Angelica Elsa Birgitta Ljungqvist (formerly Angelica Ljungquist, born 20 December 1974) is a Swedish former volleyball player and coach, both at the amateur and professional level. She was also the associate coach for the women's volleyball team at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Early years

Ljungqvist was born December 20, 1974, to Ann-Britt and Leif Ljungqvist. She grew up in Vallentuna,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and graduated from Vallentuna Gymnasium (

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden) in 1993.

College

Ljungqvist came to Hawai'i to play volleyball for the Rainbow Wahines in 1993. She came to play for coach

Dave Shoji Dave Shoji (born December 4, 1946) is an American sports coach who was the head coach of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Hawaii at Mānoa Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball, Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team from 1975 to 2017. Under ...

, who already had national championships in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

(AIAW),

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, and

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

(NCAA). She was talented enough to be named to All-American teams as a freshman, but

Shoji A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque ''fusuma'' is used (oshiire/ ...

could always find areas needing improvement. Ljungquist had difficulty getting her left hand over the net, so Shoji asked her how to say "left" in Swedish. She told him the word is "vänster", so after that he would remonstrate "vänster, vänster hand". She not made All-American team as a freshman, she made All-American team all four years, the first player from Hawai'i to earn such a distinction. In 1996, she helped lead the team to the title game of the

1996 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament The 1996 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began with 48 teams and ended on December 21, 1996, when Stanford defeated Hawaii 3 games to 0 in the NCAA championship match. Stanford's win over Hawaii for the title was, and remains, one ...

. She was named to the All- Tournament team. Ljungquist was named the Player of the Year in volleyball by the NCAA in 1996. She was also named Player of the Year by Volleyball Magazine, and the AVCA in 1996. In 1997, Ljungqvist won the Honda Award (now the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

) as the nation's best female volleyball player.

National team

Ljungqvist played for Swedish National teams, the Swedish Indoor National Team from 1992 to 2006, and the Swedish Beach National Team from 2002 to 2003 and 2007–10.

Professional teams

She played professionally on several teams in Europe, as well as Brazil, and Japan. She started her pro career indoors in Brazil in 1998, then in Turkey in 1999, then played for teams in Italy in 2000 and 2001 including Famili Imola in northern Italy.

Coaching

When her college teammate,

Robyn Ah Mow-Santos Robyn Mokihana Ah Mow (born September 15, 1975) is the head coach of the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team and a former American indoor volleyball player. She was a setter on the USA national team and played at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, th ...

, was hired by the Rainbow Wahine to be the new head coach of the volleyball team, one of the first people she contacted was Ljungqvist. Ah Mow-Santos instant messaged Ljungqvist even before she was offered the job, and asked Ljungqvist to be on her staff. Ljungqvist initially thought she was joking, but after realizing it was a serious request, agreed to join the coaching staff. She finished her law degree in Sweden, then returned to Hawai'i to become a coach. Ljungqvist was also named the head coach for the university's beach volleyball team in August 2020 after the indoor and beach programs merged in a financial decision stemming from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Ljungqvist departed Hawaii in July 2021, citing family reasons.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ljungqvist, Angelica Living people 1974 births Swedish women's volleyball players Middle blockers Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball players Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball coaches American volleyball coaches People from Vallentuna Municipality Sportspeople from Stockholm County