Ma'iai (19) started playing volleyball when he was a pupil at John McGlashan College and has been a member of New Zealand age group teams since the age of 16.
He is back home for two months during his summer holiday break from California State University, Northbridge. It has 35,000 students.
''It was awesome to go there and witness the super high level of volleyball they have,'' he said.
Ma'iai is 2.03m tall but is a shorty compared with some of the volleyball players at United States universities.
His college is full of giants and also has an elite basketball team. The Northbridge Matadors play in the first division of the NCAA volleyball conference.
There are 13 teams in his conference, which is the top volleyball conference in the United States.
Two teams from that conference qualify for the top four competition at the end of the season. They are joined by the winners of the other two conferences.
''We play a lot of games at a very high level,''Ma'iai said.
''Every game is competitive. Every team in our conference has recruited and are all very strong.''
Volleyball is more structured in the United States compared with New Zealand.
''There is a lot more money in the sport and a lot more systems in place.''
Ma'iai, who has a scholarship worth about US$30,000 a year, said the facilities for the sport were far better than in New Zealand.
''We have an ice bath and other facilities at the university that we would never dream of getting in New Zealand,'' he said.
''It is a whole professional level that I'd never encountered before.''
There is better coaching and harder opponents, and this has helped Ma'iai improve the standard of his own game.
''I came into the American system with only New Zealand experience. Compared to the rest of the world, it is pretty low.''
Ma'iai was recruited on his potential and not on what he had achieved in the sport in New Zealand.
He applied for a volleyball scholarship at several universities before being given a trial at the California State University campus in the town of Northbridge.
''I sent my video to several places and got bites from several colleges. They recruited me through YouTube and by talking to coaches in New Zealand. It was all done online.''
Ma'iai intends to complete his journalism degree before venturing into the professional ranks. He would like to play in the Italian league.
