written by Augusta University student Jaylan Hayes
She's ready to take part in her redemption season at the Peach Belt Conference championship this week and volleyball player and graduate student Jada Suguturaga is looking to end this season better than a previous year. Two years ago, in Augusta University's first PBC tournament game, Suguturaga had her post season end in a disastrous way.
"My first year the first game of the tournament against USC Aiken in the first set, I tore my ACL and I was out for the rest of the post season play. And this is my redemption. I've been looking forward to this," she said.
She joked that it can't get worse than that, and immediately knocked on wood after.
Suguturaga will be graduating this December with a degree in psychology. She's enjoyed school and this semester has been her favorite one. But she still isn't sure what she will be doing once she's finally done with school.
"I'm going with the flow. The plan is just go home, work, save money and then I just want to travel while I'm young and free," she said.
One thing Suguturaga loves to do is travel. Being from South Jordan, Utah and completing her first two years of school in Wyoming before coming to Augusta was a welcome change for her. Luckily her family is nothing but supportive.
"They know I want to experience new things, so they're very supportive of it. They're definitely sad that they couldn't make every game. But every year they made it to at least one. They were just here for senior night," she said.
When it came to coming down south the humidity was one issue she was anticipating to deal with, but it wasn't as bad as she originally thought. She also could have never guessed the love she would find for Waffle House.
Suguturaga misses the mountains, as well as her friends and family back in Utah but jokes she's not sure what she's going to do without Waffle House when she returns home.
When she was younger Suguturaga was a basketball player until she started to watch her older sister play volleyball. It grew her interest in the sport.
"We would go to her games, and I was like this is fun and I was getting burned out from basketball, and so I tried out for the freshman team and then made it. I quit basketball completely and just started playing volleyball," she said.
Her senior year of high school is when she really thought about playing in college. A decision she is happy she made.
When she has the time Suguturaga loves to go thrifting, hang out with friends, or hiking. She is hoping with some of her free time after volleyball she can finally get a cat since she's never had a pet before.
Suguturaga doesn't really have any embarrassing moments as she doesn't get embarrassed easily. But she has plenty of happy ones and one of her happiest involves a trip with some of her best friends.
"We took a trip to Santa Barbara and that was just the best vacation ever. One day when we were on the beach, we just took the speaker out into the ocean, and we were dancing and having fun. That was a pretty good memory. I think about it a lot," she said.
As a Fijian, Suguturaga has always dealt with the mispronunciation of her last name. She herself is convinced she's not saying it the correct way, but her dad is always there to help her out.
With graduation coming up her fingers are crossed that her name will be pronounced correctly when she walks across the stage.
Suguturaga always hopes when meeting new people that she comes off kind and authentic. She never wants anyone to feel like she wasn't glad to be around them.
While her future remains up in the air, she's excited to find out what it will bring.
Women's volleyball schedule
