Moreno is making his mark at Y.

Carlos Moreno wants to eventually walk in his father's footsteps — a lofty goal considering Antonio Moreno is a four-time Brazilian Olympian.

But it is Carlos' twin sister, Anna Laura, that BYU should really thank. After hearing her description of how good college players have it in the United States, Carlos was convinced to walk in his sister's footsteps.

Three years later, Carlos Moreno is the national player of the year and BYU is the NCAA men's volleyball champion. Moreno, the Cougar setter, has a laundry list of individual awards stemming from his play last season. Here's one more: the Deseret Morning News Athlete of the Month for May in the state of Utah.

But it might never have happened if his twin sis hadn't paved the way.

"She came to the U.S. first," said Carlos of Anna Laura, who played volleyball for Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. "She would tell me about the facilities and how they would practice with, like, 40 volleyballs in one gym. I'd never had that."

The idea of practicing with 40 volleyballs — while getting an all-expenses paid education — was too much to resist. Moreno decided he was going to take his considerable volleyball skills to the United States.

So he took matters into his own hands — by sending videotapes of him playing to the top 10 men's programs in the country. BYU was just coming off the 2001 national championship at the time.

"I figured BYU was the best team because they'd just won," Moreno said.

So knowing little English and even less about the new culture he would be living in, Moreno came to Provo.

"It was crazy," he said. "I came straight from it being summer in Brazil — having never seen snow in my life — to here when it was cold. I was like 'what is this?' It was major culture shock."

BYU's Honor Code was new to him as well, but Moreno wanted to make the most of his opportunity.

"I tried hard to learn the language and adapt myself to being at BYU," he said. "I knew I must learn English to survive (in the classroom)."

The transition was aided by the fact that a couple of his teammates were also Brazilian and could relate to what he was going through — and speak Portuguese to him when needed.