The Wake

Six years ago, Paula Gentil (Jen-SHU) wouldn’t have dreamt about playing volleyball for the Minnesota Gophers. At 16 years of age, Gentil left her hometown of Fortaleza, Brazil to add English to her native Portuguese. Gentil traveled to Orlando, Fla. and enrolled at Lake Highland Prep School. She planned to spend six months there, learn English and come back home to her family. Six years later, Paula is still in America, she’s merely moved from Florida’s southeast tip to Minnesota’s Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Gophers head volleyball coach Mike Hebert stumbled onto a volleyball gem he refused to lose sight of. “When you walk by a court and out of the corner of your eye you catch someone moving and darting, doing things that are instinctive and intuitive the way Paula does, you stop and watch,” says Hebert of when he first spotted Gentil at a club volleyball tournament in Florida. “She has a special gift that was immediately evident.”

Now entering the final stretch of her senior season, this 5-foot-9-inch libero – a defensive, backcourt position – has developed her gift to become one of Minnesota’s most accomplished volleyball players in program history. As part of a senior class of three, along with Jessica Byrnes and Athena Mallakis, Gentil aided Minnesota to its first ever Big Ten Championship, an NCAA Final Four appearance and a National Title match. Over the past four years, Minnesota has won 79.8 percent of its matches – posting an overall record of 115-29; including a record of 64-16 in conference play.

Hebert says it’ll be hard for him to part ways with a defensive wizard like Gentil. “She’s had a wonderful career,” says Hebert, “I’m obviously sad [Minnesota] will have to find someone new to pass the ball, but it’s going to be the end of a great run by her, a historic run.”

“We are very proud of her,” says Paula’s mother who resides in Brazil, but traveled for Paula’s final regular season match against Purdue on Nov. 26. “She always was very athletic, she played volleyball, swimming, squash, tennis, whatever it was to stay active.”

Paula’s sister reflected on memories of Paula’s childhood as well. “We played a lot and were always fighting with each other,” adds her sister, “but we always loved each other a lot too.”

Gentil’s intuition has served her well as a libero – a unique position that requires excellent vision and quickness. “She’s really good at seeing things before they happen,” says Gentil’s mother, “Paula can read the court well. She’s very intuitive.” Unlike every other volleyball position, liberos are not allowed to attack the ball in front of the 10-foot attack line – which separates the front and back of the court. As one of the nation’s premiere liberos, a typical play for Paula is as follows:

Before a serve, Paula loosely sways her arms, anticipating the ball’s flight. She quickly detects the ball, and dives, slides or jumps to where she sees the ball heading. Then, to prevent the ball from reaching the floor, Paula uses one of a plethora of her defensive maneuvers to deflect the ball and, at the same time, prop it up so a teammate has a clean look at the ball.

Successfully saving the ball from hitting the floor and keeping the play alive is a “dig.” Getting a dig, Paula says, is her favorite aspect of volleyball. “To play a big hitter who hits the crap out of the ball and I deny her of a kill, that feels good,” says Gentil. “Here I am this little person and I’m not letting her score the ball.”

One achievement Gentil has yet to reach is a national championship. Minnesota came close last year, but lost the title match 3-0 to Stanford after an unfortunate blow to Paula’s neck aggravated an injury from a car accident last fall, and consequently removed her from the match.

Minnesota brings a 24-7 into the 2005 playoffs, along with a healthy Gentil. Coach Hebert feels the Gophers are playing their best volleyball of the season. Whether or not the Gophers win the championship, Paula’s legacy will forever be cemented in the hearts of Gopher volleyball fans.