We’re proud to be a part of an ongoing partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is sponsoring our Player of the Week award. We’ll be releasing a featured vballrecruiter.com Player of the Week, sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Tuesdays. Below is this week’s Player of the Week: Maya Evens.
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Last year Cathedral Catholic capped a perfect season by sweeping St. Francis of Mountain View in the CIF Open Division state championship match to finish the high school season as undisputed national champions. Mira Costa was the only opponent which managed to take even a set off the Dons, with it coming a round before in the state semifinals.
While Cathedral Catholic loses 10 seniors – including 5-star recruits Julia Blyashov (Stanford) and Noemie Glover (Oregon) – the cupboard is hardly empty.
Part of the returning core includes Class of 2025 4-star recruit Maya Evens, who was the starting libero last fall for Cathedral Catholic and spent this past club season playing up in the same role for Wave 17 Juliana – which finished ninth in 17 Open at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships last month in Chicago.
“I think that was the most surreal experience being an underclassmen playing alongside some of the biggest names in Noemie and Julia,” Evens said. “I played with them in club and in open gym, but being part of that team with them helped change my perspective on how to act and what I should be doing as a teammate. They definitely inspired me and would help me when I was feeling down on myself. They were always like ‘You got this.’ It was awesome. They felt like big sisters.”
Evens’ mom – Juliana Conn – coaches at both Cathedral Catholic and Wave and is the reason her daughter started playing volleyball in the first place. With her mom coaching, Evens grew up in a gym but wasn’t exactly begging her mom to play at first. She would pepper and mess around with the ball at times, but Evens needed to be pushed to get her true start.
“I know this might sound bad and it’s not meant to, but I didn’t have a super big choice if I wanted to participate,” Evens said. “I’m so happy my mom opened my horizon and had me try it. She said maybe I would love it. I did a few camps and tried it out. There was something about it where I absolutely fell in love. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s a different feeling than I ever had.”
A parent coaching their child means not only navigating their relationship but the coach-player one as well. Evens said her and her mom have always done well being able to separate the two.
“We do a really good job at keeping it separate,” Evens said. “She’s a respectable coach. I really enjoy having her as a coach. I have friends who say they could never have their mom as their coach but we have separated the two really well. If I mess up (playing) she’ll treat me like any other player during the games. After that, she’s my mom and she does a really good job supporting me and being there for me. She’s a really good coach and has 100 percent made me into the player I am and I couldn’t do it without her.”
From her first season playing club until now, Evens has always played up at least one age group. She was part of a Wave team which lost just one outing in Chicago, with it coming against Metro 17 Travel in challenge play as Wave finished No. 6 in vballrecruiter.com’s final Top 50 National Rankings.
“I have no regrets. That was the most fun tournament of any of my seasons,” Evens said. “We were undefeated until the challenge match and we went undefeated after that. We just had this vibe and were playing with so much passion and effort. We played the best volleyball of the entire season. It was so much fun. Everyone would stop and watch us play. It was the most incredible feeling.”
Part of Wave’s run included beating eventual fifth-place finisher Drive Nation 17 Red, 35-33, 25-20, to close out the first round of pool play. The opening set of that contest was arguably the most entertaining one of the entire 10-day tournament in Chicago.
“There is no other word to describe it other than fun,” Evens said. “You live for those games. I would so much rather play a team to 35 than to beat them 25-15. Especially a team like Drive Nation with so much hype and which was (the) No. 3 (seed) going in. We are an under-rated small team so it was so much fun.”
With the high school season rapidly approaching, Evens’ focus has shifted. Along with her, Cathedral Catholic brings back 4-star senior middle Jenna Hanes (Michigan), 4-star senior setter Amanda Saeger (DePaul), 3-star senior outside Niki Egan (Washington beach) and 3-star junior outside Mae Kordas. While another national championship might be a stretch, together they should help Cathedral Catholic remain as one of the top programs in the country and capable of defending its California Open Division state title.
The Dons are facing another challenging schedule, one that includes playing in two prestigious tournaments in Volleypalooza in Austin and the Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas.
“We lost 10 seniors so that is a lot of loss,” Evens said. “Still, we have a couple of freshmen who I’m super excited about plus our returning players are absolute beasts so I’m super excited about it. We won’t be as big and as physical but we are still going to be super fun to watch. We have gotten together running high school camps. We are bonding and making new friendships. We haven’t talked too much about goals or results but we all have the same goal in that we want to win.”
As our featured Player of the Week sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, we recently spoke with Evens about volleyball and more.
Who is your role model or icon you look up to?
Evens: For sure it’s my mom. One hundred percent of the time whenever I get the question it’s always my mom. She’s always been there every step of the way. She’s the one who got me into it. She’s coached me in club. She’s always been my coach for high school. She’s nothing but supportive and I would not be where I’m at without her.
What is your favorite food?
Evens: I have to say it probably would be acai bowls. I like them because it is what I would eat all the time. When I visited family in Brazil, that’s where they are from and my mom can make them for me.
If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be and why?
Evens: If I could do anything I wanted for a day, I would probably go to the beach and hang out with my friends all day. It’s a super So Cal thing to do.
Aside from necessities, what is one thing you could not go a day without?
Evens: I don’t think I could go a day without talking to my mom.
Other than volleyball, what skill would you most like to learn and why?
Evens: I think this might be kind of random, but I want to be a certified scuba diver. I want to get my license because I’m super interested in scuba diving and if I had my license I would do it.
What is one thing that instantly makes your day better or makes you smile?
Evens: It would be my little sister, Hazel. Just being with her, she’s the coolest little dude. She’s always smiling and she’s never any trouble. She’s just the best.
If you could have any super power what would it be and why?
Evens: I’d probably choose flying because I wonder what it would be like to fly. It might be super random but I feel like flying would be a super cool thing to do.
Outside of volleyball what are you most passionate about and why?
Evens: Outside of volleyball I’m probably most passionate, it might sound corny, but I’m most passionate about helping people. If there’s any event I’ll help. If there are camps I’ll help with those. I like helping my friends and family or with events at school. I like to help out as much as I can.
What is one thing that may surprise people about you?
Evens: It would be that I never played my age group in club volleyball. I have always been playing up and I was playing up two age groups at one point. Now, I’m back down to playing one year up.
What is your strangest irrational fear?
Evens: I have an irrational fear of spiders. Spiders scare me so much.
What’s your favorite number and why?
Evens: My favorite number for a long time was 7 because it was the first number that I wore for club. It was always my mom’s number. I ended up changing it a couple of years into club. My current number is 24. It’s kind of random.
