Nikolic comes of age through travel, trials and tribulations
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Tanja Nikolic has lived through war and terrorist attacks.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
She grew up on the coast of Croatia and spent a year in the drizzle of Eugene, Ore., where her roommate was Hawaiian.
Wahine Tanja Nikolic will have parents Zoran, left, and Neda here when she is honored on Senior Night tomorrow.
Now, she lives blocks from Waikiki, where she rooms with a Slovenian and Bosnian and they speak "Bosna-Croatian."
She's played beach volleyball with NBA star Toni Kukoc and indoors with Olympian Heather Bown.
What more could the next 23 years bring?
Nikolic will soon find out. The University of Hawai'i's only senior will be honored after tomorrow's final regular-season home match against Fresno State.
In the next year, she plans to finish her degree in psychology and "finally enjoy Hawai'i" after three years of relentless volleyball demands. In the process, Croatia's best beach player plans to prepare for the U.S. professional tour.
"I'm going to get a great tan," Nikolic says. "This is the perfect place to get in shape."
Despite an unorthodox career, it has also been an ideal place for Nikolic to shape her life. Her parents, who live half a world away, now trust her to make life decisions.
• What: College women, Western Athletic Conference • Who: San Jose State vs. Hawai'i • When: Today, 7 p.m. • Where: Stan Sheriff Center. • Admission: Upper level only: $9 adult, $8 senior citizens (65-older), $6 students. Lower level: single seats only $12. UH Ticket Office (956-4482) open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2 hours before matches. Also available at UH Campus Center and all Foodland and Sack N Save stores except School Street and at Ticket Plus Outlets (526-4400) and www.tix-plus.com. • Parking: $3.
Why not? She has made a series of life-changing choices since she first decided, at 20, to come to America. Here, unlike home, she could play volleyball and get a degree that should be worth its weight in salary. In Croatia, none of that was possible.
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Wahine volleyball
"I like where she is at because there is a future for her," said Zoran Nikolic, through his daughter's translation. "Here, she can get what she wants. Extra education will pay off."
Volleyball has paid for that.
Nikolic transferred to Hawai'i after an unfulfilling year, athletically and geographically, at Oregon. As a UH sophomore, the back-up middle blocker started four matches and sandbagged San Jose State with a 17-dig, 13-block, 7-kill performance.
Last year she played every match, at every position but setter. This year she opened the season as a starter on the left and now starts on the right. She is also captain of the country's 12th-ranked team.
"She probably would have been starting for every other WAC team," coach Dave Shoji says. "I'm sure she would have liked to play more, but I think she ended up in a place where she could be happy. I think she loves Hawai'i."
Nikolic agrees, despite believing no one here has seen her best volleyball. Her mother, Neda, also agrees. She said she knew her daughter was in the right place the moment she first called from Manoa.
"I could hear the happiness in her voice," Neda said.
Tanja's parents are here for a month. Their first trip to the U.S. is an opportunity to enjoy Hawai'i and fully comprehend what their daughter has been describing in vivid detail for three years.
They contemplated canceling after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Tanja's pull was pervasive. Every summer she has returned to Kastel Luksic, where her parents live near the Adriatic coast. They had promised her a trip in the other direction if they could swing it financially.
Eventually, they agreed it would be safe.
"If America is a dangerous place to be, then the rest of the world is too," Zoran said. "No one is coming into the U.S. and fight."
Neda called Tanja at 4 a.m. the day of the attacks, then four more times. It was the natural reaction of a mother whose daughter lived so far away, and had lived with war since she was 13.
Time, and giving in to the pull of paradise, has eased her fears.
The first match the Nikolics saw was against Nevada. They were so overwhelmed by the crowd — and the boosters that introduced themselves, the 3-year-old who hugged them, the endless lei and the arena introduction — they asked Tanja if it was a special night.
Her answer was no, and yes. Every night has been special.
"I think about what I'm going to say at Senior Night and sometimes tears come to my eyes," Tanja says. "I'm so glad I picked this spot to play volleyball with this amazing crowd. I'm glad I have the opportunity to say how much it means to me that every single one of them is there in the stands."
QUICK SET: Nino Nikolic, Tanja's brother, was a Croatian junior national champion in power lifting.
