Draft Prospect Profile: S Mia Tuaniga

From leg day dance battles to brilliant creativity on the court, Tuaniga has it all.

University of Southern California setter Mia Tuaniga has basically two objectives: live by faith; play with finesse and swag. That philosophy has carried her far, and entering her senior season with the Women of Troy, she’s viewed as one of the top collegiate setters in the nation. She’s reluctant to take the credit, though, and diverts any attention to her faith rather than her talent.

“My biggest inspiration is Jesus. So, I’m fighting for something bigger than myself,” she said. “You know, I can do anything through Christ, and that’s a scripture in the Bible. I believe that wholeheartedly, and so, if there’s something in my heart, something in my mind, I’m going to attack it.”

It’s hardly the first or last time Tuaniga has pointed heavenward when interacting with the media. She did the same at Big Ten Media Days, commenting that God shows his faithfulness to her family through the sport of volleyball. USC head coach Brad Keller loves that Tuaniga has embraced her spiritual inclinations as he tries to build a team culture of genuineness.

“I think we all have our way of handling our lives, our stressors, all those little things. Everyone’s allowed to be their true authentic self, and the only time that I or the coaching staff get involved is if you as an individual are harming yourself or the team,” said the coach. “Otherwise, we’re going to let you be unapologetically you and I think there’s a lot of positivity to that.”

Tuaniga doesn’t check her faith at the door on gameday — she keeps herself calm and motivated by staying in tune with things greater than herself.

“There's a scripture that explains, you know, giving your cares to him and putting your anxieties and your fears and your failures and insecurities onto him. I can't carry that as a human myself like that, that would tear me apart if I was just to beat myself up about every little injury, every little fear, every little failure that I've had in my life. So being able to pray to God everywhere I go is a huge thing,” she explained.

Tuaniga’s ability to stay level-headed by means of her faith allows her to play fluidly in any situation. She’s integral to the way the Women of Troy play volleyball, opening up a free-flowing offense for her team. Praising Tuaniga for what she does on the court came easy for Coach Keller.

“She’s an extremely strong young lady, both mentally and physically. She has really great hands. She can throw the ball from anywhere. Extremely creative, very much an international style of setter. So, what I mean by that is there's more creativity that comes out of them. There's more freedom. They give themselves more grace and freedom to try some things that other people would say, ‘Hey, don't do that,’ but I think that makes them better down the road. So, very fortunate to have her here,” the coach enthused.

In fact, Keller spoke at such length and so passionately about why he loves having Tuaniga on his team, I couldn’t possibly do better than to give you his explaination in full:

“Now we have four coaches that are just all on the same page of, like, we want to do this thing and it's not a robotic system. There's fluidity to it. There's gray areas. And when you get to gray areas, it’s not ‘You have to be on this step and it has to be in this specific inch.’ It's how you expand your range in all facets of the game. And the only way to do that is to teach irregularity and some randomness to it. I'm sure you've heard coaches say, ‘Never pancake a ball’ or ‘Never one-hand dig.’ Well, I don't know. I see a lot of pancakes and one-handed digs at the national team level, international level.

I always joke about not being a robot. Well, robotic is, ‘You take four steps and you jump this way and it has to be this set. It has to be this thing.’ And I think the more that we get away from that, the more exciting this game is, the more fun this game is, and the better we become.

I think a lot of coaches you'll hear across the country will say, ‘You got to square up, you got to square up.’ If you look at some of the best setters internationally, they don't always square up. They set from the side. They'll back set when you think it's not possible. They'll go from 40 feet and set a gap off the net. They will do things that you go, ‘Wow, that was quick.’ You know, they will do some things that are just, people go, you know, that's not fundamental or that's not the way, and it actually is the way. It's the way the top players play.

A good example of this would be think of Steph Curry. Remember when Steph Curry came in the game, and he was shooting these threes from half court, and people would go, like, ‘You don't do that.’ Well, now all of a sudden, every young kid is doing that, right? But the real reason why he was doing that was it expands the floor, so now the big men can't come out and guard him. Joel Embiid could go out there, but Joel Embiid can't go all the way to half court, because that spreads everything open, and then Draymond Green is open, all these guys are open, and so it created such a havoc for the defense.

So, being a creative setter and setting the balls that people don't think you can or should, and then you have confidence and connection with your hitters, can really open up the game, if that makes sense.”

I’ll bet you weren’t expecting to read about Joel Embiid when you clicked on this article, but Keller’s point is well-taken. By allowing Tuaniga to play in the improvisational style she’s best suited for, he gives his offense a new dimension of unpredictability that leaves blockers guessing and reaching at air.

“I like being a deceptive setter,” Tuaniga explained. “I try to be as finesse and swag as possible. My dad and my brother would always tell me to try and be two to three steps ahead of everybody else. Whenever I'm approaching the ball, I'm trying to keep the blockers eyes on me as long as possible before taking their eyes off, so they’re stuck on looking at me the whole time.”

“It’s like, right when they have to leave, they don't know where they're going, if that makes sense. And I like to play around a lot with the way I set, so sometimes I'll set like this and like that or like different ways,” she added, with gestures.

Tuaniga, who had been a successful server in 2022, took a step backward in that area as a junior. She put down an impressive total of 58 aces during her second season. Last year, she was much less efficient and her ace total drooped to 32, far outweighed by the 86 errors she hit from the line.

A big reason why she struggled last year was because of a leg injury she suffered in the second to last game of her sophomore season. She utilizes a jump serve that is uncommon in the women’s game at the college level and which was greatly impacted by the nagging issues in her lower half.

“Last spring and summer, I was injured the whole time. I actually got cleared a week before season, so my rep count on my jump serve wasn't, you know, in the thousands. I don't want to blame it on that, but it's tough going into season without getting a lot of reps on a jump serve. This past spring has just been about building that confidence back up and building that flow again,” said Tuaniga.

This offseason, the USC coaching staff played every card they could to solve Tuaniga’s issues at their root rather than just throwing her to the wolves again this fall.

“I think she played through a lot of pain, but she wasn't able to get her strength, so we were able to shut her down afterwards and really build her back up and get her strong,” said Keller. “She changed everything from her lifting, her sleeping habits, nutrition, we really did a deep dive into that to help her out. She really grabbed onto it, she's in the best shape I've seen her in, she's agile, she's fast, she's jumping really a lot higher.”

Getting her health in order will unlock a whole new gear for Tuaniga. Healthy legs will mean, not only more power behind her jump serve, but also more confidence at the net and better agility when making out-of-system digs. Keller expressed that she’s matured noticeably through the process of battling her injury and finally going through a real recovery process. She’s not about to lose her joy in the game, though. She considers it a work of servanthood to lift her teammates up and help everyone perform at their best.

“My team knows that I can dance around during lift and, you know, have a dance battle with Adonia (Faumuina), but still probably squat 250 at the end of the day. You know what I mean? I'm still here yelling at people's faces to get them hyped up, but the inner fire, the inner intensity, the inner passion, that all just comes from my why. That all comes from my confidence being in God and not just my confidence being in what I can do for myself,” she said.

Some teams weighing Tuaniga as a potential draft prospect will be put off by her outside the box thinking on the court. Those who are intrigued by it will want to see her bring back the old fire at the service line. She’ll also need to continue to prove that she can play an atypical style effectively; pro teams in any sport are unforgiving toward athletes who do things their own way when it goes poorly.

Another factor that could come into play is the fact Tuaniga comes from a famous volleyball family. Her brother was a two-time champion at Long Beach State and plays for the American men’s national team. Bloodlines don’t matter to everyone, but many coaches eat that stuff up, betting on the winner’s mentality that comes along with being raised in a household with other proven players.

Tuaniga herself has been piling up awards, including muliple All-Pac 12 teams and a preseason All-Big 10 placement this year. She was also selected to play on the 2024 USA Volleyball Women's Collegiate National Team alongside Stanford setter Kami Miner. She wants to go pro, and she’s on track to make it happen. She just needs to cross the finish line strong in 2024.

“I believe fully in Mia,” Keller said intently. “I think Mia is the real deal as a person, as a player. I think she has massive upside in the international game. I think she's got the mind for it. I think she has the work ethic for it. I think she has the physicality for it. I think the last part that a lot of people don't really talk about is, how do you want to...”

There he paused, gathering his thoughts.

“This is your last shot. This is your last five to six months. I think the way you behave and the way you act is going to be pretty important coming up in the next five to six months. That's probably the conversation we'll have. It'll be a good one.”

Some quotes were lightly edited for clarity. To watch full USC games, click here and here.