It was a stroke of luck that brought junior outside hitter Kelly Williamson to UNM.
Rewind two years, when the UNM volleyball team was scheduled to visit China on a 12-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai.
The sports traveling agency organizing the tour, TranSports Athletic Team Tours, declared bankruptcy 10 days before the team was set to depart.
Instead, the team went on a 10-day trip to Argentina with stops in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario, a trip during which head coach Jeff Nelson discovered Kelly, a product of Brasilia, Brazil, who moved to Buenos Aires when she was 5.
“It was funny because when we landed in Argentina, the whole team was wearing their ‘China Tour 2008’ T-shirts,” Nelson said. “But it all worked out in the end because we were able to recruit Kelly.”
And Kelly, Nelson said, is an exemplary student-athelete.
In the classroom, Williamson carries above a 4.0 and has twice been named a Mountain West Conference Scholar-Athlete.
On the court, Williamson is a go-to outside hitter for the UNM volleyball team, smashing down a team-high 28 kills during the MCM Elegante Lobo Classic and earning All-Tournament honors.
“She’s just an all-around great kid,” Nelson said. “She’s a good friend to her teammates, always supportive and encouraging. She’s there as a mentor and resource to the younger player. She’s a great role model and just a really good person. What more is there to say?”
Williamson first started playing volleyball in sixth grade for her middle school team.
“It wasn’t until 10th grade when I joined an Argentine club team, because the level of play at my small school wasn’t that high,” she said.
Williamson quickly met other Argentine players in the area and joined the Argentine National Junior Team.
“I got a ton of experience playing with the team,” Williamson said. “The level of play was great, and I learned a lot working out with them.”
So when the Lobos played the Argentine National Junior Team on their 10-day tour, the stars aligned for the 18-year-old Argentine transplant.
“I was thinking about going to a smaller school in North Carolina,” Williamson said. “Obviously, when I was offered a scholarship to come and play here at UNM, that was the deal-sealer for me.”
Now, the Brazilian-American dual citizen is making an impact on the UNM community. Williamson has served as a representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council for two years. She was also elected an ASUNM senator last spring.
Williamson said her main focus is improving sustainability on campus.
“I calculated the UNM volleyball team’s carbon footprint by adding up all of our air travel this season,” Williamson said. “Then, I am working with others to make our Sept. 14 game against New Mexico State our ‘Love Red, Live Green’ game so that we can raise money and awareness for sustainability efforts.”
Despite all her success, Williamson reminds herself that she is lucky.
“I’m happy with the way things turned out for me,” Williamson said. “I’m fortunate to get the opportunity to play college volleyball. All along this was one of my biggest goals, and now it’s finally here.”
