--Courtesy of Chapman Athletics--


ORANGE, Calif.— On a late afternoon in mid-September, a 6-foot-3 middle waltzed into the Hutton Sports Center. She ties up her long black silky hair in a ponytail and ties up her shoes. She gathers around with her position group and begins jumping and blocking drills to start of her 2.5-hour practice.

Her coaches walk over and start motivating her just enough.

To jump a bit higher, to block a bit harder, to hit a bit stronger. To prepare the budding star to break more records.

That's Chapman volleyball's breakthrough player Ava Bradbury.

The junior middle blocker didn't start playing club until her sophomore year of high school. A year later, she finally made the varsity team. Bradbury started reaching out to college coaches to play at the next level in the spring of junior year. Many told her it was too late.

But Bradbury loves challenges.

Pressure makes diamonds

In just over three years, she proved them wrong. Bradbury broke the Chapman volleyball program record for blocks in a single season with 125. She was also named the Chapman Athletics Sophomore Women's Sports Athlete of the Year and named to the All-SCIAC Team.

"I always perform better under coaches that place pressure on me," Bradbury said. "When they are harder on me, it motivates me."

While many barely survive under outside pressure, Bradbury thrives.

Growing up in Seattle, Wash., Bradbury tried many sports. She did soccer, track and field and even tried basketball. But nothing felt quite the same as volleyball. When she went out for the team in sixth grade, she got cut. In seventh grade, she was cut again. In ninth grade, she made freshman team at her high school. In tenth grade, Bradbury made junior varsity. Then, something clicked.

She won the Most Improved Player award back-to-back years.

"I play because I love it," Bradbury said. "I started at the right time."

In an era of early age sport specialization, she credits her success to starting later and being more emotionally prepared to handle the pressure.

The kind that can burst pipes, or in cases like Bradbury, create diamonds.
  
The Breakthrough Season

When longtime Chapman volleyball head coach Mary Cahill received recruitment emails from Bradbury, she could sense the potential but knew it would take time. Bradbury appeared in just two sets her freshman season in 2024. But by August 2025, Cahill could feel the break through coming.

"When she started blocking that ball, it would just go straight down," Cahill says. "I looked over at (assistant coach and former player) Corrine (Blaine) and knew immediately that we had someone who could do well defensively."  

In 2025, Bradbury ranked 16^th nationally for total blocks among NCAA Division III players. She cracked the starting lineup, and her coach began challenging her. Cahill is in her 37^th season as head coach at Chapman and always hoped she would break through, even if the middle thought otherwise.

"I knew I wanted to get better and to cheer on my teammates," Bradbury said. "I surprised myself."

In addition to being the Sophomore Women's Sports Athlete of the Year, she was also nominated for the Chapman Athletics Breakthrough Athlete of the Year.

While it was a bit of a shock to her, Bradbury's roommate, teammate and fellow starter and close friend Kelsey Magley were aligned with Cahill. She is a team captain and the program's starting setter.

"I was hoping she would break out," Magley says. "I knew she was going to do a lot for the team. There was a role that needed to be filled, and she filled it."

Teammates, Roommates and (Boeing) Co-Workers

Magley was also sitting next to Bradbury when she won the Athlete of the Year award. The announcement left them both stunned, and Magley had to nudge her teammate towards the stage.

Beyond the court, Magley says her favorite memories with her roommate include eating in the cafeteria each day, and watching Bradbury score a massive internship with another former teammate.

"Everyone looks up to her," Magley said. "She showcases herself so well. She puts 100 percent effort into everything she does."

Bradbury is a Business Administration major in Argyros College of Business and Economics. During the summer, she served as a Supply Chain Intern at Boeing in Everett, Wash. In her role, the business student assisted with supply chain operations for airplanes that carries traveler across the world. Little did she know just how small that world can be.

Bradbury's former Chapman teammate Annika Ruud, who graduated from Chapman in 2025, works full time at Boeing in Supply Chain In-Service Supplier Performance. When Bradbury earned her internship in the same department, Ruud began mentoring her former teammate.

"She learns so quickly, she is very professional and picks up on things fast," Ruud said. "I knew she was going to be special from day one."

Ruud and Bradbury were both middle blockers at Chapman in 2024. The two bonded in their position group back then and reunited this summer at the company in Everett. They walked the factory floors together observing materials for the planes moving through the supply chain. When they met up, the two sent a selfie to Cahill, their current and former coach.

"It makes me proud," Cahill says. "This is why you go to college, to play your sport and to already have that internship. I just think it is great."

Bradbury also traveled to Charleston, S.C. where she spent a week observing the Boeing Manufacturing process. She saw this for materials such as exit rows, seat numbers and other vital signage for modern day air travel. Something she admits has now changed her perspective on air travel.

"It's never something I thought about before either and it was crazy to see," Bradbury said. "When I fly on a plane, I just think to myself that 'this is weird that I know way more than I thought I would."

Whether she is walking manufacturing floors of a place that builds aircrafts, or competing on hardwood of Chapman's home gym, Bradbury's mentality remains the same.

"I thrive off the pressure," she said. 

As she leads the Panthers into SCIAC play, the pressure continues to mount. Luckily, it created Chapman's diamond in the rough— Ava Bradbury.