Currently the only international athlete for beach volleyball, Guatemala-native Mandi Orellana is one of the few international student athletes representing the University.
Orellana’s journey to become an athlete started at a very young age. Since she was a child, she knew she wanted to study in the United States and throughout the years, she worked hard by training and studying English to be able to do so.
Orellana’s said one of her biggest role models has been her Guatemalan national teammate and older sister Maria Jose “Majo”. Orellana and her sister are 15 years apart in age, but that hasn’t stopped them from playing together.
“My sister is like a dreamer, when she wants something, she works very very hard for it, and I always admired that from her,.” Mandi Orellana said.
Volleyball wasn’t Orellana’s first option. Because many of her family members played the game, she wanted to try something different. She did gymnastics when she was a child, and later on she swam, played softball, tennis and badminton.
Despite dabbling in other sports, Orellana never stuck with any of them for long — until she was 14 and started playing volleyball.
“My parents played indoor and my sister did too long time ago,” Orellana said. “Both my parents and my sister had a lot of injuries, especially in their knees, so when my sister moved to the beach there was no going back. I tried beach and I love it and I don’t even want to try indoor, I really like it, is just two people and you get to play more.”
Majo, is the director of San Diego Beach Volleyball Club in California, and Orellana wanted to follow her footsteps in playing the sport.. After searching for scholarships, she was attracted to LSU.
“I wanted to stay in California, but California is super big and they don’t have too much money for internationals,” Orellana said. “So I looked for a place where I could have a scholarships, so that’s why I came here and I love it.”
Orellana said she came to the university with no expectations. LSU isn’t well known in her home country of Guatemala. When Orellana finally got to join the university she felt welcomed and surprised.
“I didn’t think it was this cool,” Orellana said. ”I never thought it was going to be this big and it’s awesome. I love it.”
Orellana said that beach volleyball in Guatemala is not that big, being a country of only 14 million people, most focus goes into different sports but mainly soccer. Orellana wanted to be better and she knew that the place to be was the United States.
Orellana is one out of the three female Guatemalan beach volleyball players currently playing at a collegiate level, the other two are playing at Florida International University.
Orellana said adapting wasn’t easy. As most international athletes, she had to leave her life behind including family and friends to follow her dreams. She said that one of the biggest challenges was to adapt to the different culture and environments but that the transition was worth it because she is chasing her dream playing beach volleyball as she gets her degree.
Oellana’s love for sports is so vast that she is currently majoring in kinesiology, with the hope of practicing physical therapy and staying near the sport she loves.
During her first year at LSU, Orellana and teammate Katie Lindelow became the first pair to receive an invitation to compete in the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
On May 2, Lindelow and Orellana were two points and a set shy from getting into the Sweet Sixteen when Orellana had to retire due to leg cramps while playing the match against Pepperdine University.
Orellana was also named on the SEC First Year Academic Honor Roll and received the Mikey award, similar to ESPN’s the ESPY’s that are voted on by the student-athletes for being the best LSU international female athlete.
For Orellana, this summer was critical. Many years of hard work where finally paying off.
Orellana’s dream of representing Guatemala with her sister in the biggest stages became a reality. The Guatemalan duo was scheduled to participate in the AFECAVOL Central American Cup, The FIVB World Championships and the Pan American Games.
However the road back to LSU was unforgivingly bumpy.
First the duo went to the Central American Cup in Honduras.
Orellana said the location where they played was not in any condition to hold any type of competition and that the location allegedly held a private party a few days before the tournament. Orellana said that several athletes found broken glass, wire, cans of beer and even forks in the sand.
“The sand was very shallow and my sister got hurt, so we had to forfeit and we didn’t play anymore, even though we were first in our pool but it wasn’t worth it because we were going to the World Championships.” said Orellana.
After their forfeit, the duo headed back to San Diego to recover and prepare for the World Championships that happens only every four years.
“For our country, it was the first time going to the World Cup, and it was by points as a country not as a team. So we qualified and we were the team that they chose because we were going to play at the Pan Am games together” Orellana said.
Despite being an incredible experience for such a young athlete, Orellana was overwhelmed by the level and the stage that she was playing at. With 19 years of age she was only the second youngest player in the whole tournament where most of the players age range average from 29-34 years old.
“We weren’t used to everything, like having cameras around you and all the crowd and music,” Orellana said. “It was overwhelming, but it was fun and different.”
In its debut, the duo fell against Canada and in the second game against Kazakhstan. Orellana’s dream flipped in a matter of seconds to any athlete’s worst nightmare.
In the 24th minute of the match, Mandi jumped toward the ball and when she landed she torn her ACL. The duo had to forfeit the match and Mandi was rushed to the hospital to get an MRI test where the doctors shortly confirmed the injury.
Orellana said that despite the pain she left with one of the best experiences of her life.
“It is an honor to be able to represent a country and mostly in the world championships and having the opportunity to play with my sister it’s the best feeling ever, I don’t have words to explain it,” Orellana said. 
Due to the long-term recovery of the injury, Orellana had to also forfeit on one of her biggest dreams which was going to the Pan American games with her sister.
The University helped cover the cost of the surgery because of Orellana’s scholarship. She is not able to walk without support yet, but she attends therapy and daily rehab and should be ready for the 2016 season in March.
“That’s what I want to do. I want to play my for my whole life,” Orellana said. “I really like this game.”

Gallery • 6 Photos

Javier Fernández

Maria Andrea Orellana is recovering from tearing her ACL in the 2015 FIVB World Championships in Netherland while playing a match against Kazakhstan.