Over the summer, Washington State Athletics will release a series of feature stories profiling Cougar student-athletes. These feature stories are written by current or recently graduated students from Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The latest story highlights WSU volleyball's Argentina Ung.
Washington State volleyball's starting setter Argentina Ung — now entering her second season at the controls of the Cougars' offense — traveled more than 800 miles from her family and friends in Mexico to play the game she's dominated at competitive levels since she was young. A similar path to collegiate volleyball in the Pacific Northwest was later copied by her younger sister just 30 miles down the road, at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, where Grecia Ung Enriquez played the past two seasons for the Warriors.
"When we were little, we were super competitive. When we got older, we started playing together and it became more like teamwork,"
Argentina Ung said of playing alongside her younger sibling.
This spring, with fewer team commitments, the sisters got together frequently. It is a nice connection to home for the sisters who have competed together since the Ung started playing competitive volleyball at age nine. Her father, Roberto Ung, the Mexican National Team's U19 men's coach, created a volleyball club called "Buhitas" or "Little Birds," which consisted of the two Ung sisters, and a team of five girls. Buhitas is now one of the most successful volleyball clubs in Mexico, with more than 500 members, boys and girls, Ung said.
Ung was the starting setter for the Mexican National Team in the FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship in Egypt when
Burdette Greeny, WSU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, traveled to watch her play. Greeny made a recruiting trip to Mexico and offered her a position on the WSU volleyball team. Ung said her teammates treated her like a sister right away.
Argentina Ung had 10.13 assists/set to go along with an attack pct of .301 with .85 kills/set as well as a .77 blocks/set average in her first season as the Cougars' starting setter in 2022.
Connections with teammates are important to Ung, who still connects with old teammates when she visits her hometown of Hermosillo in Sonora, Mexico. While there are more differences than similarities between the cultures of Hermosillo and Pullman, Ung has found her pre- and post-game traditions to be equally fun in both countries.
In Mexico, she and her family go to a taco truck or a hot dog stand after games, whereas in Pullman, they get coffees before games on Fridays.
When she was the youngest player on the team at WSU, Ung felt the leadership role should go to one of the teammates with more seniority, she said "Now that I'm older, I am more conscience as a setter. It took time and experience in order to get in that leadership role, but now I can feel my teammates trust me more," she said.
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