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DeCambra follows coach to Ragin’ Cajuns

Baldwin graduate makes leap from JC to NCAA D-I volleyball

By Robert Collias 6 min read

Siena DeCambra pinches herself sometimes when she thinks about where she has landed in the volleyball world.

DeCambra, a 2020 Baldwin High School graduate, is a freshman setter on the University of Louisiana women's volleyball team.

She finds herself on a short list of Maui Interscholastic League graduates currently on an NCAA Division I women's indoor volleyball roster, joining Utah State's Kalena Vaivai and Chandler Cowell of Saint Mary's College.

DeCambra spent her first season of post-high school volleyball at Odessa Junior College in Texas and then answered the call when her Odessa coach Kristi Gray was named head coach of the Ragin' Cajuns.

"It's super exciting, definitely different than last year and more competitive, but it's very exciting and I'm very excited for the season to start," DeCambra said via Zoom on Thursday.

DeCambra knows just how fortunate she is to have traveled the path from Wailuku to Lafayette, La., so quickly with the COVID-19 pandemic having been a challenge for the entire journey.

"I'd say it's 10 times more remarkable than it would be," DeCambra said. "Coming from Baldwin and playing in Maui to JC and Division I, it's all like different stages of the play of volleyball. ... I really didn't think that it was going to come this fast for me. I would have thought that I'd have two years at a JC and then transferred to another school, but, yeah, this is a way better path."

DeCambra led Odessa with 623 assists (6.2 per set) last season in directing the Wranglers' 6-2 attack and helped guide Odessa to a sixth-place finish at the 2021 National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Volleyball Championship.

She steered the squad to a 16-match win streak leading up to the national tournament, dished out 20-plus assists in 19 of the 30 matches she played and notched a season-high 30 assists in the NJCAA national tournament opener against Yavapai College.

Things worked out quite well for DeCambra when Gray nailed down the Ragin' Cajuns job -- as an academic qualifier out of Baldwin, DeCambra was eligible to move with Gray immediately.

"I really pushed myself when I did play with her last year and really tried my very best to become even better than I was last year," DeCambra said.

Gray knew she wanted to bring DeCambra with her when she got the Louisiana job.

"I actually called the (Odessa) team the day prior to the press release coming out because I wanted them to hear it from me before it was released on social media," Gray said. "It was just a couple days later she had asked me -- since I was looking for a setter -- that she was interested in coming with me. And then the rest is history, here we are today."

DeCambra has been in Lafayette since late July and has not quite gotten used to the weather yet.

"Definitely, more storms with lightning," DeCambra said with a sly smile.

Added Gray: "It was pretty much right when she first got here because her parents were still here and they were, like, 'Whoa.' "

Gray coached three Mauians at Odessa -- King Kekaulike graduates Lyric Love and Nanna Inoue were also starters on the team. All three players were members of the Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club under coaches Al and Sheryl Paschoal.

"It's been great for me," Gray said. "I remember first watching Siena when I was recruiting Lyric. It was (DeCambra's) junior year, I watched her in Vegas and then at the combine in Hawaii. I know that I wanted to sign her immediately, but I had to wait a year.

"So, she was one of the first, if not the first, that we offered for that 2020 class at Odessa. Then whenever I found out that we needed to bring in two setters for next year (to Lafayette) and had money, I knew that I wanted to bring her."

DeCambra tends to be soft-spoken, but that does not slow down her on-court leadership.

"Yes, she is quiet, but she is a great leader by example," Gray said. "And she runs a great up-tempo offense that we are trying to bring into this program."

The jump from Central Maui to West Texas was made easier for DeCambra with two familiar faces on the Odessa roster.

"It was really good for me because it made me feel more comfortable for where I was going," DeCambra said. "I left out all my nerves from playing in college for the first time because they were there with me."

DeCambra feels for the current MIL players, who have missed a full season and are now paused again due to COVID-19.

"I feel awful about that they have to pause their season because I would feel extremely sad about it if I couldn't play my volleyball season, like, if I was a senior in high school and I couldn't play," DeCambra said. "I just wouldn't like it and would really want to play.

"Every time I go back home I go back to my old club and help the little girls that are still in school and still have them touch the ball and stuff, like it doesn't have to be in the gym. Outdoors, at the beach, or anything, just help them work out."

DeCambra is proud to be on the short list of current NCAA Division I women's volleyball players from Maui -- she hopes to not only help the players behind her at practice, she wants to open doors in the college game for them as well.

"I really do enjoy that, helping do whatever they need to get better and stuff because I know when I was at their age I wanted to know and wanted to be helped, like, in any way to get better, to be where I'm at right now," DeCambra said. "I think I am now starting to create a pathway to girls in Hawaii to come to Division I, to tell them about my experience and help them understand how it is and how it goes, and just help them through it."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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