Mariana Molano felt a sense of nervous excitement as her flight landed in Nebraska late in the summer of 2022. Toting two luggage bags, Molano stepped into unfamiliar territory. She hopped in a car with then Concordia Head Tennis Coach Cam Long and off she went to a campus she had only seen on the Internet. She was told the town of Seward was small, but that’s about all she knew.
This was her welcome to Nebraska, situated an 11-hour plane ride from her hometown of Bogotá, Colombia, a bustling metropolitan area home to roughly 10 million people. Molano had followed her dream to study and to compete collegiately in the United States.
“I was really excited, but I didn’t know what to expect,” Molano said. “The culture and everything was a lot different. I just didn’t know anything. It felt like a really small town in the beginning because I come from a really big city. I was expecting something small, but not that small.”
As the only international player on the women’s tennis roster her freshman year, Molano found herself immersed in a whole new world, but one she would learn to love. Three and a half years after taking the plunge, sight unseen, Molano is reaping the rewards. They come in the form of close friendships with teammates and unforgettable memories that include the women’s tennis program’s first ever trip to the NAIA National Championships. All the while, Molano has handled the pressure of playing mostly at the No. 1 position her entire career.
Entering the spring of her senior year, Molano is on the cusp of rising to the top of the program’s all-time singles wins list. She’s ranked as the 31st best singles player in the NAIA by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, and Head Coach Lisa Hart believes she will climb that list. Molano’s coach for a third straight season, Hart has done nothing but feed into the confidence of the team’s No. 1 player.
“I think Mariana is playing her very best tennis right now,” Hart said prior to spring semester action. “She is a huge key for our team. I assume she’ll break every record at our school. We’re extremely fortunate to have her. A lot of teams have good players, but it’s hard to have a real No. 1 player. I feel like she’s the best player in the conference. Personally, I think she should be top 20 in the ITA national rankings. I’m excited about her. She came back playing her best tennis after Christmas. We’re excited to see what she can do the next couple months.”
Molano smiles wide when asked about the comments made by Hart. Molano gives her coach plenty of credit for the growth she’s displayed at Concordia. She knows if she wants to be the best in the conference, she’ll have to earn it.
“I’m really working hard,” Molano said. “I’m going to try my best. Coach is really trusting me right now and believing in me so much. It’s really nice when your coach sees the hard work you’re putting in. That’s a great feeling when your coach sees something in you that maybe you don’t see in yourself.”
Coaches, teammates, professors and members of the campus community have helped Molano feel more at home. Prior to her time as a student-athlete, Molano had only briefly visited the United States. As she recalls, her family twice traveled to Florida, making a stop at Disney World in Orlando.
But a vacation to Florida did little to prepare her for what was to come in Nebraska. Everything felt different. The culture, the language, the weather, the food, the surface of the tennis courts – all of it. Perhaps most scary, Molano was not particularly comfortable carrying on a conversation in English.
“The biggest challenge was language,” Molano said. “I came with some basis in English, but my English was not that good. It made me nervous to talk to people. All my teammates back then all spoke English. It was kind of a struggle at the beginning. The culture is so much different. In my country, we have the same weather the whole year. Here it gets really cold and really hot. In tennis, I had never played on indoor courts. I had played on clay courts all my life. Here you have hard courts. That was different too.”
With years of experience under her belt, Molano has learned how to break down the initial barriers and thrive as an all-around student-athlete. On a February Tuesday, Molano sits down for an interview without trepidation. She’s happy to discuss what four years of life at Concordia have meant to her and how she ended up on a campus surrounded by cornfields – a place where that sometimes charming white precipitation falls from the sky.
Chalk up the sight and the feel of snow as another new experience for Molano. The weather is decidedly milder in her beloved Bogotá. The sprawling city provided the backdrop for Molano’s athletic pursuits as an adolescent. She says she was nine or 10 years old when the spectacle of a tennis match caught her eye and convinced her to give it a try. She began spending more time with tennis and less time with gymnastics, another of her childhood favorites.
Molano’s game progressed in a way that made her a strong collegiate prospect. In American college tennis, coaches are always on the lookout for strong international players who can make an impact. Those coaches develop contacts with recruiting agencies that help connect foreign-born players. Coach Cam Long initially reached out to Molano via email, setting into motion her move to the U.S. The size of the scholarship offer from Concordia helped entice Molano. So too did the positive feedback she received from players already within the program.
She may prefer the food in her native country, but Molano absolutely loves one specific aspect of college tennis in the U.S. – the togetherness created by a team environment.
Says Molano, “In Colombia, we didn’t have this idea of a team. We played individually. The experience within the team is so different. The family that you build, the friends you make and the coach (Lisa Hart) have made such a difference in my life. I have grown so much since I’ve been here. Here I’ve learned how to play as a team.”
Molano has done nothing but lift up her team. The accolades include GPAC All-Conference awards as a sophomore and junior and distinction as an NAIA Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-District honoree. As of mid-February, Molano owned career counts of 40 wins in singles and 31 wins in doubles play. For the 2024-25 squad that enjoyed a breakthrough GPAC tournament title and run to the national tournament, Molano went 14-6 at the No. 1 singles spot.
Because Concordia has been so instrumental in opening her eyes to a new, enriching experience, it would mean a lot for Molano to see her name in the school’s record books (currently three wins off the school’s all-time singles mark of 43 victories).
“Having my name up there is a really great feeling because it’s been a really important part of my life here in Seward and at Concordia,” Molano said. She continued her praise of Concordia when discussing her academic track as a Business Administration and Marketing major. Added Molano, “I have had the pleasure of having great professors. They’ve made me love my major. There have also been some art classes that I’ve really enjoyed. It made me think that maybe I do like art too. We have really good professors that actually care about you. I think that’s what makes it a different experience.”
Molano may even stay in the U.S. post-graduation in May. She thinks she may have a lead on what’s next, but she wants to keep it under wraps until it comes to fruition.
As she reflects on what has guided her to this point, Molano makes sure to express gratitude towards her parents, Luis Fernando Molano and Liliana Canon, and younger sister Valentina. Each one has supported her journey and the realization of her dreams.
In a small Nebraska town of 7,700 people, Mariana has made this her big time – and the story isn’t over. On graduation day in May, Mariana’s parents plan to be here to watch her walk across the stage.
They may need tissues for this one. Said Mariana before finishing the interview, “I want to talk about my parents. I’m really grateful. I know how hard they have worked for me to get this opportunity. I’m also grateful for my coach. She really believes in me. When you have someone who believes in you, it makes you trust in yourself. Also, my sister has been there the whole time. I’m just really grateful. I’m here because of them.”