Vincennes Volleyball signs second Turkish middle blocker of 2022 recruiting class

VINCENNES, Ind. – The 2021 Region 24 Champion Vincennes University Volleyball team made another big addition with the signing of middle blocker Nisa Salis from Ankara, Turkey.

Salis is the second Trailblazer signee from Ankara in this year's recruiting class, following Tuana Turhan who signed with Vincennes in May.

Salis is a six-foot-one inch middle blocker who played at Kecioren Private Etlik Anatolian High School and Turkey, while also playing on the Karayollari Sports Ankara Club Team.

"Nisa is an athlete who loves the game of volleyball and communicates with her teammates well," Nisa's Club Coach Burak Comert said. "As a middle blocker, she is a successful and disciplined athlete who has high offensive power, tries to perform the task given to her in the game in the best way possible and makes a positive contribution to the team and her friends in matches and training with her energy and ambition in the game. I wish her success in both her academic and volleyball career in this new path she has drawn for herself."

Nisa is the daughter of Kemal and Namik Salis and plans to major in Psychology while at Vincennes University.

"Volleyball wise I really wanted to tap into the country of Turkey because volleyball is becoming really big there," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "Over the past 10 years Turkey has been one of the rising powers in the sport internationally and much like everywhere else, it doesn't happen by accident, these athletes have to be brought up and Nisa and Tuana are both products of that system."

"That has been something that I have been keeping my eye on since I've been at VU, is looking at international students and where internationally to find the best players," Sien added. "We happened to have an open position still available and we were looking for the best player still available and Nisa was still available."

"Nisa has had some NCAA Division I schools looking at her, so that should give an idea of the level of play that she has," Sien said. "She is also coming in at a position that we only have one returner coming back, so it is nice that we are able to bring in an experienced middle. International players typically can play most anywhere on the floor, because of the level of training and having fewer substitutions. It's nice to bring those types of players in. Not just players who can play more than one position, but can play multiple positions well."

"We expect Nisa to be trained extremely well coming in and we saw on her videos her blocking ability," Sien added. "In those countries and in that part of the world players have such high understanding of blocking because they are used to trying to stop high-level Division I hitters. Her technique looks very good but it's also the philosophy of going to get the ball at the net and to score on a block that really stands out. As well as being able to take away part of the court and help funnel the ball to our defenders."

The Vincennes University Athletic Department is excited to welcome Nisa Salis to the 2022 Trailblazer recruiting class.