When Marquette junior libero Martha Konovodoff was younger, her older brother Andrew used to rub it in Martha’s face that he was a national champion and Martha wasn’t.
“It’s actually disgusting how competitive we are,” Abby Konovodoff, Martha’s older sister, said. “It’s really nice because we’re all athletes. … I know my brothers went through the recruitment process, so it was nice to know that they’ve been there before. From my perspective, I can help Martha through things because I’ve done the college volleyball thing before.”
But that same family has also watched closely as Martha has won national club championships, and they watch now as she competes on the No. 10 Golden Eagles.
“Anytime anybody’s game is broadcasted, we tune in,” Abby said. “Even though we’re all over the place these days as we grow older, we still do find the time to support each other in our sports.”
The idea of watching Martha compete from a distance is not a new concept for the Konovodoff family. The first time Martha went out of the country was when she was a junior in high school and traveled to Japan with Sports Performance Volleyball Club to train with Japan’s national team. The following year her club sent her to train in China.
When she was a senior in 2016, she won a national championship with Sports Performance Volleyball Club in Orlando, Florida. Right after that game, her club team traveled to the Dominican Republic and won a world championship.
Head coach Ryan Theis initially began recruiting Martha during her junior year of high school. Besides going to Catholic school, Martha said she wanted a competitive program that had more of a focus on her as a person than club volleyball.
“(I wanted) an environment that saw me as more of a human than a volleyball player and just respected me as a person,” Martha said. “Ryan promised me that the first day, and he’s done nothing but fulfill that.”
She benefitted from that environment on and off the court since then.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for that because I don’t think I would be as good as I am (without Marquette),” Martha said. “Mentally, the fact (that) they view all of us as people and humans that need love and care and nurturing … has helped me view my life differently outside of volleyball.”
Since 2017, Martha has been a solid presence in the back line for Theis’ program, starting in every game of her collegiate career. She even has a chance to be the all-time digs record holder for the Golden Eagles. Theis said he has seen Martha make tremendous growth over the three years he’s worked with her.
“She came from a program where they believe in constant movement of the feet. We’ve worked toward the opposite where we’re stopped and in balanced positions any time a person is attacking the ball,” Theis said.
As a freshman, Theis and the coaching staff didn’t address the positioning of her feet until spring 2018. Ever since, she’s been working on being set and balanced.
“She’s actually been on a three-year evolution of moving less and less defensively,” Theis said. “When she’s balanced and in good position, she does really well, so she’s learned a lot.”
Theis said her vision and quickness make her efficient in getting to the ball and saving it when one wouldn’t think it was humanly possible.
“She’s incredibly fast twitched and has great quad strength, so she can press off her toe and cover an extra two to three feet and get a hand under the ball,” Theis said.
Theis said she has quite the sense of humor, regularly entertaining her teammates and coaches.
“This preseason, the microphone was on one day, and as every player walked into the gym, she would do this raspy-guy voice and she’d be like, ‘Entering the building from Muskego, Wisconsin,'” Theis said. “Anyone who walked in the building, she was making up funny things about them.”
Martha said her teammates have inspired her while she’s been at Marquette.
“Those are the girls that I look up to the most,” Martha said. “Not physically looking up to them because I’m so short compared to Allie Barber, but we are all around each other every single day.”
As her younger sister Sarah goes through the recruiting process, Martha is trying to mentor her. But her older sisters Grace and Abby also look up to her in the volleyball realm.
“She has been a bigger (volleyball role model) for me,” Grace said. “She’s always been that competitive Type A athlete. … I’m her biggest fan, and I tell her that all the time. I go to a lot of her college games. She definitely is a role model for me because she’s so strong. She does a lot on the court and doesn’t always get that recognition.”
Martha’s family has also described her as determined, compassionate, caring, loyal, charismatic, empathetic, phenomenal, strong and a team player.
One weekend when the Konovodoffs were headed to a lake house in Wisconsin, Martha hurt her leg, and Andy said on the drive she was whimpering in the back. Everyone told her she’d get over it.
When her parents took her to the doctor, it turned out she broke her foot. The whole time she had been hiding the fact she was in pain due to her high pain tolerance, just another way she’s determined to fight through things.
“She was a trooper the whole way,” Andy said. “It really started bothering her, like, seven hours later.”
Even now, if she gets a bruise or is bleeding, she said she just covers it up and keeps going. Even though it hurts, Martha said her favorite part of volleyball is being on the floor diving for balls.
“That’s where I’ve always belonged. … Where good things happen is when I’m on the floor,” Martha said. “I like to do crazy things that not a lot of people see coming. I like when people make the comment after games, like, ‘You’re a Superwoman.’ … I’ll look at videos and I’m like, ‘Yeah. I didn’t know I could do that.'”
Since Martha tends to be all over the court, throwing her body to dig the ball, she has been injured many times. But she always fights through them.
“She’s had a lot of minor injuries, she’s had major injuries, but she still perseveres,” Grace said. “Whether it’s her family or her teammates, she always does her job, but she also will fight for you.”
Though Martha never imagined she would be such a crucial part of a top 10 program, Grace and Abby did.
“I’ve watched her play a lot of games, and watching her go from elite team to club to high school to national championships and winning them, I figured she would be a key role,” Grace said. “I’m glad she’s getting the outcome that she wants.”
That confidence isn’t exclusive to Grace.
“Without a doubt in my mind,” Abby said. “Whereas I struggled to finally get my footing and rollerblade down the street, Martha strapped them on and just went for it. … Even from when she was younger, she’s just been so athletic and able bodied and so sure of herself when she did compete.”
Theis’ goal for Martha in the next two seasons is for her to be an All-American again after she was previously an honorable mention. He said if she achieves more than honorable mention “we’d be thrilled for that for her, but that position can be tough to crack.”
Though Martha’s goal for the team is to win conference and compete farther than last season, she said she just wants to enjoy the experience.
“Especially when I’m getting older, I forget the opportunity that I am presented here with: the fact that I get to play a sport in college, and it’s something that I love to do. … Not everyone gets to have that opportunity,” Martha said. “Just to live through the game.”
In each of Martha’s last five years of her club career, she has competed for a national championship: winning once, taking second twice and placing third and fifth. However, one of Martha’s goals when considering college was wanting to help a university team improve and compete for that championship.
“She fits in, and I think she’s almost reached her goal,” Andy said.
“I (didn’t) want to go to a school that was already No. 1. I want to go to a school that I can help get up there,” Martha said. “The fact that we’re (No. 10) really just makes me really happy and even more proud of myself that I made the decision that I did. When I first came in, we were 30, 35 or something, then we were 25, then we were 16, and now we’re (No. 10). To be a top 10 team is crazy.”
