Chesterton junior Luca Bombacino’s commitment to the University of Michigan to play volleyball on scholarship has her family for reasons that include access to seats in the Big House for The Game

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

In the late stages of Monday’s girls volleyball practice in Chesterton’s gymnasium, junior Luca Bombacino soared to deliver a steep, whistling comet that looked as though it surely would crash to the floor for a point.
Nope. Tenley Davis went down and dug it in the nick of time and put the ball in a perfect spot to facilitate what ended up being a point for her side.
Welcome to Division I volleyball, Luca.
“She scared me with that one,” Davis said of the searing shot she so adroitly handled.
Bombacino: “That was a great pass. I love playing with Ten. She’s such a great player and I’ve looked up to her for so long. Just getting to play together is really nice. She always pushes me.”
When Bombacino heads to Ann Arbor to the University of Michigan, where she committed last June to play volleyball on scholarship, she won’t be shocked at the tough competition she will face daily, thanks to Davis. And when Davis shows up at Loyola of Chicago next fall, she won’t feel overwhelmed at anything she sees in practice, thanks to Bombacino. They both face tons of top talent in club volleyball as well, of course, but there’s nothing like playing with and against another great talent daily.
Iron sharpens iron.
Bombacino’s talent and passion for her favorite sport have led to more than her landing more than a Big Ten volleyball scholarship. She and her parents are planning to attend one of the greatest rivalries in sports in November. Hint: It’s known as The Game and the team against which they will root calls itself “THE” Ohio State University and refers to the Wolverines as “the team up north.”
Seats at the Big House for The Game, Nov. 29, a dream for any sports fan. Times 10 for her father.
“He is thrilled. He’s so excited. He has more Michigan gear than I do. He has pairs of shoes with Michigan on them. He has a watch. He has so many things with Michigan on them” Luca said. “My dad’s been a Michigan fan his whole life. He actually went to St. Xavier for basketball, but he’s always been a huge Michigan fan, so he’s just ecstatic with me going there.”
So is his daughter.
“It’s amazing for football games,” Luca said. “The population is about 200,000 and it doubles for football games. It’s amazing. It’s such a good college town. I didn’t want too rural or too city like I feel like it’s the perfect in between.”
Father and daughter attended a Rutgers game there last October.
Luca returned to the campus in May to participate in a volleyball camp and check out the school on an unofficial visit.
While there, she said that she was able to play against current Michigan players and used that as a gage for her own abilities: “I thought ‘I could see myself playing at this level. I’m at the point where I can play with these girls.’ It was pretty exciting.”
Michigan coaches obviously shared that opinion because on June 15, the first day that coaches are allowed talk to potential recruits who are between their sophomore and junior seasons without it being at a camp on their campus, she heard from Michigan.
“June 15th, that was chaotic. Most of the coaches text to schedule calls. I had probably about 200 texts,” Bombacino said. “I scheduled calls with the top schools that I really wanted to talk to. Michigan was one of the first ones I talked to, and after that first call, I was like this is really one of my top schools, if not my top school.”
She said Northwestern, Auburn, Iowa, Notre Dame and Michigan State were among the other schools she spoke with on the phone. She didn’t waste much time in making her decision and committed to Michigan.
“I loved every bit of my visit there,” she said. “No other camp I went to really measured up to it. It was everything I wanted.”
Her official campus visit is scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11 (Friday and Saturday) and part of it includes meeting other girls who have committed to play at Michigan, which people involved in Ohio State refer to as “that school from up north.” Watching a Michigan volleyball match vs. Iowa at Cliff Keen Arena with future teammates is on the itinerary.
Bombacino easily passed the test when asked to name Michigan’s official school colors. She flashed a huge grin: “Maize and blue!”