ST. JOSEPH, Minn. - Izzy Torve's path to college volleyball success had its origins in a gentle nudge her mother Lisette gave to Izzy's oldest sister Emily years ago.
"She was in middle school at the time, and my mom told her to pick a sport and give it a try," Izzy recalled. "She chose volleyball and we all followed along from there."
Indeed, sisters Emily, now 29, and Maddy, now 28, went on to become All-American setters at the NCAA Division II level – playing at Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State respectively.
Sister Abby followed in their footsteps as a standout at Heritage Christian High School before coming to the College of Saint Benedict and getting a degree in integrative science.
She went on to get a master's in clinical exercise physiology at St. Cloud State and a nursing degree from St. Scholastica.
Izzy, the next sister up, transferred from Heritage Christian to Orono High School as a seventh grader (along with older brother Mason, who went on to play baseball at Minnesota-Duluth). She ended up starting on varsity for five seasons and earned all-conference honors as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.
She decided to follow in Abby's footsteps at CSB, where she saw extended playing time during her first season in 2024. She then took over the starting setting job a year ago and recorded a team-best 546 assists while ranking second on the team with 49 ace serves.
"I grew up going to tournaments and hanging around gyms," said Torve, who is off to another strong start this season with a team-best 174 set assists and 10 ace serves for the Bennies (6-3), who play host to Wisconsin-Stout (4-3) in a nonconference matchup at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 16) at Claire Lynch Hall.
"I learned so much from my older sisters about how to balance volleyball with school, family and a social life. They were huge role models who showed me it's possible to have fun on the court and be competitive at the same time."
The family's athletic prowess started with their father Kent, a South Dakota native who played Division I baseball at San Diego State and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft. He played in the minors for four seasons and is now a civil engineer.
Kent's brother Kelvin, meanwhile, played several seasons in MLB for the Minnesota Twins and New York Mets before finishing his professional career in Japan with the Orix BlueWave where he was teammates with a young Ichiro Suzuki.
"There's pressure when you come from a family like that, but it's good pressure," Torve said. "You look at what they've gone on to accomplish and it inspires you to challenge yourself. You can see what's possible with hard work and dedication."
CSB head coach
Nicole Hess said dedication is a quality Torve possesses in abundance.
"When you're raised in that kind of environment, where sports is such a big part of your family, it makes you extremely competitive and you can see that in her whenever she steps on the court," Hess said. "She has such an incredible drive and work ethic. That rubs off on the other players around her."
But Hess said Torve also knows how to keep her cool under pressure.
"She's at the setter position, and she knows she's someone her teammates are going to look to," Hess said. "So she works hard to stay calm and composed. She's very consistent when it comes to her emotional side and that makes her a steadying force."
Part of that might be the future teacher coming out. An elementary education major, Torve hopes to follow in the footsteps of her mother, a former English teacher at the middle and high school levels.
"Being a teacher kind of runs in our genes," she said. "But I also grew up in a neighborhood with like 20 young kids around. As the youngest child, there weren't always siblings at home. So I'd run all over the neighborhood playing with the other kids. Then, as I got older, I wound up babysitting for them. That's where my love of working with kids got started.
"Teaching is always what I've wanted to do," Torve continued. "For one of my birthdays when I was younger, I asked for an overhead projector. My sister (Abby) and I would practice in the basement. I'd make my siblings be my students, and when they weren't there, I'd teach my stuffed animals."
Those traits have come in handy working with younger players at CSB's summer camps, as well as in practice this season on a team with 14 first-year players on the roster.
"There definitely is a lot of overlap there," said Torve, who'd one day like to teach and coach back home in the Orono school system. "You have to develop leadership skills to teach, and those are skills that are really important on the volleyball court as well."
Torve plans to student teach during the spring semester of her senior year in 2028. Before that, though, there remains a lot of college volleyball to be played.
"Wins and losses are important, but so is team chemistry," said Torve, whose team has won the past two MIAC playoff titles. "That's something we've really built here, and as long as we keep putting forth our best effort and have fun doing it, it counts as a win in my book.
"Success will come from that."
