Fresh off a strong showing in international play for Spain, Elisa Portillo was looking for a change. She wanted to play collegiate water polo in America.

Due to its strong presence of international student-athletes, Long Beach State stood out to her on the recruiting trail.

“I think that was the thing that made me say, ‘Okay, let’s go to Long Beach,’” Portillo said. “Because it was going to be easier for me to adjust to the team and the culture.”

After coming over from her home country of Spain in 2023, LBSU attacker Elisa Portillo has amassed 177 goals for The Beach, as she sits at fifth all-time in LBSU history in goals heading into her senior season. Photo courtesy of LBSU Athletics

International college athletes encounter challenges beyond the typical obstacles faced by American student-athletes. Women’s water polo is one of several LBSU athletics programs that frequently dips into international recruiting.

Shana Welch, the LBSU women’s water polo head coach, has built her program with nine international student-athletes out of her 22-player roster.

She recruited the Madrid native in Portillo, who is now fifth in program history with 177 goals scored after leading the team to a No. 6 national ranking last year.

As of 2022, more than one-fifth of all women’s water polo players in the NCAA were recruited from foreign countries.

“The biggest challenge is not having that face-to-face and not being able to go see them in every international competition with our budget,” Welch said. “We try to understand if a recruit is a good fit through phone calls and FaceTimes and watching film, and I think we’ve really fine-tuned that ability to figure out who’s a good fit or not.”

Recruiting on the international stage requires a completely different approach from domestic recruiting. Players have unique needs and desires that must be met, while coaches have to evaluate players from across the globe to add to their rosters.

The men’s volleyball team, the most recent national champions on campus, was powered to its title this spring by Bulgarian superstar Moni Nikolov.

Long Beach State has grown into a strong international athletic community, with men’s volleyball leading the way in championship success.

A member of Bulgaria’s national team, star setter Moni Nikolov set an NCAA record with 106 aces in 2025, as he helped guide The Beach to its fourth national title in program history. Mark Siquig | Long Beach Current

Alan Knipe, the longtime LBSU men’s volleyball head coach and newly-inducted member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, has spent decades making connections in the international volleyball scene.

Knipe played at LBSU and on the United States National Team before eventually taking over LBSU’s program as head coach in 2001.

Outside of taking a hiatus to become head coach of Team USA from 2009-12, Knipe has held his position at LBSU since.

International players accounted for only 8% of NCAA men’s volleyball athletes in 2022. Yet Knipe thrives on foreign recruiting: seven of his players at LBSU have won National Player of the Year honors, with the last two, Moni and Alex Nikolov, both international recruits.

On last year’s national championship team, eight of the 24 players on the roster were international student-athletes.

“The relationships that I have around the world with some of the top agents and some of the top volleyball federations in the world has led to a lot of really good relationships, so they have a lot of trust sending their players here,” Knipe said.

With three national championships as a coach under his belt, Knipe takes advantage of his web of contacts to make LBSU an international volleyball powerhouse.

Of the nine LBSU current players and alumni who represented their countries at the Volleyball Nations League this summer, six were playing for teams outside the United States.

Reputation is a significant factor in Knipe’s pipeline for bringing international stars to The Beach.

He provides athletes with opportunities for growth on the court and in their careers; other international players see their peers blossom after playing at LBSU and then want to follow that path themselves.

Knipe describes this process as a “snowball effect” that continually grows the program’s international recruiting prowess.

“When you get a player from Europe and the way you train that player and the success he has, when he goes back to his club, what does he say?” Knipe said. “Those [players] are the best recruiters for you.”

Hailing from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, LBSU star opposite Skyler Varga led The Beach’s national championship-winning team in 2024 with 270 kills. Devin Malast | Long Beach Current

While men’s volleyball has had recent headline-grabbing international athletes, they are nowhere near the most internationally dominated roster on campus: that title would go to women’s tennis. 

All eight players on interim head coach Gertjan De Wilder’s roster are international student-athletes. Women’s tennis is a particularly international sport, with 66% of NCAA women’s tennis players being international athletes in 2022.

The influence of European tennis at the NCAA level suggests a superior international player pipeline. De Wilder attributes more personalized coaching and a focus on technique as European coaching approaches that help their players thrive.

“I think that when you’re younger, these kids need to spend a lot of time on coordination and technique before they just go out and hit,” De Wilder said. “That’s when you create these habits. As a kid, you create certain habits, and it’s very hard to get rid of them.”

De Wilder recently took the reins from longtime LBSU women’s tennis coach Jenny Hilt-Costello, who was a nine-time Big West Coach of the Year. De Wilder has big shoes to fill, but he does not see his international player base as a complicating factor.

De Wilder is a native of Belgium, giving him a personal connection with his European players.

“Everyone’s from a different country in our program,” De Wilder said. “Me too, so everyone’s in the same boat.”

The community among teammates and coaches at LBSU is ultimately what allows international players to thrive.

Whether they play water polo, volleyball, tennis or any other sport, international student-athletes will continue to play a big role in the success of LBSU athletics.

“Honestly, I only hang out with the team because we’re together 24/7,” Portillo said. “You don’t really have much time to be social apart from water polo, so in the end, your teammates are going to be your closest friends. So it’s nice to have them.”