By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

WILSON — The L&N Federal Credit Union Arena in Louisville is a place that Tori Hester will remember if she lives to be 100.

It’s a true college volleyball arena, not a basketball gym. It’s sparkling and clean. It’s also compact, with 1,100 fans clad in red and almost breathing on you. When Hester and her Troy University teammates went there to open the 2023 season against a Louisville team ranked near the top in the national polls, the place was packed.

“It was sold out, and it was crazy to walk out there to play against one of the best teams in the country,” Hester said. “The noise was deafening. Just a surreal experience, but I loved it.”

Time flies. Hester already is a college graduate.

“Communications degree,” Hester said cheerfully. “I’ve had some unique assignments. For instance, I’ve interviewed a captain in the Indonesian military.”

There have been some great learning experiences, but now Hester is home for the holidays.

Home for Hester is no longer Salisbury and the West Rowan High gym in Mount Ulla.

Now her family is centered in the town of Wilson, in eastern North Carolina. Her father, Chip, who coached the Catawba College football team when she was growing up, is now the head coach of the Wilson-based Barton Bulldogs.

“The thing about Wilson, “said Hester, “is that it’s another two hours away from school.”

“School” is Troy, the university that has become Hester’s home away from home. Troy is a Sun Belt Conference school in Alabama, seven hours from Salisbury; nine hours from Wilson.

“I’ve done my share of traveling in the Sun Belt Conference, but it’s really not that bad,” Hester said. “We get our sleep and we do get some studying done when we’re on the road. Occasionally, I might miss a test that I’ll have to make up, but a lot of the work can be done online now. The distance from North Carolina has been harder on my mom (Trish, a former volleyball head coach at North Rowan and Carson) than me because she likes to watch me play.”

In the fall of 2019, coach Jan Dowling and a West Rowan team led by a soaring Hester didn’t lose a match until the regional final and finished 28-1.

Dowling and Hester have stayed close. Hester still calls her often, especially now that Dowling is recovering from a scary motorcycle accident.

When Hester first announced a college commitment to Troy, Rowan sports fans did a double-take, mostly because there were a few hundred schools closer than Troy that would love to have signed her. She is among the best volleyball players ever from Rowan County. She was a two-time conference player of the year and three-time county player of the year. She totaled 1,643 kills, 1,443 digs, 213 aces and 175 blocks for the Falcons.

Hester did her homework and used the recruiting process, camps and campus visits to find the ideal college destination.

“I knew I had the right coaches and teammates at Troy,” Hester said. “If I could do it over, I would. I found a place I truly love. I’ve loved going to school at Troy and I’ve loved playing volleyball there.”

Hester is 5-foot-9. That’s short for a Division I outside hitter, even one with the startling vertical jump that Hester has. But she found a coach who believed she could play the position at the D-I level and a coach who believed in her ability to dig and serve and pass and be a complete player who never leaves the floor.

Her rookie season at Troy coincided with the bleak COVID days.

“The first year was the toughest because we didn’t get to play many matches,” Hester said. “I wasn’t a starter as soon as I got down there or anything like that. I had to earn my position. I still remember the first start I made for Troy. It was against Coastal Carolina. I went on from there.”

By 2021, she was starting to settle in. She had six double-doubles (double-figure kills and digs in the same match) and was third on the team in kills.

In 2022, she became a bona fide star. She was All-Sun Belt Conference first team and ranked 15th nationally in kills with 522.

In the 2023 season, Hester added another 442 kills and roared past 1,000 for her career. She was first team All-Sun Belt Conference for the second time.

“Tori continued to show that she is one of the elite players in the Sun Belt,” Troy coach Josh Lauer said. “She contributed to every facet of the game at an extremely high level every night. I am also proud of Tori’s progress this season as a passer and server. She worked very hard on those aspects of her game this year, which has paid off. She is one of the leaders of our team.”

All college athletes received the option of a “redshirt” year for the COVID season, so even though Hester has played four seasons, she still has a remaining year of volleyball eligibility. She plans to use it next fall.

She chuckles when she’s asked about entering the transfer portal and getting back closer to home for that bonus year of volleyball.

That’s not going to happen.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Hester said. “Troy is the only place I’d be happy, and our team is building. We’re still getting a little better every year.”

Troy was 15-13 overall last season, but 12-4 in the Sun Belt Conference.

Hester plans to enter graduate school at Troy and will pursue a masters degree in communications.

“What I’m going to do with my degrees, well, that’s the million-dollar question,” Hester said. “But I’ll have a year to think about that and I’ll have another year to play the sport I love playing.”