Bermuda volleyball player Leticia Ferreira was back on island over the weekend for the Bermuda Open after completing her first season playing for Mount Allison University in Canada.

The former Mount Saint Agnes Academy pupil said that even though the playing standard was “insane”, she could not wait to come back to play for her coaches in Bermuda.

“It was very different,” Ferreira said of her first year with the Mounties in Sackville, New Brunswick, who finished 8-14 on the season.

“It was very challenging, but the coaches here prepared me really well for it. The level play there is insane. We’re not even at university level, just college level, but even then, the games are very tough.

“We didn’t win a lot, but we came together as a team and played a best. Practices were every day of the week and on Wednesdays we had 6am practices.

“We came sixth out of eight, but we had seven rookies coming in, and when we have a lot of new players we just have to work around it and get the team to bond and I think that’s one of the reasons why we didn’t come first.

“It’s funny because when the season ended I had so much free time. Volleyball takes a lot of time from my week. We don’t have practice on Fridays because we travel and play on the weekend.

“The standard is really high. We have to have a really good excuse to miss practice and we have to manage our time really well. So much time management comes into play, because you have to know when to study on the bus, because you have a test on Monday.”

Ferreira was playing as a libero for the Red Aces over the weekend. The Red Aces, one of two squads formed from the Bermuda women’s team, won the consolation round of the Bermuda Open and Ferreira was delighted to be reunited with coaches Elisabeth Rae and Gary LeBlanc.

“I’m so happy to be back,” she said. “It’s so warm outside, but that’s not why I’m so happy! I’m so happy because I really miss my coaches and because the level of play is not as high as in Canada, the coaches are really good here. I do get a lot of playing time here, I do get a lot of coaching experiences from Beth and Gary.

“I really like this tournament because I get to play with people that I know. It’s just really nice.

“All the girls are practicing for the national team now, but they split it up. I got put on a team and just played. Three of us — me, Sophia Sontag and Mi’Jon Bridges — have been on the national team for quite a while now and the other ladies are new.”

Playing libero — the defensive specialist who wears a different coloured jersey to the rest of the team — was a new experience for Ferreira, who is usually a setter, who normally plays the second ball.

“Gary has taught me how to be fast,” she said. “Setters have to be fast because they have to get to the second ball no matter what, but playing libero is really different because you have to be everywhere.

“Your team-mates have to trust you to be everywhere, to reach every ball, so if you’re not there your team-mates will start to not lean on you. If I was playing another position and couldn’t trust my libero, I wouldn’t like that.”

Ferreira said the on-court experience in Canada was great, she started 12 of 19 games, even if the weather could have been better!

“Because I played a lot as a starter at the beginning of the season, I learnt a lot from the team,” she said.

“I learnt how to be faster, I learnt how to be aware of other people and read the other teams better.

“[It was my] first time in Canada and it actually was not that bad! People were saying that I was going to die because it was so cold, but it wasn’t that bad because I had a lot of winter clothes and I just had to walk to class.

“If there was a snowstorm they would just cancel class. It was quite cold because in Sackville it’s very windy, so when it’s not windy it’s fine, but when it is windy it’s brutal.”