Staying close to home and family was more important to Sacramento State middle hitter Michelle Franz than playing for a Pac-10 team far away.

She was offered a volleyball scholarship from Oregon State when she was 16 years old and made the move after graduating from Rio Americano High School in 2003.

“I always had (Oregon State) in my mind,” Franz said. “It’s a Pac-10 team and the two middle blockers were juniors, so I knew I’d get to play my freshman year.”

She moved to Oregon with her twin sister Jenny, but playing for a Pac-10 team wasn’t like Franz had imagined and she didn’t click with the other players. The lack of team chemistry wasn’t the only factor that bothered her. She didn’t mesh well with the coaches because they were more intense than she was used to.

“It was so intense, and that’s not me,” she said.

Along with the volleyball atmosphere, Franz also disliked the weather. She began to grow homesick.

“It seemed like it was always winter and summer, and I like fall and spring,” she said.

During her journey home she decided to attend a junior college rather than jump into another four-year university. After the negative experience in Oregon, Franz didn’t know if she wanted to continue playing volleyball.

She enrolled at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton because a good friend went there. After conditioning with the Mustang volleyball team over the summer of 2004, she realized the team was more fun and less stressful. When the time came for volleyball season in the fall, Franz was one unit shy of being eligible to play, so she took the season off. However, her volleyball career was hardly over.

In 2005, Franz was at the Sac State Invitational to watch a player from North Carolina when her former high school assistant and volleyball club coach Ruben Volta pulled her aside and asked if she was interested in playing for the Hornets. Volta set up a meeting the following day with Sac State’s coach Debby Colberg, who offered Franz a scholarship.

Franz remained unsure about playing volleyball again, but still decided to look into a few other teams (Maine, San Diego, and UNLV). Later, she nixed the idea of going away.

“I didn’t want to move and get homesick,” she said.

Cathy Franz, Michelle’s mother, said that Colberg came to their home in an attempt to recruit her daughter, but “Michelle didn’t know if she wanted to continue to play.”

“I didn’t want (her volleyball career) to end on a sad note,” Cathy said.

In the end, Franz decided playing volleyball was what she wanted to do while in college.

Franz chose to attend Sac State and joined the Hornets in the fall of 2005, where she was behind in training, which Volta and Colberg joked about.

“Debby made fun of me – asking Ruben if I could even jump,” Franz said.

Colberg first learned about Franz after watching her in high school, but knew she was unavailable since she was going to Oregon State.

“I was watching another player, but there was only one player (in the gym worth watching),” Colberg said. The coach was pleased when she learned that Franz decided to join the Hornets and knew that she would help the volleyball program.

The members of the team welcomed Franz with open arms.

“Right off the bat (we all) hit it off,” senior Shannon Roland said.

As a former teammate on a club team during their senior year of high school, Roland said that Michelle Franz was a great player.

Franz was named the Big Sky Conference’s Newcomer of the Year last year, the first Hornet to receive the honor since the volleyball team joined the conference in 1996.

“Last year got me back into things. I’m doing better this year.”

That might just be an understatement.

Franz now leads the Big Sky Conference in blocks and is fifth nationally with 1.76 blocks per game. She has been honored with three Big Sky player of the week awards this season and five overall.

Franz remains humble and doesn’t take all the credit when it comes to the high stats she puts up.

“My team does a lot to help me,” she said.

Not only is she getting praised by the Big Sky as she continues to dominate at the middle hitter position, but her team and coach know that a huge part of this season’s triumph has been because of Franz.

“She is a big part of our success. Lindsay (Haupt) and Michelle are really strong, and that’s what has helped us this year,” Colberg said. “She’s a cut above (the rest) and those are hard to find.”

The child development major has one season left with the Hornets and then plans to put her volleyball career in the memory books and become an elementary school teacher, following in the footsteps of her mother and her sister.

“I’ll miss volleyball, but I’ll enjoy having my time back.”

Karyn Gilbert can be reached at [email protected]