Mia Whitlock is Homecoming Player of the Week!
Middle blocker, outside hitter and libero are all heavy weight positions placed on the shoulders of the Santa Monica College (SMC) freshman volleyball player, Mia Whitlock. For week two October, Whitlock was named Player of the Week, while SMC continued their winning streak. College of the Canyons and Antelope Valley College are the most recent to add a loss to their record after facing the Corsairs.
After second guessing if she wanted to continue playing volleyball after high school, Whitlock flew into California from Washington to begin her college career in July. Starting out playing at the YMCA in the second grade, and moving up to club volleyball in the sixth grade, Whitlock was destined to continue her game at a high level.
During her last season at Washington Volleyball Club Academy, Whitlock's sole position was libero. Entering SMC, she was placed back in a position to kill the ball rather than digging it up.
Starting in 19 games this season, Whitlock upholds 174 kills with 164 digs trailing right behind. Overall, her kills per set are 2.64, and are impactful for her team.
“It’s been pretty difficult,” Whitlock said regarding her transition from high school to college volleyball. “I played Libero my last club season so I came in as an outsider here and just getting back into the rhythm was a little awkward but my body came back to being a hitter.”
Whitlock enjoys playing at SMC, and feels like the team excels due to a lot of team bonding activities they do. Before each game, the players pick their own ideas to help the team get to know each other better such as dancing, playing charades and hide and seek. This keeps the game fun when they're on the court.
As well as maintaining game engagement on the court, Whitlock also gets to go home with five of her teammates; Ava Salvo, Grace Poort, Kaliea Garcia, Eleanor Serrano and Nadene Taase as roommates.
One of Whitlock’s favorite teammates is sophomore libero and setter, Annah Legaspi, who led the state in digs last year. During the game, the chemistry between the two is very visible.
“Mia is one of my favorite people to play with,” said Legaspi, relating to why she enjoys Whitlock as a teammate. “She’s always engaged, you know 24/7 she’s going to give 100%. She cares for the game, her eyes are always open, she’s giving people feedback on and off the court. You can tell she’s a leader when she talks. I’ve never seen her down once, like even if she’s having a rough patch she’s never down, she’s always encouraging and she’s possibly one of the best people to play with.”
That attitude carries Whitlock a long way, as volleyball can get very stressful when your team is making errors back-to-back. Although SMC holds a 16-4 record overall and 5-0 in the conference, some of the sets that they play can become heavy with service and communication errors.
“At the end of the day, this sport in particular has so many errors,” said head coach Christian Cammayo before their match up with Bakersfield on Oct. 1 relating to team errors that come typically within the third set. “We have to be comfortable with the error rate, but more than anything we’re trying to address how we respond to the errors.”
Cammayo also finds Whitlock to be an outstanding player. “I think what sets Mia apart … she’s just a joy to be around,” he said. “She’s genuinely positive and she stays pretty consistent and that consistently positive attitude is actual mental toughness. It’s just disguised in like a smiling form.”
Regarding her volleyball future after SMC, Whitlock feels her height may be an issue entering a D1 college. The average height for a D1 volleyball player is approximately 6’0 while middle blockers often are 6’1 and taller. Whitlock currently stands at 5’10 but wouldn’t mind going back to the libero position to continue playing. Liberos are usually the shortest on the team averaging around 5’5 to 5’9.
Whitlock currently has one more season to play before attaining her associates degree. As she continues her season as a Corsair, Whitlock feels very rewarded to receive Player of the Week.
For more information regarding SMC’s volleyball team or to follow more on Whitlock’s statistics, visit the athletics page at Www.smccorsairs.com