Senior Marlise Arellano is ranked in top 50 for USA Volleyball (USAV) Beach Junior Rankings in the 18 and under category (18U).

Arellano and her partner Ashley Ciosek were the highest placed team from Texas in 18U. From the Central Texas area, Arellano is one of the only three girls to be ranked in the 18U division.

Arellano started playing indoor volleyball when she was about 8 years old and continued playing indoor volleyball until she was 17. However along with playing indoor volleyball, she started playing beach volleyball at 16 for fun at tournaments and then started playing competitively with the more she trained.

“I was approached by some schools to play in college but I decided going pre-med and playing collegiate sports would be a lot to handle,” Arellano said. “I wanted to focus more on my academic career. I’m hoping to still play for fun in college through intramural sports.”

In 2013, Arellano and Ciosek qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics Games and the USAV Junior Beach Tournament Championship, which are national level events.