By Noah Allison
The day of April 21, 1991 Patrick and Rita Ewing were blessed with their second child
and first daughter, little Randi Ewing. A few days later papa Patrick and his New York
Knicks had to go up against Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls on their way to the Bulls’
and MJ’s first NBA title. Now all these years later that little baby Randi is all grown up and is
literally hitting the court harder than her NBA Hall of Fame father ever did, because he cant
spike a volleyball like she can.
Ewing, a middle blocker for Coach Anne Kordes’ U of L volleyball team, is a fifth year
senior who has come to Louisville from Fordham University for her graduate year. When
Fordham didn’t have Ewing’s graduate program she almost ended up not playing in her final
year of eligibility.
“I was kind of stuck, I wasn’t sure where I was going to go. But I was fortunate when I
was looking to find that Anne needed a middle blocker and she had seen me play when she
was coaching at St. Louis so she knew me,” Ewing said. “I had always heard great things
about Anne so I came on a visit and it was just kind of a perfect situation.”
The perfect situation feeling was mutual. Fifth year senior Brooke Mattingly needed
somebody to pair up with and share the load in the middle. On the season Ewing leads the
team with 65 total blocks and is fifth on the team with 138 kills. The addition of Ewing was
crucial to the Cards being able to experience the success they have thus far this season. But
Ewing, for all of her success, is still learning more and more about the game each day.
“I would definitely say that I am one of the rawest on the team because I don’t have as
much of the technical background as most of the girls do,” Ewing said. Ewing didn’t start
playing volleyball until her sophomore year of high school. She grew up playing basketball
and originally only first played volleyball to stay in shape for basketball season.
“I think I just played basketball because my dad played and I felt a lot of outside pressure
that I should be playing and trying to be the female version of him. But the older I got
the more pressure there was from people outside of my family and I just didn’t enjoy it
anymore,” Ewing continues. “My parents never expected or pushed my siblings and I to be
athletes, they were just really all about academics. We had to be on top of our schoolwork
for us to even be allowed to play sports.”
Volleyball proved to be a breath of fresh air for Randi and she stuck with it, to reach
her Division I potential she played club volleyball along with high school until she got to
Fordham. Her final year of play at Fordham Ewing led the Rams in hitting percentage and
total blocks with 134. Since getting to U of L her growth as a volleyball player has been
monumental, with a noticeable improvement from her first game of the season to now.
“I can attribute all of my growth as a volleyball player to Coach Kordes, my teammates
and the rest of the coaching staff to be completely honest. There is always constant feedback
and everyone is willing to stay after or come in early for extra reps,” Ewing said. “My
volleyball IQ has increased since coming here, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself; my
hitting tendencies, my blocking tendencies, a lot of things that I may not have been aware of
that I am now able to change.”
Although it’s her final year of eligibility it was never too late for Ewing to come to
Louisville and experience life in The Ville. The fifth year senior is not just invested in
Louisville from an athletic perspective, it’s gotten her out and offered a whole new world of
experiences.
“It’s definitely a change of pace but I am loving it. I grew up in New York and New Jersey
my whole life so its nice to branch out and live somewhere different,” Ewing said. “Socially
it’s been awesome, athletically it has been a completely different feel for me. Playing at KFC
YUM! Center is like a dream come true and it makes me feel like a superstar every time I
walk in there. Academically being in grad school is great because it’s another challenge that
I’m wanting to overcome and trying to better myself as a broadcaster, which is what I want
to do with my life. So all around U of L has really offered me a great opportunity.”
Coming to U of L has also introduced Ewing to the best collegiate fan base in the country.
While all schools have their football and basketball fans there is no place in the country that
rivals the volleyball fan base like the one here in Louisville. With four girls on the team
from Louisville the volleyball culture of the city starts from the ground up with little girls
who play their whole lives hoping to someday put on a Louisville jersey.
“I think it’s incredible how many young girls we are able to influence just by stepping out
onto the court and it makes you want to win for them. You look up into the stands and see
them cheering you on and you know they are out there and it just makes you want to win
and play hard for them,” Ewing said. “Unfortunately the volleyball culture in New York isn’t
as strong as it is here. The reception that we get and the support that we have from the fans
here at U of L is incredible, I cannot be more excited to step on the court and play for U of
L. It’s a privilege to get out there and be able to wear Louisville on our jerseys.”
Ewing’s one year of being a Louisville Cardinal is almost half way over, with less then half
the season to play and the NCAA Tournament is coming up. While this year’s team started
off with a rough pre-conference schedule starting the year 2-6 they have since gone 11-
1 and are finishing the season with as much confidence and determination as any national
contender Cardinal team.
“I just want to continue to grow as a player and be a leader for my teammates. I really
just want to do whatever I can do or play whatever role I have to in order to make sure
my team gets as far in the NCAA Tournament as possible,” Ewing said. “As a team that’s
what we want to do, we want to go further in the NCAA Tournament then we ever have
before. That is going to take every single one of us continuing to get better from match to
match, continuing to come in for extra reps. Not taking a day off, because each and every
one of these matches we have coming up is important. We just want to be the best team we
possibly can be and get as far in the NCAA Tournament as possible.”
