Name
Kelsie Wills
Hometown
Matamata, New Zeland
MajorAccounting
Class Standing
Senior
What’s one thing you can’t travel without?
I guess my iPad or something to do because I spend a lot of time on the road and you get pretty delirious after a while.
What is your favorite Hofstra sport besides volleyball?
I actually like a bunch of them. I never really watched lacrosse before I came here and I’ve been watching that a bit; and basketball, I love watching basketball, I used to play. I think the women’s soccer team is great to watch. The team always goes to the games, I think that’s pretty cool to watch.
What is your go-to chick flick?
I like a bit of Bridesmaids, that’s a good one.
If you weren’t playing volleyball, what else would you be doing?
Probably playing a different sport I’d say. I grew up playing a bunch of sports, maybe basketball or tennis or something. If it wasn’t a sport, I don’t know. I study accounting so I would go into that.
What first sparked your interest in volleyball?
In high school my brother who is a year older than me started playing and I thought that it looked pretty fun so I gave it a go the next year.
Is it nice having your brother here because you’re so far from home?
Yeah its great!
Did you always want to play college ball?
Honestly I didn’t even know about it back home there’s not a lot after high school as far as sports goes, I was just playing beach volleyball in like a world under 19 tournament and there was an American scout guy there and he talked to me about it. He was like, “Hey do you want to come and play college volleyball?”
You were interested; it was something you wanted to do?
Yeah I feel like it’s a pretty good deal getting to play a sport you love and getting an education at the same time.
Why Hofstra?
I came on a visit here and the team was great. It’s a pretty cool location, I was just like yeah this seems really cool, I wasn’t really familiar with other schools at the time.
So you didn’t look at any other schools?
I looked at a few but I didn’t visit them.
What is your plan for when you graduate?
I’ve just signed with an agent so I’m going to try and play pro in Europe or something so I’ll find out where I am going in June and head off into July and August.
So if you could go anywhere in Europe to play, where would you go?
I’m honestly not too bothered because I’m looking for an experience and I mean once you go somewhere in Europe you can travel around a bunch so I’d like to go to Europe and check off a few countries.
You’ve gotten lots of recognition, you’re Hofstra’s all time leader in kills, what is that like?
It’s really cool, it has been a long few years so its nice to have something to show for myself at the end.
Do you think you set the bar for other players?
I hope so, I hope that next year the team just keeps reaching for higher goals and what not. We talked about leaving a legacy so hopefully I’ve done that.
Your senior year you took the conference and you were able to make it to the NCAA tournament, is that what you expected coming into your senior year?
I knew that we could do well coming into senior year but I never really thought about “Yeah we can win” and stuff. I think we were just going through the motions, but its an awesome way to finish senior year. Playing in Nebraska, the NCAA, that was an awesome experience, it was a huge crowd, so that was really cool.