At the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games, a biennial Olympics-like competition for college-aged students, in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, a set of twins graced the volleyball court and placed 12th in the 16-team pool for Team France. In their last match together, a 3-2 loss to Team Mongolia, Nina Jioshvili-Ravva, a setter, made five assists, while Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva, an outside hitter, earned 19 points. This bittersweet moment would come weeks before the Jioshvili-Ravvas’ volleyball careers took different paths.
“[Nina and I] knew [FISU] was going to be our last tournament before being separated,” Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva said. “We have a really good relationship, so our last tournament together was really [special].”
For Nina and Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva, playing volleyball in college was essentially inevitable. The daughters of Victoria Ravva, once a top 100 volleyball player internationally, and Alexander Jioshvili, a professional volleyball player-turned-coach, the Jioshvili-Ravva duo began their own volleyball careers at just four years old.
“I have some memories of playing volleyball with [Kalli] at a very young age with my parents at their gym,” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “I think [my parents] helped me a lot to understand how to play volleyball and to like volleyball.”
The twins were inseparable on the court, winning France’s Under-18 championship in 2021-2022 and the Under-21 championship in 2024-2025 as teammates for RC Cannes – a women’s volleyball club in France. But Division I collegiate volleyball careers separated the duo by just under 2,000 miles. Nina Jioshvili-Ravva joined Hofstra University’s volleyball team, while Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva made her way to Texas Tech University’s team.
When deciding to bring their volleyball skills to the United States, the Jioshvili-Ravvas considered the warmth of their respective team’s head coaches and their teams’ histories.
“I talked a lot with Emily [Mansur, Hofstra’s volleyball head coach], and with our discussion I saw that she trusted me a lot and that she really wanted to work with me,” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “And our discussion made me realize that [Hofstra] would be a good choice for me.”
“I was interested in coming to the United States,” Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva said. “When I talked with Tony [Graystone, Texas Tech’s head volleyball coach] he told me really good things about Texas Tech, and I feel like he is a really good coach and the volleyball here was really good, so I decided to come [to Texas Tech].”
So far, Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva appeared in 18 matches for Texas Tech and started in 11 matches. She leads the Red Raiders with 3.60 points per set and 3.28 kills per set.
Upon arrival to their new teams, there weren’t many adjustments needed to the Jioshvili-Ravvas’ playing style compared to French volleyball, except a more rigid practice regimen and a slightly faster pace of play.
Mansur, who takes pride in her setters, chose Nina Jioshvili-Ravva as the everyday setter for the 2025 season after the loss of Beatriz Alves, a former Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Setter of the Year recipient. Upon scouting for potential replacements, Mansur saw something special in Nina Jioshvili-Ravva’s playing style.
“[Nina] is a pretty mature freshman with the way she plays and the way she carries herself out on the court,” Mansur said. “That’s not something we really get to see from freshmen because they need time to adjust. But she has played at such a high level before she got here that this adjustment has been easier for her.”
Despite being so early in her collegiate career, Nina Jioshvili-Ravva is excited to use her experience in both indoor volleyball and beach volleyball to be a versatile setter and team player.
“I really love playing beach volleyball,” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “For a setter … most of the time I’m not spiking balls because my role is just to set up the outside hitters, but because I played a lot of beach volleyball it’s [taught] me how to use these skills on the court as a setter. I can be [closer] to the net and spike balls, but not every setter could do that.”
Mansur praised how Nina Jioshvili-Ravva has stepped up for her team as one of eight freshmen on Hofstra’s 2025 roster. She is proud of Nina Jioshvili-Ravva’s mentality in such a high-stakes position.
“[I like] just how cool [Nina] is, how chill she is,” Mansur said. “[Whether it’s a] good day, bad day, good match, bad match, she just keeps her composure. As a setter, that’s something so special, and that’s a gift, and it’s amazing.”
Nina Jioshvili-Ravva is a four-time CAA Rookie of the Week and has won the award for the past three weeks. Nina Jioshvili-Ravva currently leads the Pride with 628 assists and is ranked in the top 50 setters in the NCAA, averaging 9.81 assists per set. She also leads the Pride with 35 service aces and has appeared in every set of Hofstra’s 18 matches.
The Pride’s 7-0 October run, the team’s first perfect month since August 2016, may have been fueled both by team camaraderie and the energy created at Hofstra’s home matches.
“I’ve just enjoyed all the moments with Hofstra [so far],” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “I really love when all the sports teams come to our games and cheer for us.”
The Hofstra volleyball’s Friday, Oct. 17, match against Stony Brook University featured athletes from Hofstra’s baseball, softball and wrestling teams cheer for the volleyball team. The wrestlers arrived with a ski-masked bodysuit in a singlet and the words “Block Party” spelled across 10 wrestlers’ chests. Hofstra’s athletes, including Nina Jioshvili-Ravva, can agree that this type of support elevates the energy on gameday.
While the Jioshvili-Ravva twins are separated by 2,000 miles and a time zone, they still manage to stay connected with each other.
“I miss [Kalli],” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “She’s my sister and we’re always together, like always-always, but we’re still talking a lot about what’s happening [at Hofstra] and what’s happening at [Texas Tech], just to know about each other and the team.”
“We’re texting all the time,” Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva said. “We’re calling like every night; we’re talking every day. But yeah, I think we’re still connected.”
There is an excitement among both Nina and Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva of returning to France and playing as teammates over the summer. While a reunion won’t be until after another semester, being teammates again is something the Jioshvili-Ravvas are looking forward to.
“When we play together – I think it’s because we’re twins and we’re very close – we have some days where we play really well together, and I really love playing with her,” Nina Jioshvili-Ravva said. “I know everything about her, and she knows everything about me, so we knew how to play together. I know her [off] the court too, so we have this connection that I can’t have with anyone else because we’re sisters.”
“I know that we can play together again on the national team, so it’s okay,” Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva said. “But it’s a little hard to play without her now.”
