Former NC State volleyball standout Maggie Speaks has signed a contract to play professional volleyball in Greece with the Makedones Axiou Club. Speaks was a four-year letterwinner with the Wolfpack and graduated in December with a degree in communication.
“I’m extremely excited to start my professional career in Greece,” said Speaks. “Everything I’ve heard about Greece is that it’s a great place to play professionally. I’m looking forward to living there, eating the food and the beaches. I think it will all be really fun and it’s a place that I’ve always wanted to go, I just didn’t know that I would have the opportunity to play there professionally.”
“I’m so proud of Maggie and excited for her to experience this opportunity,” said Wolfpack head coach Linda Hampton-Keith. “She has worked so hard and had such a great senior season that it’s only fitting she gets to fulfill an opportunity to extend her career beyond her college years. We look forward to following her on this journey and cheering for her continued success.”
After exhausting her collegiate eligibility following the 2016 season, Speaks signed with an agent and took part in an exposure tour to display her skills for professional teams. Although she did not hear from the pro teams as soon as she would have liked, a few months after the tour she received some positive news.
“I got a call from my agent telling me that a team in Greece was interested,” Speaks added. “I sent them some game film from last season and about 24 hours later, I got a call that they wanted to offer me a contract. I took a few hours to think about it and called them back to accept. Two days later, I signed!”
It all happened really fast for the Camden, S.C., native who was not expecting to hear anything until July, so she was surprised and excited about how fast the process took place.
Speaks turned in a stellar senior season thanks to the change in offensive system under first-year head coach Hampton-Keith and her staff. The Wolfpack setter was tabbed an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region Honorable Mention and was a Second Team All-ACC Selection.
She dished out the third-most assists in the conference with 1,148, the second-highest total by an individual in NC State’s rally-scoring era. That mark helped Speaks finish her Wolfpack career with 3,240 assists, the second most in the rally-scoring era and fifth most in NCSU history.
“I never really thought much about playing professionally until I met with Linda after preseason and we talked about what my plans were after graduation. I told her that I wanted to keep playing and she said that playing professionally was something I could definitely do and it would be a good experience.”
As a senior in 2016, Speaks ranked among the top 50 in the NCAA with 10.63 assists per set and orchestrated an NC State offense that finished the season with the second-best attacking percentage in the program’s rally-scoring era at .226. She set the Wolfpack rally-scoring era record with 64 assists in NC State’s five-set win against SMU.
“I think our new coaches have done a really good job of changing the culture at NC State,” Speaks said in regards to her success last season. “They instilled confidence in us and I think that was something that really allowed us to be successful. Now, I have the confidence in myself to achieve this goal thanks to the confidence that they have in me.”
Depending on how the experience goes, Speaks says that she could end up loving it and want to stay there or possibly return to the U.S. if she does not. Her goal is to get the most out of the experience and play her best, so that she can have the opportunity to move up and play at the highest levels professionally.
Speaks will leave for Greece after Labor Day to start her first season in professional volleyball.
Press Release courtesy of NC State Athletics.
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