UTSA was going through its final preparation. On one court, associate head coach Emily DeWalt ran players through serving and passing drills. Other players worked on attacking and blocking on another court nearby. The anticipation for a critical stage of the season was palpable. The Roadrunners were on an eight-match winning streak — their longest since 2016 — and looked the part of a squad projected by AAC coaches in a preseason poll to earn a second straight berth into the league’s postseason tournament. Seventy-two hours later, however, UTSA had lost a second straight five-set match to open league play. On Sunday, Florida Atlantic rallied for a 14-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 15-9 win. Olivia Hart guided the visitors with 19 kills, and Sara Gamboa added 17. Setter Maya Van Heyst had 51 assists, and libero Isabelle Northam totaled 14 digs. UTSA was led by Sydney Bryant’s 14 kills. Ally Tribe and Arroyave had 11 apiece.

On Sept. 25, Tulane outlasted the Roadrunners 26-24, 20-25, 25-18, 25-27, 15-5 in the league opener. The Green Wave had 13 aces and were paced by Avery Burks (18 kills, .485 hitting percentage, 13 digs and four aces), Chloe List (14 kills), Madison McLin (12 kills, .429 hitting clip), Riley Tucker (10 kills), Lauryn Mack (10 kills and five aces), who combined to power an offense that produced a .311 hitting percentage. Arroyave had 13 kills and 12 digs to pace UTSA. Sydney Bryant added 12 kills, Valeria Ortiz tallied 28 assists and 13 digs, and libero Alyssa Manitzas nabbed 13 digs.

“Nothing’s more defeating than going the gamut, five sets, then coming up short,” Torok said. “I don’t turn the page as fast as people do these days. I don’t know if it’s just because I didn’t grow up with as many things at my fingertips and couldn’t move on to the next thing as quickly. I’ve been beating myself up about when I took timeouts, about adjustments we did or didn’t make. I’m a bad loser. I know we’re capable. … We were right there, and our players did stay in it and fight, fight, fight, fight. How do we continue to give them the confidence and what they need to be successful? How do people step up and do that and want the ball in those situations?”

Arroyave has shown this season that she is a player who can be counted on. She gets another opportunity to prove that worth when UTSA (9-4) heads to North Carolina for conference matches at Charlotte at 5 p.m. Friday and at East Carolina at noon Sunday. East Carolina is coming off a win at Rice, the preseason favorite to win the AAC.

“Isabella’s been playing really, really steady and consistent every single match,” Torok said after a recent match.

Arroyave’s ascension began during the summer when she represented Colombia on the international stage, helping it place second at the Copa Sudamericana July 22-26 in Lima, Peru. Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Bolivia also competed in the event. The Colombians also won silver at the Central American and Caribbean Games Aug. 2-7 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The high-level exposure added to a strong offseason for Arroyave, who played sparingly during her first two seasons while sitting behind Caroline Krueger and Tribe.

“I think it’s really hard when you come from smaller towns, or you come from places where you’re the woman, you know you’re good, and always been good, and you have a challenge or have to sit on the bench,” Torok said. “It really takes a gut check to continue to just know who you are, and know what you can do. From our side of things, as coaches, we have to continue to mentor that. She’s doing the right things, she’s taking the right steps in the right direction. Some of that is just time. People don’t want to wait. These days, everything is at our fingertips and just switch, switch, switch. It’s just flipping that mentality of ‘I can do this.’ “

Finding peace within and trusting in her abilities expedited Arroyave’s transformation. On this particular morning, her perspiration-soaked gray T-shirt reflected the hours of hard work that went into the development.

“I don’t know if it’s my mindset or my physical bar, but I feel like it was more my confidence,” the 6-foot-1 Arroyave said. “I knew how to play volleyball. I knew how to do everything, but it was like my mind and confidence weren’t there. I tried to work a lot on that during the summer, and I feel like it’s showing now. My dad (Andres Arroyave) always tells me, ‘If they bring you here (to the United States), it’s because you’re going to make a change.’ I want to show other people who are foreigners that they can do something; they can play volleyball at this level, they can make an impact.”

The Roadrunners’ match vs. Florida Atlantic had ended, and players and coaches from both teams met at the net for the obligatory post-match handshakes. UTSA players gathered a few feet away for the alma mater as Florida Atlantic players celebrated a comeback win with their friends and family. Back at midcourt, Arroyave and Gamboa, also from Colombia, chatted. They then posed for a photo. Arroyave experienced a slice of home. It’s been a few-and-far occurrence that once was a tough ordeal for Arroyave to grasp.

But now she has a home away from home. Her teammates, already a close-knit bunch, make sure that Arroyave is included in gatherings. Even teammates’ parents have invited Arroyave to spend the holidays with them so that she’s not alone.

“One of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Tribe said of Arroyave. “She’s just fun to play with. She brings good energy, she’s so excited and just happy to be here. I’m sure it’s super difficult, being away from family. |”Obviously, I’m a very family-oriented person. My family goes to a lot of things, and I’m extremely lucky. But it puts it in perspective how excited she is whenever her family’s in town, or whenever she can go see her family. We are a big family for her, obviously, because she can’t get to go home.”

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UTSA junior outside hitter Isabella Arroyave makes a pass in a match earlier this season. (Photo by UTSA athletics)