Middle hitter Livia Caluori is an integral part of this year’s volleyball team; however, her journey can best be summarized by one word: almost.Caluori, who is from Switzerland, admitted that she did not even enjoy volleyball at first.“I actually didn’t like it,” Caluori said in the Student Convocation Center on Wednesday. “I went to one practice and I didn’t like it much but I stayed either because I didn’t have the courage to tell my parents that I don’t like volleyball or I didn’t really know what else to do or which other sports to play and that’s why I’m here now.”Volleyball was not Caluori’s first love. In fact it was something completely different.“I started with dancing because I was a tall girl from the very beginning, and my doctor said that some kind of movement would be good for my body,” Caluori said. “Dancing was so much fun and I loved it.”After five years of dancing, however, the studio she attended moved its location. The new location was 30 minutes away by train, and her parents did not want their young daughter to travel alone.Caluori now had to search for a new passion. She wanted to play basketball; however, there was not a club that was near her.She was influenced to try volleyball by her mother’s experience.“I started with volleyball because my mom was an outside hitter,” Caluori said. “She just did it as a hobby because she liked the sport but she didn’t have a goal. She told me that volleyball would be a great sport to try.”In volleyball, it can be an advantage to be tall; however, Caluori hated volleyball at first because of her height.“I hated being tall when I was little,” Caluori said. “Sometimes when parents come to watch practice, I was always embarrassed because I thought they were wondering what a tall girl was doing there. I was introverted in the beginning.”Once Caluori started to become more comfortable and continued practicing hard, she began to receive consideration for the Switzerland Junior and Youth National Teams. When finding out, Caluori and her parents knew that her dreams were beginning to come true.“The first success for me was to get into the regional selection of volleyball players, the best players from the north eastern part of Switzerland,” Caluori said. “All of the coaches watching told me to try out and see how I did in practice. I went to the practice and there were so many girls, and I thought I had no chance. Some days later I got the letter that I made it.”One of her coaches on the teams was Marcus Foerster, who is also a writer for Swiss Volley magazine. Foerster has an eye for talent and he said that she may not have been the best player then, she put the work in to improve her skills, which took her to the next level.“She was 15 years old and came to the Youth National Team and she was very tall and shy,” Foerster said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “To coach her it was very easy, she’s a very coachable player. She’s really asking for input and it’s very good and easy to coach her.”When Foerster found out that Caluori made the Swiss National Team, he was excited for her and it also seemed to end Caluori’s self-doubt caused by her height.“It was a little bit special, and I think it was a great thing for her because her experience in the small club made her feel like she wanted to try and be smaller and that’s what her mother told me,” Foerster said. “She was not really happy to be a tall girl and then she saw a lot of other girls who were tall and saw she was not alone, and it really was one of the main reasons why she enjoyed being a part of this team.”Caluori excelled on the team, and played for clubs from 2006 to 2011; however, she wanted to go to the United States and this began what became a long and frustrating process, even being denied a visa last year. She was motivated by a friend and in March started the long process to get her visa. It was around this time that she looked at schools.One of the schools interested in Caluori upon looking at her profile was Point Park and head coach Mike Bruno.“I got an email from a recruiting service, and with her credentials it caught my eye right away, and then I followed up and saw film on her,” Bruno said in his Bank Tower office on Thursday. “She responded to an email, created an email thread and went from there.”Caluori was also attracted to Point Park for a variety of reasons.“The thing about Point Park is that it’s in an urban setting,” Caluori said. “Also, the School of Communication has a great reputation. I am not only here to finish my bachelor’s degree but to get my master’s degree as well. They have a volleyball program that coach [Bruno] says is an up-and-coming team. They want to go somewhere and I really wanted to help them.”