Julia Stanev has been taking steps her entire life to achieve where she is today: a middle blocker on the Marquette volleyball team.

Each stage she’s gone through in life is another step up a “ladder” — a visual that her parents instilled in her since she was young — the experience of an athlete compares to climbing a ladder. 

“You want to climb the steps, and walking them once from first to last is what will take you higher,” Dimitrina, Julia’s mother, said in an email. “Each step has its weight, its difficulty and its teaching. Some steps are easy to climb and others almost impossible, but you can’t skip the easy ones to get there faster because then you won’t be ready to face the most difficult ones.”

Rung 1: Trying all things

Growing up, Julia wasn’t like most girls her age. 

She wouldn’t usually choose to play with dolls, rather, she’d be doing something active and was involved in team sports. 

Raised in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Julia came from a family where she was given the freedom to play whatever sport she wanted, so she decided to try almost all of them. 

All before she chose volleyball, she tried swimming, tennis, skiing — where she competed at a national level — dance and hockey.

“Sports in our family are very important,” Dimitrina said. “My husband and I have certainly passed on to our girls the love for sport and its values.”

Dimitrina was a high jumper and a 100m sprinter on her high school track team, competing in several regional competitions.

Rung 2: Learning from experience

But aside from Julia, her mom wasn’t the only athlete in the family.

Julia’s father, Ivan, is a former Bulgarian national rowing team athlete; he participated in four World Championships and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Julia’s sister, Alessia, was a world championship-level synchronized rollerskater and competed in several international championships. 

Both parents have been Julia’s role models: Dimitrina played the role of an emotional support system, and Ivan was involved with the sports she played. 

“I remember over the summer, I would train with him,” Julia said. “We would rent this gym and practice serves, or just run around 117 times. It was crazy, but it was fun.” 

If they went to the beach together, Julia would be training alongside her father, running and jumping in the sand. 

Despite the number of accolades her family has received, she never felt any pressure from them. Instead, it was her own pressure of wanting to make them proud.

Rung 3: Doing what’s best

Julia didn’t just play volleyball; in fact, she didn’t touch a volleyball for the first 13 years of her life, but because of her family’s history, she wasn’t new to the world of competition. 

Once she found volleyball to be her sport, she played club for Pallavolo Alsenese, and left home mid-way through high school to play in a different city: Piacenza.

She then went on to play professionally for Green Warriors Sassuolo, where she competed in the Italian Serie A2, helping lead her team to a fifth place finish at the 2021-22 Italian A2 Cup.

Many athletes end up doing school online, so that they have the flexibility to move around and play where they are recruited to. Julia said that the Italian school system is very strict about doing both schoolwork and sports. 

So, Julia never took online classes. She changed high schools and went to a private school, and once she graduated, decided to come to a university in the U.S. to continue playing the sport.

“It’s been tough [moving],” Julia said. “But at the same time I came to this realization that it was just not going to work. I wanted to continue my studies and go to university, and it was just not going to work in Italy.”

Rung 4: Experiencing the newness

Julia left Italy and came to the U.S. in 2023 to play at Eastern Illinois, where she hit .250 and averaged 0.96 blocks per set. She led the Panthers with 99 blocks her first year. 

“She sacrificed a lot for this sport, but I always knew she would eventually be able to make her dream of playing in the U.S. happen,” Alessia said. “Seeing how much she has grown, both as an athlete and as a person, and watching her thrive, makes me really happy.”

Rung 5: Working hard to achieve personal goals

Hoping to play at a professional level after her collegiate career, Julia transferred to Marquette for a more competitive program. The middle blocker has only seen the court in four of the program’s matches. 

“I came here knowing that it was going to take a little bit more work and discipline, and I feel like I’ve been putting that in practice,” Stanev said. 

Guided by the lessons instilled in her, Stanev continues to climb her ladder as the Marquette volleyball (11-5, 5-1 Big East) season continues, taking the steps up towards her goal no matter their difficulty.