During her junior season, Erica Chapa asked longtime San Benito girls volleyball coach Dean Askanas if she could eventually become a setter.
“He kind of gave me a blank stare and laughed a little bit,” Chapa said. “Then he said, ‘Like, really?’ I said yes, thinking it was a good idea.”
Good indeed. An athletic 5-foot-8 senior, Chapa ranks first on the team in assists (167), second in service aces (nine) and fourth in digs (66). The Haybalers (4-4) play in the Harbor Invitational on Saturday.
“My reasoning to set was to hopefully play college volleyball,” Chapa said. “I know I’m not tall enough to play the front row in college (from her normal opposite position), and setting would give me the best chance to play at the next level.”
It’s only appropriate that Chapa was thinking ahead, because that’s exactly what she does every time she steps on the court. Setters are essentially the quarterbacks of a volleyball team because they have to constantly make the correct decisions for the team to succeed.
Every time a setter receives a pass, the player has to think about a number of things. Who do I set the ball to? Does my outside hitter want a high-arcing set or a quick, low one? Should I dump the ball and go for the point myself?
These are all things Chapa has to process in mere seconds literally hundreds of times during a match, but she’s been more than up to the task so far. What has impressed Askanas the most is Chapa’s ability to run the offense at a quick tempo.
“Erica plays with exceptional speed,” he said. “It’s the first thing you look for in a setter. A setter can have great hands, but if they’re slow and can’t make things happen, then they’re not going to be very effective. You can teach a setter to have acceptable hands, but you can’t teach a slow setter to play fast. Erica is an aggressive and fast athlete.”
Despite having never played setter before — Chapa only started playing volleyball in the eighth grade — she made meteoric improvements in her game within the last couple of years by watching endless video of herself along with setters from her club team, Adrenaline.
Chapa studied the game before honing her skills through hours of practice. Until recently, Chapa never thought volleyball would end up being her best sport. She played a number of sports growing up, including basketball, soccer and softball.
Chapa was a standout goalkeeper for the San Jose-based Portuguese Athletic Club team, which won six tournaments and was the top-ranked team in Northern California four years ago, Chapa said.
But shortly after that club season — Chapa was an eighth grader at the time — the team disbanded, setting up her volleyball career. That same year, Chapa decided to try out for the Spring Grove School volleyball team, and it was love at first spike.
“Before that, I had only played some volleyball in P.E. classes,” said Chapa, who admitted she had no idea if she was good enough to play at San Benito. “When I made the JV team as a freshman in high school, that’s when I realized I could be good at volleyball.”
Chapa has developed a good chemistry with San Benito outside hitters Alexandria Smallwood and Marisa Villegas, who rank first and second on the team in kills with 67 and 52, respectively.
“It’s important to talk and work with your hitters because they want the ball in a certain spot, and it’s up to me to deliver it to them,” Chapa said.
“A great setter can make an average hitter look good and a good hitter look great because she can put the ball right in the hitter’s wheelhouse,” Askanas said. “And that’s what Erica has been doing.”
Although Chapa loves volleyball, there’s a chance this might be her last year of playing the sport in organized competition. Some of the universities she wants to attend — including Long Beach State, Arizona and UC Santa Barbara, just to name a few — field top-notch Division I programs.
Chapa’s career goal is to become a coroner, a dream that started when she was in the sixth grade. For now, Chapa will stick with dissecting the competition on the volleyball court.
