From her movements on the court to her hectic schedule off of it, Temple volleyball’s Margaret Majewska lives a fast life.
The sophomore middle blocker/outside hitter who hails from Brampton, Ontario has always been accustomed to a full day of work since her early childhood.
Majewska, who has her roots in Poland, was introduced to the game of volleyball at a very early age from her mother, who won a national championship as the coach of the Polish National Team.
Since then, she has followed in her mothers’ footsteps. Majewska started playing volleyball during middle school. It wasn’t until she turned 13 years old that she started playing for her local club team, Peel Select, where she would remain until her arrival at Temple University.
As a young adolescent, Majewska had always known the values of hard work, dedication and sacrifices to achieve her goals. At the same time she started playing for Peel Select she was also training for tennis. She devoted close to five and a half hours each day to both sports; going from school to tennis and then off to volleyball.
Not much has changed in her routine since then. These days, Majewska wakes at 8 a.m., to either finish or start homework, then it’s off to classes between 10:10-2:30, where she also fits in time for lunch before heading to volleyball practice. She likes to practice her serving and passing before warming up with her teammates.
With little time for a break, the honors student and International Business and Finance major holds a 3.6 GPA.
Majewska spends a lot of time practicing, usually 15 hours a week, which has paid off thus far as she helped her team to two conference wins with 11 kills and five digs against the University of Massachusetts and five key blocks against the University of Rhode Island.
“She has been spiking the ball well,” Coach Bob Bertucci said. “She can hit in a lot of variations of steps and has a lot of different options of attacking and blocking.”
Majewska is the Owls’ most dangerous weapon as she constantly rotates positions, always faking out blockers and opponents. Majewska likes to spend time working on every aspect of her game and cites there is always room for improvement.
“I need to improve my jump and I’ve been working on my connection with the setter,” Majewska said. “My serving has gotten a lot tougher, but is not as consistent. I’m always working on my passing. I’ve improved my blocking and my back row hitting, which was something I wasn’t doing last year.”
Last year was different for Majewska, as she was an incoming freshman making the transition to college, just as many others were.
“I wanted to leave [school] last fall because I didn’t meet any people, I had a busy schedule, lots of practice and major adjustments to make,” Majewska said. “In the off-season I started to meet people and was able to enjoy life. This year I’ve learned to manage school and sports.”
Majewska, or Gosia as some of her friends like to call her, learned to improve her time management which has lead to a vast improvement on the court from last season.
“I don’t think she was very confident in herself last year as she was still feeling her way around the team and environment,” Bertucci said. “This year she is playing with confidence in herself and is being more assertive. The difference in her play from last year is night and day.”
In her seven years of competitive volleyball, Majewska never developed any superstitions and likes to spend each pre-game visualizing how she will play. In addition to playing for her club team she earned provincial and regional team honors in consecutive years and was a member of the 1999 Canadian junior national team.
A bright future lies ahead for Majewska, who would like to play volleyball professionally in Europe or maybe start her own business.
For now, she’ll stick to the tight schedule she has carried since middle school.
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