Photo courtesy of Rose Fernandes/Maryland Athletics
Maryland volleyball’s Samantha Schnitta begins her serve by tossing the ball over 10 feet above her head. The ball often bounces off an opponent and out of play, giving the Terps a point – credited to the powerful left hand of the fifth-year pin hitter.
Schnitta dominated the Big Ten in serving in 2024, fueled by her constant repetition in practice, she said.
“I will go in for extra reps. Any day anybody needs to go in, I will be there,” Schnitta said. “I will do the extra reps, so that when I ask somebody to do something hard, I know that I did it too for myself.”
Schnitta’s teammates believe she can take that serve to the professional level, but she had not seriously considered it, as playing overseas was the primary option. But the emergence of volleyball leagues in the United States has changed her plans for life after college, she said.
“That opened that door back up for me,” Schnitta said.
The Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF), composed of 10 teams with a 28-match season, is entering its second season. League One Volleyball (LOVB) is a six-team league that is launching in 2025, and Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball (AUPV) was founded in 2021.
The Big Ten, regarded as one of the premier conferences for volleyball, has consistently sent talent to the professional level.
Eight of the 10 teams list its rosters on the PVF website. Of the 100 players shown, 44 came from current Big Ten schools. In the most recent PVF draft on Nov. 25, 16 of the 40 draft picks came from the Big Ten.
Schnitta went undrafted, but plans to jump on a team before the season starts in January by reaching out to coaches for try-out opportunities. She would become the third player under Hughes to play professionally in the United States, following Erika Pritchard and Rainelle Jones, both of whom are in the PVF.
“It is a very weird recruiting process. The league is so new,” Maryland volleyball head coach Adam Hughes said.
“[Schnitta] could definitely go play overseas right away. If she wanted to do that, she would have lots of options,” Hughes added. “Playing [in] the states can be a little bit more tricky, but we continue to battle and see if we can make that happen.”
Schnitta and Hughes reached out to professional coaches and composed highlight reels throughout the 2024 season. They met every other week for about 30 to 60 minutes to discuss what each of them was doing to prepare Schnitta for the professional world, but also just to catch up.
“I’m always curious what’s going on with her life,” Hughes said.
Hughes has no doubt that Schnitta possesses the qualities needed to excel at the professional level in the United States. Her dedication, focus, and passion for continuous improvement have stood out throughout their time working together.
“There’s just a certain sense of purpose that pros have. They have this wanting to be great. They want to work on their craft. They don’t get distracted by results. They’re just internally driven, and that pretty much sums up Schnitta,” Hughes said.
Outside of volleyball, Schnitta is pursuing an online master’s degree in business management at Maryland. If she doesn’t secure a spot on a team, she plans to live at home while continuing her studies. By next fall, she hopes to either be playing professionally but if not will begin a Ph.D. program in pharmacy administration.
Schnitta may be narrowing her volleyball options by not considering a career overseas, but Hughes argues it would be a greater limit if volleyball were her only professional option after college.
“The limit is put on herself, but it’s limited because she knows that there’s more than just volleyball,” Hughes said.
Before adjusting to the new world of professional volleyball, if she gets picked up, Schnitta has already transitioned through different styles of the game.
Her college career began with three seasons at Ole Miss from 2020 to 2022, and playing volleyball in the SEC verified her love and commitment to the sport.
“[Ole Miss] definitely taught me some hard times, and definitely taught me what grit really meant,” Schnitta said.
But the trip from University, Mississippi, to College Park, Maryland allowed Schnitta to play to her strengths, she said.
“Ole Miss put me in a little box, and I couldn’t really push boundaries. But here at Maryland, I’m able to play free and with the coaching staff,” Schnitta said.
She added the players in the SEC are smaller and closer to her height of 6 feet tall. In the Big Ten, “the girls are a lot bigger and a lot more physical.”
“[The] Big Ten is definitely a lot harder than [the] SEC, but I accepted the challenge coming to Maryland, and that’s why I picked Maryland – for the competition,” Schnitta said.
Zoe Huang, senior setter for Maryland, said Schnitta became a leader “straight off the bat” when she transferred to Maryland.
“She’s helped our team improve a lot … because she’s just so competitive,” Huang said. “When you come to somewhere new, you can get really nervous and you get really quiet, but she was just really communicative.”
Huang’s positive feelings towards Schnitta’s communication are shared by fellow teammate and fifth-year setter Sydney Dowler, who says Schnitta’s communication also carries off the court.
“[She is] probably one of the most empathetic people out there,” Dowler said.
“That’s something that drives me as a player — is to care for my teammates and to care for whoever’s in my life,” Schnitta said.
But when Schnitta steps onto the court, “there’s this other side to Schnitta that comes out that’s got a little fire under her,” Dowler said with a smile.
However, despite her success melding into the Maryland roster, Rainelle Jones, middle blocker for the San Diego Mojo (PVF), feels adjusting to the game of professional volleyball will be a different process for Schnitta. Jones was a five-year starter under Hughes at Maryland, and she said that IQ played a bigger role in adjusting from college to the pros.
When she began her professional career, Jones noticed the players she was competing against had higher IQ with more experience than herself.
“Because our bodies are naturally just going to start to deteriorate, and we won’t be able to do the same things that we did when we were younger, we need to start thinking smarter than working harder,” Jones said.
In college, players focus on their own skill development, but professionals devote more time to studying the other team’s patterns and adapting quickly in-game, Schnitta and Jones said.
Schnitta closed out her collegiate career with two seasons at Maryland, shattering the single-season service aces record at Maryland with 88 service aces in 2024 — the record was previously 65. She was also named to the All-Big Ten Second Team that year.
At the beginning of the season during two-a-day workouts, players on the Maryland volleyball team were participating in an activity where everyone gave each other compliments.
Schnitta said defensive specialist Jonna Spohn praised her, saying, “she’s always committed and always in the training room because, you know, she’s slowly deteriorating.”
That is where the nickname “grandma” was born.
“It’s unfortunate because I don’t feel like I act like a grandma,” Schnitta said.
Huang clarified that most of the team calls her “grandma” for her age and experience.
“She’s always talking and giving us advice,” she said.
Beyond a professional volleyball career, Schnitta will reach out to club volleyball teams wherever she lands after College Park, continuing to exercise that “grandma” age and experience.
She will also drop some of that wisdom on the 10 to 18 year-olds she plans on coaching while making connections with college coaches near the club teams to assist with the older teens’ recruiting processes.
