VINCENNES, Ind. – The two-time defending Region 24 champion Vincennes University volleyball team added another big front row piece this week with the signing of six-foot-two middle blocker Laura Hernandez Tavares.

Hernandez comes to VU from Merida, Venezuela, where she was a member of the club teams Club de Voleibol del Estado Merida Libertador and Gladiadoras de Merida.

“Laura first approached us about a month ago and due to some recent roster changes where we now have some openings that we didn’t foresee, we were definitely interested in her,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “We were very fortunate to sign her. It sounded like she was highly recruited and I believe her family did some research about VU and I think that when all things are equal, our academics are going to come out ahead and I think that was a deciding factor in Laura signing with us.”

“She is a very nice, long athlete,” Sien added. “I want to focus on the word ‘athlete’. We like tall players, however we also look at their athletic ability as well. If you have the combination of height and athletic ability, there isn’t much on the volleyball court you cannot do.”

“Also, she is from Venezuela and I traveled there with Athletes in Action volleyball team years ago,” Sien said. “I went to her country and played a number of games there. She’s from Merida, which is a few hours away from Caracas, so I already had some knowledge of the area.”

Hernandez brings with her a long list of accolades and accomplishments with her, including being named Best Player by the Merida State Volleyball Association three times and being named Best Blocker four times. Laura was also named Best Center Back four times.

“I consider Laura as a strategic, strong, fast, bold, experienced and efficient player,” Laura’s club coach Ramon Zambrano said. “She does very well at middle blocker, outside hitter and opposite hitter. She’s a fast player and she thinks before she uses her strength. It is normal for her to take control in a game and lead her fellow teammates through a stressful moment. She knows how to follow instruction very well and how to use new techniques.”

“She is an outgoing player and she knows how to understand and give support to all of her teammates in a hard moment,” Zambrano added. “However, she is demanding and hard at times throughout the game because she likes to give all of herself on the court and she also likes to receive the same thing from her teammates. One of her biggest principles is having a good relationship with her teammates because she thinks that is reflected on the court and affects the team positively. One of her best skills on the court and off is being mature and empathic and by the way she gets better daily.”

Laura is the daughter of Luis Hernandez and Gloria Tavares and plans to major in Art Design at Vincennes University.

Hernandez will be joining a Trailblazer volleyball program coming off of back-to-back undefeated Region 24 Championships, including a 29-9 record overall last season.

“Laura seems to be an extremely hard worker,” Sien said. “She has taken advantage of her opportunities to play volleyball whenever she can in Venezuela, including playing on co-ed teams and training on her own with a personal coach. So, it sounds like she really wants to be the best player that she can be and I feel like we are getting someone here who has a very strong work ethic.”

“I feel like it is going to be very difficult for a lot of teams to match up with us this season, at least on paper,” Sien added. “So, it’s going to come down to a matter of comfort level and how long is it going to take for us to gel as a team. But I am encouraged about next year, not only because of bringing in players like Laura, but from what I’m hearing about our returning players and incoming players working out on their own this summer. You can’t coach work ethic, excitement, or motivation, so when you have those things, I don’t see us taking a lot of time to gel.”

“We are going to have a little less experience than we thought we would have this season,” Sien said. “But we can’t look backwards, we have to move forward. It has been very exciting to be able to get some of these players later on in the recruiting season. We have an opportunity to actually speed up our offense heading into next year with the athletes we have coming in. The majority of these hitters we have coming in are used to running a much faster offense and I would love to be able to run that type of high-level offense, which you obviously can’t do unless you have those types of players. We probably really won’t know anything for sure until about early September or maybe even later. That’s part of the excitement and burden of coaching at this level in the fall.