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She made the Final Four as a member of the Louisville Cardinals in 2024, but when it was time to find a place where she could train and get advice, former Arizona volleyball star Sofia Maldonado Diaz came back to Tucson to join forces with the Wildcats and head coach Rita Stubbs.
The former Arizona pin hitter has been busy since finishing at Louisville last December. She spent some time playing in Romania immediately after college and then played several tournament with the Mexican national team over the summer.
“I was done with the national team,” Maldonado Diaz said. “It was like, at the end of September. I had October and November free…I was like, I need to stay in shape, keep playing. So I’ve been texting Rita even before. She texts me and she said, if you want to come around…we can make that possible that you can practice with us, help us. So I was like, of course, if I can help you guys, I will, and at the same time I’m helping myself to keep playing.”
Maldonado Diaz graduated from Arizona. She spent just over four months in Louisville after spending four years in the Old Pueblo. She may have reached the most glory in Kentucky, but her formative years weren’t spent there.
She’s not the first Wildcat to express or demonstrate ties to the program after transferring for her fifth year. Former Arizona libero Kamaile Hiapo spent her final year at BYU in 2023. In her first pro season, she talked about her time as a Wildcat.
“I hope Arizona still claims me, because I still claim Arizona,” Hiapo said in 2024.
After spending some time back in Mexico with her family, Maldonado Diaz will return to Arizona for a brief period. After that, she’s headed to Major League Volleyball’s Dallas Pulse for the 2026 season.
MLV came about when one of the PVF teams threatened to leave the league and start another one, called Major League Volleyball. It consists of several new teams, including the Pulse, and most of the old PVF teams. The merger gives the U.S. three pro leagues instead of the four that would have existed if the Omaha Supernovas had successfully left the PVF and established a separate league.
The new league was attractive to Maldonado Diaz, who has been expressing a desire to play in the U.S. since her final year at Arizona. However, it wasn’t the first offer she had.
“I was actually first talking to a team in Brazil, and I kind of like verbally commit to them, but then this the coach from Dallas—she’s Canadian, and one of my coaches in the [Mexican] national team, they’re all Italians, but they know her because international tournaments,” Maldonado Diaz said.
“So they started talking, and then that connection was really easy,” she added. “And I wanted to go back to the U.S., at least at least at the beginning of my pro career, you know? And then if I can jump to like Europe or Italy, I’ll love that.”
Up Next for Arizona Volleyball
Arizona Wildcats (14-9, 8-5) @ No. 8 Arizona State Sun Devils (20-3, 11-1)
When: Thursday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. MST
Where: Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
Streaming:ESPN+
Stats:Arizona Live Stats
Training in Tucson before heading to Texas is mutually beneficial. Not only does Maldonado Diaz get the opportunity to prepare with the help of people she knows and trusts, but Arizona gets a professional pin hitter on its scout team to help the Wildcats prepare for its opponents.
“She’s able to do anything that we need, from a scout perspective,” Stubbs said. “It’s also giving her reps. And then it’s always nice when you have someone come back, in terms of being alumni and just being around and talking about the things that she’s experienced.”
It’s about more than the physical preparation, too. Maldonado Diaz remains close to retired Arizona head coach Dave Rubio, who has been helping advise her. His years in the sport, including as a facilitator in the Athletes Unlimited professional volleyball league, helps him provide guidance as she navigates her career.
The next step in her pro career means another position switch. Maldonado Diaz was a middle blocker in high school and for the Mexican national youth teams. She was listed as an outside hitter when she came to Arizona, but she switched to opposite due to the composition of the team. She continued at opposite after transferring to Louisville. Dallas is moving her to the outside again. It’s something that Maldonado Diaz is looking forward to.
“She wanted an outside, so I’m going there as an outside,” Maldonado Diaz said. “That’s another thing, because I’ve been playing opposite for like, my last four years, I don’t know. And they started talking about me, and then I talked to her on the phone, and she was like, I don’t know if you feel comfortable going to the outside because you haven’t been playing there for long. So that’s something that I’m really looking for. Now I got to pass, I have to do more things. That is really excited, so exciting.”
That brings an old nemesis back: passing. When Maldonado Diaz was considering where to transfer in the spring of 2024, she had a major question to consider. Would she go to a lower-level program that would allow her to continue playing six rotations for development purposes, or would she go to a high-level program that would allow her to experience the glories of postseason winning but not allow her to play back row? After talking to trusted advisors, she chose the latter.
“It was amazing,” Maldonado Diaz said. “Of course, after being, like, four years here, it was kind of hard to leave also, because I was used to to the coaches, to the teammates, but at the end of the day, it was really good getting to the Final Four and everything. I knew I had that chance. And I knew it was a little bit harder decision too, because I knew my role on the team was going to be different. But I talked a lot to Dave, too. Of course, I told Rita. I let her know at the moment my thoughts about it, and they also helped me to take the decision. So it was amazing. It was so different. You know, it was short time period, so I just tried to learn as much as possible.”
She’s still working on her passing in practices, but playing on the right side means she hasn’t done much of it in a competitive environment since her time at Arizona.
“I mean, I don’t know,” Maldonado Diaz answered when asked about the quality of her passing these days. “It’s really different. I try to do the techniques that my national team coach gave me this summer. I was really passing in practice. Like, all my practices, I was passing in the national team. Of course, in the games, I was opposite…I mean, to not be passing that many years.”
She’s committed to improving, though.
“I really like passing actually,” Maldonado Diaz said. “It’s one of the skills that I enjoy the most, because it’s like, you need so many like reps. So it’s just about reps, reps, reps and technique. And I really like it. I, of course, my freshman, sophomore years, I was passing here also as an opposite. So I, I know I did that before. It’s just like getting into it again, you know? I mean, it’s fun. I really like it also like having not just like to hit and block and play defense like, you know, to add their reception and everything.”
She has made an impact with the Mexican national team, where she’s now not only on the senior team’s roster but actually playing in matches. She’s also providing the current Wildcats a view of what it means to be a professional.
“We have several players that want to play at that next level,” Stubbs said. “And what that next level looks like, they don’t necessarily understand it on a day to day basis, but they see her routine. They see what she’s about and what she experienced when she was at Louisville. And that says a lot to them. It’s like, okay, I have to be able to dial in. I remember watching her do this. I see her do this now and just being professional about it.”
But having an example or a scout opponent isn’t the only thing that pleases Stubbs.
“At the end of the day, what I tell all the players is that I want to be invited to the wedding, and I figure if someone comes back, then you’re someone that they think is important or that you had an impact on their life,” she said. “You never take those things for granted.”
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