When Fernanda Luna stepped onto campus this fall as a freshman Biola student-athlete, everything was new for her. The pool was new. The language was new. The country, the campus, the culture — all of it new. For the freshman goalkeeper from León, Mexico, nearly everything about her first semester felt like learning to tread water in unfamiliar depths.

“My first semester was hard for me.” Luna said. “It was my first time living away from my family. The country is different, everything is different — just two different worlds.”

Yet in the water, she was anything but lost. By the time the 2026 season concluded, Luna had set a single-season program record with 229 saves, earned Western Water Polo Association All-Freshman Team honors, and helped push the Biola Eagles to the conference championship match.

As a global student, she’s experienced a unique path to Biola University, and an exciting sporting journey outside of it.

Luna grew up in León and was 9 years old when she first discovered swimming, and it was through her time in the pool as a swimmer that water polo eventually found her.

“My mom received an invitation from a coach — the water polo team in my city,” she recalls. “It was like a new sport, a new thing. I decided to come for my first class, kind of a trial to see if I liked it. And I liked it.”

She never really looked back. Water polo became her sport.

Her position was decided for her early. Her coach, Rodrigo, took one look at her 5-foot-6-inch frame — tall by Mexican water polo standards — and made her the goalkeeper. “He decided for me,” Luna said. “And I just really liked it.”

Luna would go on to represent the state of Guanajuato in national competition, playing against teams from Mexico City, Jalisco and other states. Her state captured a national championship in 2024 and finished runner-up the following year. All the while, Luna’s performances between the pipes were being noticed.

She was 16 when the call came. She was invited to trials, earned her spot and began working her way through the youth national team age groups — 16U, 17U, 18U — before eventually joining the senior program.

In 2024, Mexico competed in the World Championships in China — and for Luna, it was a revelation.

“It was like another world,” she says. “Being able to watch Spain, USA, Hungary playing — it was just crazy.”

She did more than watch. Against Thailand, Luna earned Player of the Game honors. “My dad went crazy,” she said. Her international participation also took her to Brazil and Colombia as she represented Mexico.

The dream of playing college water polo in the United States had been building for years. Luna began reaching out to universities while she was still in China for the World Championships — firing off emails, piecing together recruitment materials in her second language.

The connection to Biola came through a teammate in Mexico’s senior national program who was a standout contributor at Biola — Veralie Naranjo.

“She told me about Biola, about the amazing professors, everything,” Luna recalls. “She said ‘You need to come here. You need to come here.’ So I reached out to coach Sarah [Ramirez], and we started talking.”

The path wasn’t easy. English proficiency requirements stood between Luna and her commitment. She studied hard, pushed through and eventually earned the score she needed.

“It was hard,” she says simply. “But I think it’s really worth it.”

Biola’s 2026 season was a year of growing pains, battling through a tough schedule frontloaded with top NCAA Division I competition. But through it all, Luna was a wall for the Eagles’ talented defense.

Luna recorded a single-season program record 229 saves, including a 21-save performance against UC Merced. She also collected 29 steals, scored two goals, and contributed three assists. For her efforts, she earned both All-WWPA Freshman Team and Honorable Mention All-Conference honors.

The season ended in the WWPA Championship game, where Biola fell 4–3 to Concordia University Irvine in a low-scoring defensive battle.

“We lost some games we should have won,” she reflects. “But I think it was just a process we really needed to experience. God has a plan for us. We were united, and I really enjoyed playing with my teammates. I just see us growing. I’m so excited for next year.”

Something else changed for Luna this year — something more important than the statistics, or even the language.

Before Biola, her pre-game preparation was tactical: visualize the shots, think about positioning, mentally prepare to block.

But at a Christian university, surrounded by teammates who pray together, something shifted.

“Since I came to Biola, praying is one of my strategies,” she says. “I just figured it out — discovered it at the beginning of the season. Having a little prayer and just talking to God: ‘Hey, I feel scared. I feel nervous. Help me. This is for you. I play for you.’ And it’s really helpful.”

Out of the water, Luna has thrown herself into academic life with the same commitment she brings to the cage. She arrived intending to study business administration but shifted to accounting after discovering a passion for the subject and forging relationships with her faculty.

“I really like my classes. I’m actually doing pretty good,” she says. “I love my professors.”

Her family back in León hasn’t been able to make the trip to California yet. Luna is hopeful that will change as she tackles her sophomore season next year.

This summer, Luna will return to the national team. Mexico has a tournament in July, followed by the Central American Games — a qualifying tournament for the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Win that, and an Olympic pathway opens up.

She takes it one tournament at a time.

For a kid from León who once took a trial water polo class on her mom’s suggestion — and liked it — the journey has already taken her around the world, and she’s just getting started.