Scholar Stories: Vespa Shows Energy in the Classroom and on the Field
3/14/2018 12:54:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse, Features
Continuing the popular series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Prairie Farms.
By Austin Turner
In the four years previous to this one, since the University of Michigan women's lacrosse team was elevated to varsity status, nobody had ever been able to successfully walk on until Ariana Vespa showed up.
Now a junior, Vespa is in her third year playing for the Wolverines and remains the only person to accomplish the feat.
Having played lacrosse since seventh grade, Vespa had forgotten what life was without the sport. So when she received an email in the first month of freshman year inviting her to a tryout, she could not resist.
"After getting the email, I immediately got butterflies," Vespa recalled. "I talked to my parents about whether that was something I really wanted to commit to because I could have always played club, but I decided it was what I wanted to do."
Walking on to a D-I program, even one as new and ripe with opportunity, is not easy. But Vespa's reasoning was simple.
"I put 100 percent effort into everything that I do," she said. "If I was going to do this, then I was going to go all the way the whole time, commitment and everything. So I did it, and I could not be happier that I did."
Her energy is infectious and it did not take long for her new teammates to realize it.
Before every practice and game, the players circle up and perform a loud, electrifying cheer. The chant is led by the same individual all season -- the individual seen as being the most enthusiastic and capable of pumping up the team.
At the end of last season, Kelly Kubach, the senior who had led the cheer during all four years of her career since the program originated in 2014, was in charge of passing along the responsibility of leading the cheer to the person she felt could best handle the role.
She picked Vespa.
"She told me that it was because of the presence I had at practice," Vespa said about Kubach. "I was loud, passionate and happy to be there every day. I think she saw how thankful I was to have been given the opportunity to be a part of this team."
Vespa has not shied away since receiving the responsibility.
"It has been so incredible getting to gather everyone together before every practice and every game," Vespa continued. "It unites everyone before we really get into things and helps get everyone on the same page. It is such an honor and I am so happy that I get to do it every day."
Now that Vespa has found her role as the team's vocally energetic leader, it is easy to forget the point in time when she was not on the roster. But Vespa has not lost sight of what originally brought her to Michigan: academics.
Vespa is majoring in political science and minoring in French. Similar to her efforts in lacrosse, she is doing all that she can to channel her passion and excel in both fields.
"That is just how I have been with school and sports," Vespa said. I have always played sports and I have always strived to do well in both aspects of my life. Like I said, I put everything I have into everything I do, and that includes the classroom."
Her efforts have paid off. Not only was Vespa an Academic All-Big Ten honoree, but she was also recognized as a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, a prestigious academic honor that requires a minimum 3.7 grade point average.
"When I got on the team, one of the juniors, Margaret Metzger, won the award," said Vespa. "I remember idolizing her and what she had accomplished. I think being able to succeed in the classroom, in addition to applying all of this time to your sport, is part of being a student-athlete. I just saw that she got the award and I made it my goal to do the same."
After accomplishing this goal, Vespa has her sights set on another: attending law school.
"That has been a goal of mine since I was little," she said. "I have always wanted to get my law degree and I think that is a good foundation for anything else that I want to do. I could practice law or go into politics, healthcare, business or anything. I just think it is something that will help me with my future."
It should not come as a surprise that Vespa has already gotten started toward achieving that goal. After her freshman year, she snagged an internship with a judge in the federal court of appeals.
"I read numerous cases, fact-checked them and did all of that work," she said. "After doing all of the readings and witnessing what went on, I was in absolute awe of how it all worked. Since then, I knew getting a law degree is something that I wanted to do."
What Vespa does after law school is still unknown, but whatever it is, expect her to give maximum effort.
Anything less would be unordinary.
