Vanderbilt Volleyball Captain Champions Conservation – Vanderbilt Commodores

Whether helping Vanderbilt volleyball take the next step or championing land conservation, graduate student Samantha Wunsch wants to leave her surroundings better than she found them
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — From Memorial Gymnasium’s historic ambiance to Savannah’s Enmarket Arena, home of the SEC Tournament, and even New York’s iconic Hammerstein Ballroom, Samantha Wunsch and her Vanderbilt volleyball teammates will contemplate more than a few unforgettable backdrops this season.
They’re impressive. They just don’t hold a candle to the wide open sky in La Grange, Texas, the heavens stretched out as far as the eye can see. Mother Nature’s home court is tough to top. Growing up, Wunsch spent a lot of time near La Grange. Her grandparents owned land there. And while their farm wasn’t exactly off the grid, visits felt like stepping into another time. She might as well have been a million miles from the hyper-connected, screen-heavy modern world.
La Grange and everything it represents have guided her ever since. Her connection to it convinced her to change her major from business to environmental science at Texas State. And when the three-time first-team All-Sun Belt honoree wanted to test her skills against the best in NCAA Division I and prepare for professional volleyball, La Grange, in its own way, steered her toward Vanderbilt. A graduate student in Vanderbilt Law School’s Master of Legal Studies program, she’s gaining the experience necessary to fight for the land.  
There aren’t many places where, without sacrificing either, she could take the next steps in her volleyball life and the career that will fill the rest of her days. In that respect, like those vistas that seem to go on forever, Vanderbilt is one of a kind.
“Everybody is on this quest to figure out what they want to do with their life and how they want to spend their time—I mean, a life is a long time to be working,” Wunsch said. “When I decided to switch my major, it was honestly just because I want to spend my time doing something I care about. Something that makes the world better. Something that I can spend 40 years doing and not get bored.”
Able to play in front of friends and family at Texas State, roughly 30 miles from her hometown of Austin, Wunsch was the definition of a mid-major star in her three seasons on the court. She graduated as one of just three Bobcats to ever earn first-team all-conference honors on at least three occasions. She was also one of just six student-athletes in school history to earn multiple all-tournament honors in the Sun Belt Tournament, helping the Bobcats make back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.
“I truly just love volleyball,” Wunsch said. “I love to compete. It wasn’t really a question for me of if I wanted to play my fifth year. It was more like what level can I reach?”

Wunsch is a key figure in Vanderbilt’s strong start, including the second-year program’s first win against a ranked opponent (Sam Jordan/Vanderbilt Athletics).
She wants to help Vanderbilt win now. But with two new pro leagues in the United States (including Major League Volleyball, where Vanderbilt assistant coach Azhani Tealer and 2026 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Jackie Moore competed this past season), her remaining year of eligibility offered more than an opportunity for a curtain call. It could be a platform to unlock new opportunities to play in this country or abroad in the future. Even the ability to think in those terms is incentive to continue testing the limits of her potential.  
“I wanted a program that was focused on the teaching and development side of volleyball,” Wunsch said. “I’m a firm believer that you’ve never finished learning. I think that’s really true for me in my career, and it’s been true since I’ve been here, we’re just constantly learning and growing. That was a huge selling point for Vanderbilt and this coaching staff.”
The growth is reciprocal. She’s exactly who Vanderbilt head coach Anders Nelson was seeking to help the team take the next step in its second season. The Commodores needed to get more skilled to build on the momentum earned at the end of last season. And as Nelson says of the 6-foot-3 opposite who led Texas State in hitting percentage in back-to-back seasons, Wunsch “wants to kill every ball she’s set and stuff every attack in her zone.”
But nothing she does on the court will be more impressive or telling than her captaincy. Unlike a year ago, student-athletes chose their own captains this season. And along with Avery Scoggins, another new arrival from the transfer portal, Wunsch is among the quartet they selected. On the court, it didn’t take long to learn she would give everything she had for them—and that she has quite a lot to give. Nor did it take long to learn she will do the same for everything she cares about. Someone like that is easy to follow.
“The best way I can describe her is she’s kind of bubbly but fierce,” Maya Witherspoon said. “What really struck me the most is when we’re playing, Sam is a very fierce competitor. And I know people hear that a lot, but I think once they see her play, they can understand that the way she competes and how fierce she is and how passionate she is about volleyball is the same way she is off the court about environmental issues. She is very passionate about what she’s studied and what she wants to do. She does everything with her whole heart.”
In retrospect, perhaps it was a portent that Wunsch chose a school with a river running through the middle of campus for her undergraduate years. Even amidst the buildings and hustle and bustle, the San Marcos River was her daily reminder of the natural world.
Her original plan to major in business didn’t even survive her freshman year. Routinely ranked among the nation’s outstanding “Green Colleges,” by the Princeton Review, Texas State’s well-regarded environmental sciences program gave her good reason to switch.
“Sam is so passionate about environmental law, it’s very fun to talk to her about it because she’s just wired differently than the rest of us,” Nelson said. “She will not be stopped. You come away from talking to her feeling optimistic about this generation.”
Growing up, visits to her grandparents notwithstanding, playing volleyball and softball at competitive youth levels left little time for much else. She was intrigued by what she learned in a high school environmental science class, and issues around climate change and the environment were front and center for her generation. But she wasn’t an activist. It didn’t really occur to her that caring about the environment could be a career path.
At Texas State, the deeper into her studies she progressed, the more she saw both the challenge and opportunity of the field. Through her classes and mentors like David Yoskowitz, the executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, she learned how tightly interwoven the environment is with business and bureaucracy—with the modern world. And that changing the system requires understanding how it works.
“I would love to say that we can fix it on an individual basis—and there are definitely things that we can all do to improve the situation,” Wunsch said. “But truly helping the environment also requires focusing on the high-level issues, as well. It goes back to policy, law, property rights and regulations. That’s how you affect major change.”

Wunsch was named TSWA Player of the Week for her performances in wins against Boston College and North Carolina (Sam Jordan/Vanderbilt Athletics). 
So, as much as she wanted to extend her future in volleyball, she knew her next step couldn’t be about volleyball alone. She sensed that Vanderbilt’s staff got that. Other schools talked about certificate programs she could enter that would ease demands on her time. She didn’t want to take the easier route. Vanderbilt’s staff, including former assistant coach Lauren Plum, were prepared to talk knowledgeably about the MLS program and help connect her with the right people to explore her options.  She spoke at length with Kelly Bahiraei, assistant dean for legal studies, who oversees the MLS program and connected Wunsch with some of the law school’s environmental law professors.
“I’m not an NFL player making millions of dollars—it’s never going to be that,” Wunsch said. “For me, there was always going to be a focus on a career after volleyball. So, on top of all the great things about the volleyball program, Vanderbilt’s reputation generally, and Vanderbilt Law School more specifically, ultimately drove my decision to come here.”
Designed primarily for working professionals, the online MLS program equips students who aren’t planning to attend law school with an understanding of how U.S. laws affect businesses and organizations. In classes taught by Vanderbilt Law School faculty, the program’s students learn about subjects like regulatory compliance, contracts, criminal justice, property rights, taxation, intellectual property, and employment law.
What does that look like in practice? At first glance, admittedly, it may not sound quite as exciting as a five-setter in the SEC. Wunsch’s property law course covered property rights, easements, land use restrictions and eminent domain—all crucial to efforts to stop businesses and other entities from using legal loopholes to exploit natural resources. Digging into the nuances of conservation easements, agreements that limit uses of privately-owned land in perpetuity, was particularly applicable for her interests.
Even tangential connections like her administrative law class, with its focus on the interaction of federal agencies with the lawmaking process, proved fascinating. It’s difficult to get far in environmental work, after all, without understanding the EPA.   
The program has also opened doors, allowing her to get to know leaders like Jeanie Nelson, a Double Dore and founder and former CEO of the Land Trust for Tennessee.
“I really am inspired by the work that she’s done and continues to do,” Wunsch said.
And alongside knowledge, inspiration matters in the work to come. Wunsch hasn’t chosen an easy path. On a personal side, she faces a dilemma. Working in the halls of government, far from places like La Grange, doesn’t hold much appeal. But everything she learns reaffirms that affecting change means being where decisions—and policies—get made. And more generally, for society at large, optimism is often in short supply for a great many issues confronting the world, climate change and the environment high on the list.
She cites the events of the 1970s as evidence of the potential power of grassroots change. Following the tipping points of incidents like the Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire or all-too-regular smog warnings in Southern California, people’s anger eventually spurred policy changes like the Clean Air Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. If a new generation finds its collective voice, someone needs to be ready to shape the laws and policies that reflect it.
So, there is time to figure out exactly where she fits. Now is the time to acquire the knowledge and skills to meet the moment, whatever it may be.
Shortly before the start of the new volleyball season, Wunsch’s grandmother in La Grange passed away. Visits will never again be quite the same, that void impossible to fill. But in addition to the memories that are hers forever, a granddaughter inherited an abiding respect for the natural world and appreciation for the land. Passed across generations, that lives on as a gift and a responsibility. Wunsch is ready to fight, with all the fierceness that Vanderbilt volleyball fans have quickly grown to appreciate.
“At least in my life, what I’ve noticed is often when it’s too difficult or painful or scary to look at a problem, people just look away,” Wunsch said. “Because I think that’s easier, almost ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. But environmental damage will be increasingly hard to ignore.
“Somebody has to do something. And I’m alive for however long I’m alive, so why not let that person be me?”
About Anchored for Her 
Anchored for Her is a comprehensive campaign to advance women and girls through the transformative power of sport. Within Vanderbilt Athletics, Anchored for Her’s initial $50 fundraising million goal will fuel investment in sustainable success for a new era of collegiate athletics through facility enhancements, endowed scholarships, coaching and staff positions, capital support and naming opportunities, the Anchored for Her General Fund, team-specific excellence funds and the Competitive Excellence Fund.

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