“It’s kind of like a child’s dream,” Orzol said, “but I’ve always wanted to have a coffee shop. I’m thinking of my direction after volleyball, having more of a stable life, staying in one place after traveling all the time.

‘So this is my idea that I want to do. We’ll see how it ends up but I still have this vision. I love the vibe. People come to meet with each other. Nobody is sad in those places. And it’s full of coffee and I love coffee.”

The coffee shop, of course, will have to wait, as Orzol focuses on another love — volleyball.

Orzol already has made quite a splash in her chosen sport, earning Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year honors as she provided a spark that helped the University of Wisconsin to its first national championship last season.

“It was a remarkable year,” coach Kelly Sheffield said, especially considering that she had never been on campus or even in the United States before arriving just at the start of preseason practice. “The kid plays six rotations, battles through some health issues. She takes some really important, gutty swings for us. There’s just no fear.”

Orzol averaged 2.83 kills per set as a freshman, second on the team behind All-American Dana Rettke (3.41). She also played a pivotal role as a passer, where she fielded 758 serves, by far the most of any player on the roster. Lauren Barnes was second with 478 serves received.

“She was a big-time passer for us,” Sheffield said. “She graded out as the highest passing outside in the conference. As the season went on she was taking an incredible load for us. She was taking quite a few swings and there were teams that were putting every serve on her, trying to wear her down.

“The thing with her that I really liked was if there was an error you could always count on her to come back and stick the next one. When the games were close and on the line, I’m not sure there was anyone better. She was really good in those situations.”

Orzol understood why opponents were targeting her and didn’t take it personally.

“I had that question but the answer was that I’m like the fresh blood on this team so everybody wants to go at you,” she said. “You have Barnes and Gio (Civita) right next to you, so I would choose me, too. I feel like it made me work under the pressure and I feel like I was pretty consistent. It wasn’t perfect but I was consistent.”

All about the feet

And she did it all while playing a good chunk of the season with a stress fracture in her left leg. That may have been the result of playing an extended season, joining the program fresh off of playing with the Polish national team.

Another factor could’ve been a habit of landing on her left foot on every jump. That’s something she’s been working on this spring, trying to teach herself to land on two feet.

“I remember all my life that everybody would tell me you land on one foot,” she said. “It’s time to change that. It’s kind of unnatural because all of those years you’re doing it and now you have to change everything. I have to constantly remind myself. It’s not automatic but we have a few more months until the season to do that.”

Orzol’s legs will get a little break as she will be shut down for the team’s final two spring matches — Sunday against Marquette at Mukwonago and April 15 against Northern Iowa at Dubuque, Iowa — and will only do light work in practice.

Thinking of her homeland

Aside from the injury, Orzol said the toughest thing about the season was not seeing her parents in the stands.

“They would find a way to be at all my games,” she said. “When we had the world championships in Belgium, all the stands were empty but they were like the only people there. Sometimes you feel their presence and it’s comforting in some kind of way.”

Orzol was able to relieve her homesickness by spending a month at home during winter break. Her mind still drifts to Poland these days, but for a different reason. Poland shares a border with war-ravaged Ukraine and has provided refuge to more than 2 million people fleeing Ukraine in just over a month.

Orzol said her family in Olsztyn in northern Poland is safe, but she feels for the flood of refugees in the southern part of Poland.

“I’m so proud of Poland because people are doing an amazing job,” she said. “The stories I hear from friends, how they engage and try to help, I can’t even imagine it. It’s also like history because we went through the same things 80 years ago. The same things happened to us and we heard those stories from our grandmas and grandpas.

“So everybody knows how it feels and everybody will do everything to stop it. But we can’t do much politically right now, but we can help them. It’s scary that we didn’t learn the lesson, that the world didn’t learn. Maybe not the world, but some people in the world.”

Hitting the road

While her thoughts are always with her homeland, Orzol took advantage of spring break to do some exploring of the U.S. Taking a cue from teammate and noted explorer Danielle Hart, Orzol headed west.

She rode along with Hart on the first leg of the trip to Denver, where she met up with her best friend from Poland, Kasia Partyka, who plays volleyball for Wyoming after transferring from Long Beach State. “We were roommates for four years in Poland,” Orzol said. “We’re very close, like sisters, I would say.”

The two friends headed to Southern Utah, where they caught a sunrise in Bryce Canyon National Park and joined the crowds at Zion National Park before taking off for Southern California. They got to Malibu to see the sunset and then spent a couple days doing tourist things in Los Angeles — “That wasn’t our favorite place” — though they did enjoy the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Hollywood Trail.

Next up was a trip down to the Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade and then stops at Huntington and Manhattan beaches. On Manhattan Beach they came across a group of former professional beach players, ranging in age from the late 50s to 70, who get together three times a week.

Partyka started talking with them and soon they were invited to come and play with them. “We played beach volleyball for like two hours with them,” Orzol said. “It was so fun.

“It was a lot of things to do in a week. If we could plan in a better way, we would definitely stay in the national parks. I’m a person that loves nature and spending time there. America has so many beautiful natural places. We’re already talking about next spring that we want to see Arizona or Oregon.”

She met up with Hart in Denver and hitched a ride back to Madison and set about taking her game up another level. She sees her biggest area of growth being able to assert herself as a leader.

“Last year I couldn’t embrace that because we had amazing leaders on our team and I was all over the place,” she said. “I wasn’t the person you go to and ask things. I want to be that person but there were so many things happening. So I feel like this is my area for growth, to be a leader, a rock, someone who can stay stable when everything is going on around.”

Sheffield expects Orzol’s influence will only grow throughout her career.

“She’s a baller,” he said. “She’s a kid that makes the game easier for others. She does the little things. She’s kind of a glue kid. Loves to play the game. Loves being in the gym. She has this positive energy that is really contagious and she affects people with that as well.

“She has so many different impactful points. With how she approaches training, her curiosity, her drive and her commitment to take care of her body, I think the more she gets comfortable, the better and better she’s going to be.”