UNIVERSITY PARK – When Natalia Newsome committed to SMU volleyball in the summer of 2022, she didn’t know she had just committed to being part of the debut Mustang team in the ACC.

Newsome was a standout from nearby Arlington Martin High School, becoming one of coach Sam Erger’s first recruits after being hired in February 2022.

The main reason why Erger wanted her to be part of SMU’s future was simple.

“I saw her jump really high and I was like, ‘You’re coming here,’” Erger said.

Being able to jump is important for most positions in volleyball, whether you’re standing up to peak a serve or playing a block.

Newsome is 6-foot-4, but her jump is one of the best you’ll see in college volleyball.

According to Next College Student Athlete College Recruiting, the average middle blocker has a vertical of 19.8 inches and the 80th percentile of college middles has a vertical of 23.1 inches.

Newsome says her vertical is between 39 and 40 inches.

It’s no wonder Newsome is the only underclassman to play for a top-10 SMU team and make waves in the ACC.

An elite industry combined with a willingness to learn and be patient has one of the Mustangs’ rising stars thriving in her first college season.

Reaching SMU

Although she is from the D-FW area, Newsome was not a regular at SMU games as the team moved up from CUSA to American Athletic Conference competition.

She didn’t even know her father, Tony, attended SMU in the late 1990s and played wide receiver for the football team until she was recruited by the Mustangs.

It was the connection she made with Erger and the vision of the program that made her fall in love with being a Mustang.

“She is very interested in your full experience at SMU,” Newsome told LoneStarLive.com. “You see with many coaches that they only want to concentrate on your volleyball experience and that is important. But she wants to make you a well-rounded person.

‘She thinks it’s important how you’re doing at school, how you’re doing in volleyball, how you’re doing as a person in general. That was something I really liked about her and it was one of the reasons I committed to SMU.

Worse really meant it when she said Newsome’s jump first caught her attention and led to her being the standout of SMU’s 2024 recruiting class.

“We saw that she was a high flyer and I think we can turn high flyers into something. That is a premium because it is physical,” Erger said. “We love her.”

According to Erger, physicality is an increasingly important part of women’s volleyball.

Having elite athletes is a good start to building the kind of nationally relevant program that SMU is working toward.

The 2024 season, which will see the Mustangs headed to the NCAA Tournament, will feature an increased level of athleticism thanks to many of the additions to SMU’s transfer portal in recent years.

But the next step is getting that talent out of high school. Newsome is really Erger’s first to do this, in only her third year at the helm of the program.

A special jump

Newsome says jumping high was always something she was good at.

“It wasn’t really something I focused on until I got to SMU,” Newsome said. “I guess you could say it was genetics.”

Despite her vertical profile and mother, Natasha, who coached high school basketball, Newsome’s favorite sport was volleyball and that made her a serious athlete.

Having that 40-inch vertical gives not only Newsome, but the entire SMU team an edge in the competition.

Because of her hangtime, the time in which she can attack a ball is much longer. It makes it easy for setters to find Newsome on the field.

Combine that with an impressive arm and Newsome is tough to stop, even as a freshman.

“We have complete confidence when she comes in every time. We know she’ll be killer,” senior outside hitter Jamison Wheeler said. “We talk about it in practice that if we can’t stop her at the net, it’s almost impossible to dig her behind it. In practice, I don’t want to be on the other side of her.”

This season, Newsome has played in 26 sets and racked up 34 kills, with just nine errors, for a hitting percentage of .410.

That’s the highest strike rate on the team for players with more than 60 total strikes this season.

She has also collected a total of 14 blocks in the 15 matches played.

The fact that Newsome has played so much and had so much success is even more noticeable when you look at who she’s playing with.

Always ready

Newsome is part of one of the most experienced teams in all of college volleyball.

Of the 14 members of the team, seven are graduate students, four are juniors and seniors and three are freshmen.

Newsome is the only freshman to compete this season.

It came as a bit of a surprise to Newsome that not only would she be playing some of the few weaker opponents on the schedule, but that she would be called upon on the road against No. 1 Pitt to try to make something happen.

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to play this much just because of the talent I have in front of me, while the athletes are students,” Newsome said. “Honestly, I’m just grateful that I can learn from the older girls we have on our team.”

Despite a loss to Pitt his first time playing, Newsome went on the road against the top team in the country and had two key kills.

Newsome’s teammates certainly don’t consider her a freshman with the way she carries herself in games.

“She’s the sweetest person on the planet, but she’s also incredibly talented,” said fellow middle blocker Natalie Foster. “Having her in the middle position, I know if I don’t do it, she will. It’s just amazing.”

Newsome admits she still has nerves during some of the big moments she’s had this season. She sees it as part of the game and “proves that you care about what you do.”

Watching her launch and send a vicious spike to the other side of the court against virtually every team in the ACC doesn’t come across as nervous.

It’s easy for her to fit in, in part because of SMU’s “14-man mentality,” where every player on the team is willing to make a difference in the game.

But for Newsome, always knowing what’s going on is the key to being ready.

She makes sure she understands the game plan well and is well aware of how important adapting to the opponent can be over the course of multiple sets.

For SMU, being able to bounce back against other teams has been crucial.

Having a player like Newsome who brings something different and someone that teams in the ACC have limited knowledge of can provide a good advantage in later sets.

Talent isn’t everything for Erger.

She may have noticed that Newsome jumped very well and had a strong arm in high school, but it’s the players who give their all in every facet of being on the team that stands out to her.

“Natalia has earned the right to come in and make some rips,” Erger said.

Newsome understands her number won’t be called every night this season, even with the postseason quickly approaching.

She’s all about developing her own game with the help of the veterans around her, being a good teammate and being ready for whatever they need.

“The rest of the season I’m just here to support my team,” Newsome said. “And when I’m put in the game, I’m going to give my best for them and whatever role I get, I’m going to give my all in that role.”