Freshman outside hitter Eliana Ti’a is off to a phenomenal start in her WSU volleyball career. With six matches remaining in conference play this season, she currently sits second on the team for total kills (192). She also had the fourth most total blocks on the team (42).

Ti’a’s path to this success started at a young age. She was raised in Meridian, Idaho, and is the youngest of four siblings, all of whom went on to play sports at the collegiate level. Her father played football at Boise State. 

In high school, Ti’a played three sports: volleyball, basketball and track and field.

As a freshman, she played high school basketball with one of her sisters, Myranetta, who is just one year older than her. As a junior, she played a part in a volleyball season. 

Eliana only played part of that season because she was just coming back from a gruesome knee injury she suffered as a sophomore in October of  2022. The injury occurred in her last conference volleyball match before the state.

“I went up for a swing, and obviously my mindset was like, ‘swing it as hard as you can because it’s a really big game.’ And I accidentally landed on one leg and ended up tearing my ACL, MCL and meniscus,” Ti’a said. 

This injury put her out 11 months, until September 2023, mainly because she was unable to get surgery until January of 2023 — three months after originally sustaining the injury.

This disturbed her recruiting process as it meant she had to use clips from her sophomore year, before her injury, for her college recruitment videos. She also could not attend any of the college-recruitment camps, having to document her rehab along the way.

“[T]he coaches that were sticking there [with me during the recovery process] and believed in me, I would just continue to send them stuff during my recovery,” she said. “So if I was clear to run, then I’d show them clips of me running.”

She also did not know where she was going to play college volleyball. 

“I honestly get super homesick, so I was looking a lot [into playing for a school] in the Big Sky Conference. [I looked into] some [schools] in the Mountain West [Conference] — just all on the west side,” she said.

Her first visit was at New Mexico State University. She also visited Eastern Washington University. WSU was the last school she visited. She knew she wanted to commit as soon as she stepped on campus.

“[T]he weirdest thing is I came when everyone left [to go] back home because I [visited] in May so everyone was off for break… [I]t was an] empty campus, so I couldn’t really get a feel of anything. But I just felt like it was the right place to be,” she said.

Ti’a also did not reach out to Wazzu until very late in her recruitment process, either.

“[D]uring my recruiting process, I reached out to many schools, and I always thought Washington State was up there. So I honestly didn’t ever contact them at all,” she said. “And then, last [minute], I reached out to them and then we got in contact.”

Despite her success, Ti’a has only been playing volleyball since middle school. She originally fell in love with basketball.

“[Basketball] was super competitive in my household [growing up], and I was on a really good club team for basketball,” she said.

However, as the years went on, more and more of her teammates went on to play different sports. This left her feeling that she did not have her team with her, especially as she grew up with most of those teammates.

This led to her trying out volleyball. From that point, there was no turning back.

“I ended up loving [volleyball]. So then I stuck to it, and then basketball… I think my love for [it] kind of just faded away,” she said.

Ti’a also found a lot of success in high school track and field. As a freshman, she placed second in the state for the high jump and qualified for state for the long jump. Then, after returning to track after her injury, her senior year, she went on to win state in javelin in her first year throwing. She also tied for third-place in the state for high jump, placed eighth in the long jump and helped her 4x100m relay team place fifth.

She said that if field events still existed for WSU track and field, she would consider throwing javelin, in addition to playing volleyball.

She had a strong high school volleyball résumé, particularly in her senior season. She led her team to a fourth-place finish in state, and was named the 6A Southern Idaho Conference (SIC) Player of the Year, named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region team and was first team all-state.

From high school volleyball, thus far, she has made the transition to college volleyball seamlessly. For the Cougs, through 22 matches, she is averaging 8.7 kills per match. She has also won West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week twice and was named to the Grand Canyon University All-Tournament Team.

Ti’a and the Cougs return to Bohler for their second-to-last home game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 15, against Seattle University. First serve is at noon.