After this season, Sacramento State’s volleyball team is losing Jayme Wright, one of their most talented players. For Wright, however, leaving Sacramento could mean the beginning of a professional career in volleyball.

“After graduation I want to play for a professional team overseas,” Wright said. “Spain is gorgeous I hear.”

For Wright, who hails from Pleasanton, a small Bay Area city, traveling to Europe would be an enormous transition.

“Sacramento is really diverse,” Wright said. “That’s one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about (this city), because I haven’t been exposed to diversity until I got here, and I love it. I want to travel a lot now. I want to see other cultures and experience other places just because it’s opened my eyes being here.”

Her hometown isn’t all that interesting. Described by Wright as safe, sheltered, low-key and populated with upper class white people, it wasn’t much of a shock when, while in high school, she played club volleyball in nearby Berkeley to get away. After graduation from high school she transferred to Sac State, although it wasn’t her first choice.

“It wasn’t my first pick,” Wright said. “It’s hard to explain. I didn’t have a school I really wanted to go to, but I had criteria. I wanted to go to a school that had a good program that was close to home, but far away enough so I could be on my own. I wanted a scholarship and Sac was it.”

Despite numerous offers from several East Coast colleges, Wright decided to stay in California, primarily because of the proximity to her family, who travel from Pleasanton to every home game.

“I wanted to be close to my mom and my grandma so I could visit them and they could watch me play. That was really important to me,” Wright said. “Sacramento worked out great. They had everything I wanted: good program, close to home, and I got a scholarship. What else could I ask for? I was really lucky.”

The scholarship helped her family quite a bit. Since Wright’s birth, her mother, Judy Ryan, raised her daughter by herself.

“There’s a lot of strong women in my family,” Wright said.

And Wright is one of them. Described by teammate Lisa Beauchene as a leader and the go-to person for offense, she’s not limited entirely to knocking down kills either.

“Her passing not only helps her, but it helps everyone on the team,” Hornet head coach Debby Colberg said. “One thing she does really well is play defense.”

Although Sac State volleyball may not be guaranteed the Big Sky championship this year, they’re still in the running, partly because of Wright.

One of the strongest players on the team, she leads the Hornets in digs with 323, and averages 3.35 kills per game. She won’t be easy to replace.

“I think what we’re going to have to do is recruit someone with a similar skill,” Colberg said. “What Jayme does for us, besides play good offense, is that she passes in every rotation.

We usually just pass with two people, and that’s a passing serve. We’re going to have to find some to take that over. It won’t be easy.”

Despite the team’s 10-2 conference record, Wright remains confident of her team’s ability to go all the way in the Big Sky. Last year, Wright posted a career-high 34 digs against Eastern Washington University. A repeat of that performance could win the Big Sky conference for the Hornets.

“We have to win the rest of our matches, but that’s doable,” Wright said. “The toughest match will be at Eastern Washington, because we’re going to play there. That’s going to be our biggest battle, to play Eastern at their home and beat them — then we’ll take first.”

Off the court Wright is very different person from the intense, win- oriented athlete she becomes when playing volleyball.

“She’s a dork,” Beauchene said. “She’s always laughing. She makes a lot of jokes. She just saw the movie Jackass, and she thinks it’s the funniest movie ever.”

A Communication Studies major, Wright is specializing in International Communications, which could help her if she plays volleyball in Spain.

Although some communication studies critics claim that the program is phony, Wright sees her degree as being very important.

“Think of it this way: you graduate and look at what you have, communications skills. Someone majoring in business can have no communications skills and can’t get a job because they can’t pass an interview,” Wright said. “So which one do you want, brains or to be able to communicate with people? I chose communications. It can get you a long way.”