2025 AVCA Two-Year College Success Stories

The AVCA Two-Year College Success Stories initiative provides an opportunity to shine a light on some great volleyball competitors, and even better people, who are products of the two-year college community. This year we highlight Patricia Figueiredo, Bobbie Jo Stall-Vest, Alanna Whitnack, and Karina Woehrstein, who all have enjoyed great success both as collegiate athletes and professionally and personally since they graduated from two-year college institutions.

Nominations are accepted annually in the fall, and the stories are reviewed by a selection committee before being released early the following year. This year’s selection committee included: Yvette Ybarra of Glendale College (committee chair), Sonny Lewis of Owens Community College, Bob Vilsoet of Harper College, and Jayme Frazier of Linn-Benton Community College.

Patricia “Paty” Figueiredo

Paty joined Missouri State University West Plains and the Grizzly Volleyball program in 2008 where she played as a setter on her freshman year and setter/right side on her sophomore year. Paty earned the two-time first team All-Region 16 Team honoree her own first team NJCAA All-American honor in 2009.She also helped the Grizzlies post records of 38-15 in 2008 and 27-9 in 2009, earn their 10th and 11th NJCAA Region 16 Championship titles, and place seventh in the 2008 NJCAA Division I Women’s National Volleyball Championship and second in the 2009 NJCAA Division 1 Women’s National Volleyball Championship.

Figueiredo transferred to Florida State University where she helped the Seminoles earn the ACC championship in 2010 and a back injury sidelined her the following year. At FSU She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration. Figueiredo started coaching Club when she was playing in college and after graduating, she returned to her home country of Brazil where she played professionally while working for two companies in the field of internal Auditing.

Figueiredo returned to the United States as a Graduate Assistant Coach at the University of Texas El Paso where she earned her master’s degree in leadership and communication becoming the assistant coach after her first year. After coaching at UTEP, Figueiredo joined the Skylights at Montana State University Northern as an Assistant Coach and Financial Aid Specialist.

After two years, Figueiredo became the Director and Head Coach at Montverde academy leading the Eagles to Indoor District tournament, Beach Volleyball District and Citrus Tournament titles. In 2022, Figueiredo returned to Missouri State West Plains as the Assistant Coach helping the Grizzlies finish 3rd at the 2022 National Tournament. In 2023, Figueiredo became the third head Coach in the history of the Grizzlies volleyball program and the first one to ever lead the Grizzlies as a student athlete, assistant coach, and head coach. Figueiredo has combined over 100 wins combined as a student athlete and Coach.

A few fast facts:

Missouri State University – West Plains, Hall of Fame: October 2019
All American: 2009
Assists: 2.355 – Ranking 5th in the history
Attacking percentage: .315 Ranking – 8th in the history
Aces: 66 – ranking 18th in the History

Bobbie Jo Stall-Vest

Bobbie Jo came to Mesa in 2006 as a transfer from Cal State San Bernardino. She played there for two seasons, was captain in 2007, and holds a record for season hitting percentage. Her squad won conference both years and was undefeated, not dropping a single set. She accepted a full-ride to play at East Carolina for her last two years where she set a single match record for total blocks.

Upon completing college, she got into coaching at the high school, club and college levels. In 2016 she went back to school, got her masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia Irvine University. Upon completion she started coaching at Mesa in 2017 as an assistant, took over as indoor head coach back in 2018.

Coach Stall brought Mesa’s program back to the highest point that it has been at since she played here. Since then, she has won a 3C2A Championship in 2023 and had won 3 PCAC championships, receiving coach of the year 3 times as well. A great full-circle story!

Alanna Whitnack

Alanna went to junior college out of high school because she wanted to become a setter and play at the NCAA Division I level. Her experience at De Anza under coach Kathy Jensen was transformative and helped her develop into a Division I level setter. Coach Jensen walked along side her as she faced the obstacles that she needed to overcome in her life.

She had a very successful career at the CCCAA level and earned a full-ride scholarship to the University of Nevada, Reno. At UNR, the training and life lessons learned at De Anza helped shape how she would adapt to the next level and how important legacy building was to me.

Her coach at De Anza is a huge reason why she went from athlete to coach. She spent 12 years at the NCAA Division I and II levels and then returned to the CCCAA as a coach at Sierra College. Alanna is going into her tenth season. She began as an assistant under former coach Vera Nelson and then helped start the beach program as head coach and eventually became the head indoor coach as well. Returning to the junior college level at Sierra College has reconnected me to a community of athletes that just need more time to develop, didn’t have the resources to make it to the next level, or just needed someone to walk alongside them as they learned how to dream bigger.

Karina Woehrstein

Karina is a great example of a two-year college success story. While in her senior year of high school she was told she was too small to make it as a college volleyball player, so she decided to attend a 4-year college and not play. After not playing for a year, she missed the game and decided to come to El Camino College and see if she could hang at the college level. She quickly proved that size doesn’t matter by solidifying herself as the team’s libero and excelling on the court as a player and leader.

Karina went on to lead the Warriors to back-to-back State Championships. She was a 2-time all-conference selection, 2-time all-state selection, and the State Tournament MVP. She went on to continue playing at Division I Cal State Northridge, where she graduated in 2011 with a degree in Psychology. She currently works for Southern Wine and Spirits.

Standing at a towering 5’1 Karina has shown that hard work and tenacity can take you far. She was featured in the faces in the crowd section of Sports Illustrated for her accomplishments and in 2018 was inducted into the Hall of Fame at El Camino College. She was then selected in 2022 as one of the top 75 female athletes to have competed at ECC.

She is now married with two sons and still comes back to El Camino to cheer the team on and tell her story to current players.