VINCENNES, Ind. – The three-time defending Region 24 Champion Vincennes University Volleyball team continues to round into shape with the latest signing coming as outside hitter Paulina Fister.
Fister is a five-foot nine outside hitter from Zespol Szkol Mundurowo Technicznych High School in Tuszyn, Poland.
Fister joins the Trailblazers after a very decorated High School career, which included time on the list with the Polish U20 National Team.
Fister helped guide her team to a Final 8 appearance in the Polish National Championships in 2021 before reaching the Semi-finals the next three years.
Fister’s teams finished fourth in the National High School Championships in 2022 and took home fifth place in 2024.
Fister also helped her team to three straight runner-up finishes at the Championship of Łódzkie voivodship after winning the tournament in 2021.
Individually, Fister was named the Best Outside Hitter at the 2021 Laskovia Cup and was named the Best Player of the Match in the Championship match at the Championship of Łódzkie voivodship in 2023.
Fister was also named Best Player of the Team at the Nadarzyn tournament in 2021 and the Championship of Łódzkie voivodship tournament in 2023.
Fister was named the Best Player of the Young Giants Volleyball tournament in 2020 and earned a call up to the Polish National team in 2019 at the age of 14.
Paulina is the daughter of Jaroslaw and Elzbieta Fister and her major at VU is still undecided at this time.
“We have been looking to recruit several outside hitters this year because we lost two to graduation that were a staple of this program for the last two years,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “Paulina came to mind. She’s played at the highest level in Poland and volleyball is huge in Poland and they have been pretty successful Internationally recently.”
“The system they have in Poland, with all the tournaments and training, is high level,” Sien added. “Another thing about her is that she’s a little bit undersized. But from looking at her experience and her abilities, she is someone we definitely would have interest in. We typically like longer players but she just plays bigger than she is. That will especially help us this year because we will have two new outsides, so we are going to need as much experience as we can get in those two positions.”
“She can also play some right side and back row and is a six rotation player,” Sien said. “If everything transitions well volleyball wise coming to VU, it shouldn’t take Paulina very long to get adjusted to our program because she’s used to that high level competition. One of the main reasons we really liked her was her experience and getting all those recognitions. We are very excited to be bringing her in because she has such great potential.”
“It’s true for every hitter that there is going to be a lot of pressure because if you are not able to get a good first contact on the ball, you have to go to your outsides and they have to be able to put a good swing on the ball,” Sien added. “You are not always going to get kills but it has to be a solid swing to where it’s going to make it harder for the defense to recover that ball. From what I’ve seen she has some good range there and we are obviously going to be able to coach her up more but I also don’t see that as something that will take a lot of time to adjust to just because of her potential and her experience.”
“We are very happy that Paulina will be able to continue her volleyball career in America while simultaneously gaining an education at Vincennes University,” Coach Filip Lipowski, Volleyball Coach at SMS Ostrów Łaskovia Łask said. “Since she joined our team four years ago, Paulina has been one of the most committed and hard working girls in our team. She was always reliable, conscientious and punctual in her actions and also brought a lot of positive energy on the court. She is an open, brave person, willing to establish new relationships and not afraid of difficult challenges.”
The Vincennes University Athletic Department is excited to welcome Paulina Fister to the 2024 Trailblazer recruiting class.
