Junior outside hitter Matilda Dahlström is in her first season with the Panthers. Dahlström, the Malmö, Sweden native, moved out of her parent’s house to attend Ållebergsgymnasiet, a volleyball school in Sweden, at 15 years old. 

Dahlström lived about four to five hours away from her parents for three years while practicing her craft in the sport she loves the most. 

When she turned 18, Dahlström moved to the United States to play at Hillsborough Community College in Plant City, Florida, for two years. 

During her time at Hillsborough Community College, Dahlström led the National Junior College Athletic Association in kills per set with 4.72 kills per set, and she recorded 515 kills, making her fourth in the nation in total kills. 

Dahlström recorded 249 digs, 43 blocks and 43 aces during the 2023 season, and she was also named the Florida College System Activities Association Roberta Stokes academic volleyball athlete of the year. 

Dahlstrom spoke on why she chose to transfer to Eastern and why her family are her biggest supporters.

Q: When did you first start playing volleyball?

A: “I think I started playing 14 years ago. I started playing because my mom played volleyball. I probably started around 6 years old.”

Q: Were you always an outside hitter? 

A: “I have actually played almost every position in the front row. I’ve played outside, opposite, middle. I played middle when I was younger because I was the tallest one. It was always, ‘Oh, she’s tall. She can be a middle.’ Then, I got to play on the right side because they needed someone on the right side. They had six outside [hitters], but they needed one right side. I have consistently mostly been an outside [hitter].”

Q: Why did you transfer to Eastern?

A: “I had a bunch of different offers, but my visit here in February was really really great. I clicked really great with the team. I really enjoyed the coaching and the staff, and they changed my perspective. At first, I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to go to this small town in Illinois. What am I going to do here?’ Then, I came on a visit here and I really liked the environment. I went on visits to bigger schools, but the environment from the team and the coaches wasn’t the same. I landed in Indianapolis, and coach [Sara] Thomas drove me from Indianapolis to here and back, and the conversations we had in the car for three hours was really great. It felt like she cared about me as a person and not just as a player.” 

Q: Pancakes or waffles?

A: “That’s really hard. The pancakes here in the U.S. are not the same back home in Sweden. My dad’s Swedish pancakes; they’re superior. And my mom’s waffles. Our waffles are thin. Here, they’re really thick, and you guys have syrup on them. We put jam and whipped cream, and it’s so good. We have a secret ingredient in our waffles that makes them so good and fluffy. They’re so superior over the American ones. I barely eat pancakes and waffles here.” 

Q: Who are your biggest supporters?

A: “My parents. They’re the most supportive parents ever. My parents flew with me to Tampa when I moved to Florida. When I moved to Illinois, they flew with me to Illinois as well and they helped me move in. They’re really really supportive of everything I do. Even if things are hard, they support me through everything. My grandparents too, especially my grandma. She was born in 1939, and she sits up and watches my games, and there’s a seven-hour difference, and she sits up till two in the morning watching my games. She’s 80 something years old, and she’s my biggest supporter. She’ll sit and scream at the TV. My parents will go to bed, so if I play at two in the morning, back in Sweden, they have an alarm for 1:45 so they wake up, watch my game, then go back to bed, then they go to work. So, when I played a five-set game for two and a half hours, they were up until 4:30 in the morning. They’re the biggest supporters ever.” 

Q: Who on the team is getting the aux before a game?

A: “I would probably say Lilli [Amettis] or actually, somedays, Laura [Paniagua] has pretty good music. Somedays, it’s a little variation of gospel and Hispanic music, and some days it’s pump up music. I usually have my headphones in everyday. I usually don’t let anyone else have the aux in my ears.” 

Q: Do you have any superstitions before a game?

A: “Not really before a game, but I have to have my hair in a certain way. I cannot do braids, bubble braids, space buns. I have to have my hair in a high-slick-back ponytail. It can’t be anything special, and I need my two black hair ties. Lilli borrowed one of my hair ties on Saturday, and before the game, I was like, ‘Lilli, do you have my hair tie?’ I have a bunch of extra black ones, but I have to wear them on my wrist before the game and then in my hair. It has to be a consistent slick back-high pony. Once with the national team, everyone braided their hair in high braids, and I felt like I played like crap in that one game. I think it was in 2018 with the National Team, and I haven’t done anything special with my hair since.” 

Q: Where is your favorite place in Sweden? 

A: “I would probably say my hometown. I’m from Malmö, Sweden. It’s a town very very south in Sweden. I lived right by the bridge of Denmark. So we had both water, but it’s also the third biggest city in Sweden, so I’m a city girl born and raised. I love my city, and the architecture is so beautiful. Walking by the central station because we have a little [stream] going through the city. It’s really beautiful, and it’s so nice to walk around there, especially in the summer. In the summer, it’s beautiful, especially the place I do my lashes. There’s a big fountain outside, and they always have these fresh fruits, and it’s amazing. Because I live in the very south, it’s not at all the same as the North. People think, ‘Oh, you live in Sweden, it’s the same.’ No. In the north, they have mountains. They have different structure of how everything is laid out. They can see the Northern Lights. We don’t get that in my hometown. People in the north also ski. People are like, ‘Oh, you’re from Sweden. Do you ski?’ No. I barely get snow where I live. I get snow for a week.” 

Q: Do you think the Earth is round or flat?

A: “Definitely round. I’m not a flat Earther. I believe in science.”

Q: What’s your favorite season?

A: “Summer. I’m a big summer person. That’s another reason why I ended up in Florida. Even though I was born in Sweden, I’m a summer person, 100%. We never stayed in Sweden in the cold. We always left. I’ve probably been to 15-20 countries. The sun is something I’m chasing. I like getting tan. People here have said, ‘I want it to be cold.’ I’m like, ‘I wish is was 95 degrees right now.’ I also love just not freezing.” 

Q: Who’s the funniest person on the team?

A: “We have a lot of funny people. Everyone is funny in their own way, but I cannot think of anyone that is stand out funny. I know I can think of those people in the moment, but consistently, everyone makes me laugh but in different scenarios.” 

Q: How many tattoos do you have?

A: “I have 26 tattoos. I have a whole bunch, and they’re hard to miss. I actually get a lot of questions about them. That’s actually a big conversation starter for me.” 

Q: What is your favorite tattoo you have?

A: “I really like my spine tattoo, or I just got one on my ribs. Those are two favorites. My first one, it’s under my watch (infinity sign on the wrist), and I got it when I was 14. I have on (left arm) that says ‘Be afraid and do it anyway.’ That’s a sentence my mom always said during my graduation in Sweden. I moved away from home when I was 15, and I was scared out of my life to do it, but they have always been the most supportive parents ever. In my graduation speech, when I was 18, she said ‘Be afraid and do it anyway’ because that was when I moved to the U.S. by myself after living by myself for three years.” 

Q: Where’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on?

A: “Greece. I love Greece. I think I’ve been to Greece, out of my entire life, five to 10 times. My family and I love Greece. The Greek food, it’s amazing. The last time we went to Greece, we went to this small little island that’s closer to Turkey than Greece, and everything in this island was walking distance. It’s very very cultural Greek and not at all so touristy, and because we’ve been there so many times, we really wanted to experience the culture. If you go to Athens, it’s pretty much tourists, but we really wanted to see the small places. I actually got to know a few people who worked at the restaurants that still follow me on Instagram. The people there are just so nice.”

Q: Do you have any secret talents?

A: “I can do the splits. I actually did gymnastics for a while, and I can still do it.” 

Q: How do you like Coach [Sara] Thomas as not only a coach but as a person?

A: “She’s a really great person. She cares about me as a person and not only as a player, and you also really notice in her how she’s a mom. She’s a mother figure to everyone. She literally just texted me during class asking how I was. She actually cares about me as a person and an individual rather than a player that scores for her. She cares about my wellbeing, and she actually sees when something is wrong. I had a horrible week, and she texted me, ‘Hey, can you come in for a meeting’ and she’d talk to me and try to help me. She wants us to be these powerful women and not break us down. She wants us to be strong individuals that can take care of ourselves.” 

Q: Knowing everything that you know now, what would you tell 15-year-old you?

A: “Probably to not really care about what other people think about you or say about you. Don’t listen to other people’s thoughts. Be yourself because you’ll find those people in your life who care about you and like you for who you are when you’re yourself. Even if you don’t find them directly, they’ll come to you. Don’t try to change for other people. Being the extraverted person I am, don’t be afraid to stand up for what I think.” 

Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.