ABILENE – Recognized as one of the greatest setters in Wildcat history with 4,847 assists,
Ijeoma Moronu will be on her way to Denmark next week to begin her career as a professional with the
Lyngby Volleyball Club.
Moronu is the first Wildcat recruited by ACU head coach Kellen Mock to reach the professional ranks, and the Fort Worth native (Paschal HS) is quick to thank her former coaches for helping her dream become a reality.
“I loved coaching here last season and it was great to have all those opportunities during practice to continue playing,” she said. “My desire to play never left me as a coach and that passion drove me to continue working out and practice harder.
“I came to ACU as an unrefined setter,” she continued, “but the coaches taught me how to deliver the ball and deliver with consistency. I'm very appreciative of their efforts because I don't know if I'd become the best setter I could be if I went somewhere else. And when they allowed me to coach, I gained a whole new perspective of the game that I love and I look forward to playing it again.”
Moronu and her Lyngby teammates, including American players from Concordia St. Paul and Cal Poly, will spend almost the entire month engaged in team activities, before heading into September's preseason followed by a seven-month regular season. Lyngby plays against the country's best competition within an eight-team Elite Division, but last year it missed the playoffs after finishing sixth.
Clubs that miss the playoffs still have their own postseason tournament, which is known as a play out, and this past spring Lyngby won five of its six round-robin matches. Moronu also said that after this season there's a plan to expand the season to include a Nordic Championship, in which the top clubs from the five Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland) would compete.
“I'm very excited about experiencing a different culture,” Moronu said, “but what I'm most looking forward to is getting into the regular season and playing games. I just want to play volleyball.”
Moronu finished her ACU playing career in 2010 and still ranks second in assists and seventh in blocks with 302. The four-year all-conference honoree also recorded over 1,000 assists in three of her four seasons and made three all-region teams.
Moronu also excelled in the classroom and three times was named LSC All-Academic. She graduated from ACU in December of 2011 with a degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion.
