"There were points where I was crying, because I knew that this was the death of a part that was a big part of my life, but the Lord used it. He used volleyball to draw me to Himself.”
Welcome to "Fields Full of Grace: The Faith at Play," casting a spotlight on the devotional practices of college and professional athletes and coaches on and off the field.
By Jay Sorgi
Some of the best college volleyball programs in America had Nina Camaioni on their radar screen, including two of the NCAA’s top dozen teams. But they closed their doors on her.
Years later, Camaioni gave up the sport completely due to injury. God was waiting to give her a new name and a new calling to religious life.
“I was made for it, and my heart cried out for it,” says Sr. Lily Anne Camaioni, OP.
The New Jersey high school player of the year in 2006 and Loyola University Maryland volleyball player is now teaching in Indiana for the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia, based in Nashville. She is about a year-and-a-half from professing her final vows.
Faith formation
A religious order in Nashville seemed incredibly far away from her birthplace in Abington, Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia, living in a Catholic family that didn’t openly discuss the faith or do things like pray the Rosary together.
A move east to Williamstown, New Jersey led to Saint Mary’s School for faith formation and the beginning of her journey in volleyball, playing in school during fifth grade and travel/club volleyball in eighth grade.
While attending public high school, volleyball was more deeply defining her than God — at least until the recruiting trail took her down a strange pathway.
“Recruitment letters started coming my sophomore year of high school in 2005,” Sr. Lily Anne recalls. “It created an immense amount of pressure, and I remember even one time I wrote a journal entry, and asked myself, ‘Would anyone care about me or love me if I wasn’t good at volleyball?’ I realized that there was a sense of wanting to be loved, but it depended on how I performed in volleyball.”
Answered prayer
Her family saw the need for a scholarship, and big-name programs started showing interest. But that interest didn’t stay.
“Stanford, Ohio State . . . those initial letters they sent out just to get your information, but slowly the doors started closing, and it really created this question of ‘Who am I? What is my worth? Would I be loved or appreciated or known if I wasn’t good at volleyball?’”
Sister Lily Anne was good enough to receive state player of the year recognition in her senior year, a state championship year at Williamstown High School. But God didn’t recruit her through the sport of spikes, sets, and digs.
“The Lord just answered my prayer,” she explains. “There is a God, and He sees me, and He loves me. Who is this God? Then it just kind of piqued my curiosity as I continued moving through my senior year of high school.
“By the middle of senior year of high school, I learned about the Blessed Mother and some of her apparitions in Medjugorje. That was really what got me.”
Encountering God
She started going to daily Mass at her parish before rushing to high school, a practice she maintained as much as she could at Loyola University Maryland as she played from 2007-10.
“My teammates were so open because they knew I was into my faith, so they were very respectful of that,” she says.
“My journey was individual. Loyola was a good environment, but it took a while to find a place to fit in on the campus there. I started a Rosary group my sophomore year and was part of the Theology Club.” A daily Rosary became part of her life’s practice, and her rose-colored lens of encountering God.
“Giving Our Lady the roses, each Hail Mary is a rose,” Sr. Lily Anne continues. “And I started reading about the other apparitions, that the Blessed Mother wants to be so intimate and to be part of her children’s life. We are her children. And to the point of appearing, physically appearing, that would just blow my mind.”
Answering the Call
After graduation, Sr. Lily Anne served as Catholic campus minister at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, outside Philadelphia, and Bloomsburg University in Central Pennsylvania. She pursued an avocation as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist playing coffee houses while also leading a Catholic worship band.
All this was happening as she was calling for God to help her make a complete dedication.
“‘Lord, I want to say yes to You. I want to follow You. Remove anything that’s preventing that,’” she recalls about her prayer.
She continued to play volleyball, competing in tournaments. But an accident in 2017 led to a complete tear of her ACL and meniscus in one of her knees. This opened the door to her complete yes.
But it wasn’t easy.
“There were points where I was crying, because I knew that this was the death of a part that was a big part of my life, but the Lord used it. That’s where my vocation calling happened in that time period.”
Conversations with her priest at Bloomsburg University led to her opening her door to the religious life, beyond her desires to someday marry.
“I said, ‘I trust you.’ I’ll look very hesitantly. I also told him that He would have to bring the communities to me.”
Enter the Dominicans
That’s when the Nashville Dominicans spoke to Sr. Lily Anne’s heart.
“When I finally went down after some hesitation, that first night was when the Lord just pierced my heart,” she says. “After I saw the sisters pray, it was like, ‘This is what I had really been looking for. He revealed the deeper desires of my heart. I really wanted this life.”
That life includes music, youth ministry, contemplation, and prayer in sisterly community. It doesn’t include volleyball anymore due to her injury, but she recognizes that God used the sport as a way of recruiting her in ways that the best programs in college volleyball never did.
“He used volleyball,” Sr. Lily Anne concludes, “to draw me to Himself.”
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