Every athlete dreads a season-ending injury. But Melisa Ilter found joy in this frustrating situation.
Ilter, a sophomore playing right side on IU’s volleyball team, suffered a stress fracture in her right foot during practice before the Hoosiers’ game on Sept. 16 against Florida International University. While she can attend practice and spend time with the team, she is unable to do the thing she craves most— get on the floor, participate in team drills and play in games.
At practice, Ilter remains in a positive mood around her team. She smiles and talks with the team managers, gives high fives to the people she is around, and even dances to the music when the team is warming up. Despite the injury, Ilter has been having fun during her time at IU.
“I am so happy and grateful to be here,” Ilter said. “It has been a lot of fun so far.”
To help heal her fracture, Ilter walks around in a boot on her right foot to help relieve any pressure she would be putting on it otherwise. Doing so, she carefully walks around Wilkinson Hall in and out of the tent the team uses to enter the court.
Ilter spends her time at practice rolling out her muscles and rides a stationary bicycle to help keep herself in shape while not being able to practice with the team. Head coach Steve Aird frequently comes up and talks to Ilter during warmups, checking to see how everything is going with her recovery in hopes to get her back on the court soon.
Although she is separated from team activities at practice, this does not take away time away from her teammates off the court. Despite the adversity, Ilter remains optimistic around the team and is already working to prepare for next season. She has had practice dealing with difficult circumstances throughout her college career—beginning with the fact that she plays 5,612 miles away from her hometown.
Ilter is from the city of Bursa, which is the fourth biggest city in the country of Turkey with a population of 1,960,000. The city is on the north side of Turkey, and about a little less than a two-hour drive from Turkey’s capital, Istanbul.
She has also made some great contributions to the team before her injury. In the five games she played this season, she recorded three kills, three digs and four blocks. Prior to starting volleyball at Indiana University, Ilter has been surrounded by volleyball her entire life.
At a young age, she played for two club teams before getting recruited to play at IU—Nilufer SC and Fenerbahce SC—both located in Bursa. She has seen lots of success with both club programs, leading both clubs to a combined two first-place, two second-place and one third place finishes in their league.
Volleyball in Turkey is played mostly the same, but some rules are different than in the United States, according to Ilter. In Turkey, when the ball hits the roof of the stadium, it is counted as out of bounds and a point is awarded to the other team automatically. But, in the United States, if the ball hits the roof and comes back into play, the game goes on. Another major difference in Turkish volleyball is you can run outside of the net at any point in the match, which is not the case in the United States.
Bursa, Turkey and Bloomington, Indiana are quite far from each other, which creates a large difference in culture between the two cities. Even though Turkish and American volleyball are played in different ways, Ilter still feels confident playing volleyball being far from home and is happy she was recruited to Indiana.
Living a student-athlete lifestyle, Ilter has learned how important it is to balance success in athletics here at Indiana. In Turkey, classes run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. practice afterwards. At IU, the team practices around 2:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., which is in the middle of the stretch of classes she was used to in Turkey. Although she’s had to adapt to such a different schedule, Ilter is very thankful of the academic staff at Indiana to help make her class schedule so she can balance both school and sports.
Aside from volleyball, Ilter has noticed a difference in overall lifestyle between Turkey and the United States. She says that American people “know how to enjoy” life more than life in Europe.
Moving to the United States was not easy for Ilter, as she said that she was struck by the cultural difference that Turkey and the United States have. But, this has translated to enjoying her time in the United States as well as Indiana in only her first couple of years at the school.
“[Americans] are so welcoming,” Ilter said. “They help me so much. They ask me what I need to do, or do I need something. So it is also fun.”
Ilter shares a bond between international backgrounds with one of her teammates, Candela Alonso-Corcelles. Both sophomores came from European backgrounds and were also in the same recruiting class, as Candela is originally from Madrid, Spain. The two started out not knowing anything about each other, and struggled communicating with each other because of the language barrier between Turkey and Spain.
But they quickly found common ground through the similarity of European culture that helped grow their friendship. Living together in the dorms has helped Ilter and Alonso-Corcelles, as they see each other and create small talk by asking each other “How are you?” and “How was your day?”
The European players have definitely noticed some differences in college life in the United States as well as back home. While in Europe it is normal to sit and eat meals outside, they do not find that to be the case here at Indiana, as most of their teammates eat inside. Another difference would be the air conditioning at the dorms at Indiana, which they find to be really cold compared to homes back in Europe.
Ilter is fond of the relationship the two teammates have, even calling it “crazy” while letting out a laugh afterwards. Alonso-Corcelles is also grateful to have a teammate like Ilter by her side.
“We understand each other perfectly,” Alonso-Corcelles said. “We can be 24 hours and seven days of the week together, and we would never get bored of each other…she has been one of my biggest supporters in years.”
Although she missed most of the season due to an injury, Ilter is appreciative of how this Indiana volleyball team has come together. Suffering a lower body stress fracture for any athlete, especially as early as sophomore year, can be tough both mentally and physically. But Ilter has found joy in what is an adverse situation for almost every athlete by continuing to rehab by herself as well as being a source of positivity around her team.
Ilter said she notices a key difference between last year’s young team to this year’s Hoosier team. While she liked playing for last year’s team, she is optimistic of the fact that the team will continue to get better as long as they stick together.
“I think we are improving time by time because we are getting older and [more] experience,” Ilter said. “We also have a really good team chemistry. We feel like a family.”
