Russ Rose Then (2015): “Haleigh is an exceptional offensive talent. She has picked up her game both offensively and blocking-wise, and I think both she and Ali [Frantti] benefited from their experience with the national team when they trained there last spring. Haleigh is very smart and has a natural personality that makes others willing to follow her.”
Russ Rose Now (2026): “Haleigh was one of the top recruits in the country, and like a lot of great middles, she had incredible vision. Similar to Lauren Cacciamani, she was incredibly bright and analytical of the things that mattered for her to excel. Because of her confidence in herself, she was able to do things with attacking that normally took years to develop. Haleigh, to her credit, got better and better each year, and she has gone on to have a magnificent career, obviously highlighted by winning the Olympic gold medal. She was clearly one of the most engaging players that that I coached — she has continued to embrace that role as one of the main spokespeople for USA Volleyball. I would have predicted that she would have earned her PhD in philosophy and been working at a big school as a professor before I would have predicted that she would have followed the volleyball route and made that her life’s work for the past eight or 10 years. I talked to her a couple of days ago and she’s still playing professionally in the US, still leading, and continues to be inquisitive about the game. She was a joy to have in the gym and in the program.”
2015 Season (Sophomore) Highlights and Awards: AVCA All-Northeast Region … Unanimous All-Big Ten … Preseason All-Big Ten … B1G/Pac-12 Challenge MVP … Big Ten Player of the Week (9/7, 9/21, 9/28) … USF Invitational All-Tournament.
Season Recap: Started all 34 matches and played in all 115 sets … led the team with a .442 hitting percentage, totaling 302 kills, averaging 2.63 kills/set … also led the team with 1.38 block/set … had 12 kills on .526 hitting against No. 2 Stanford (9/5) … had 11 kills on .786 hitting against No. 16 Wisconsin (9/23), leading the team with 5 blocks … recorded a season-high 13 kills against No. 21 Minnesota (9/26) … led the team with 9 blocks and 11 kills against No. 4 Nebraska (10/2) … led the team with 7 blocks and 11 kills at No. 13 Illinois (10/9) … tallied a team-high 8 blocks at Northwestern (10/10) … logged 10 kills against No. 13 Purdue (10/17), adding 9 blocks … had a career-high 17 kills on .598 hitting at No. 23 Michigan (10/21), along with 8 blocks … led the team with 13 kills against No. 11 Ohio State (10/30) … logged 9 kills, 3 digs and 2 blocks at No. 4 Nebraska (11/28).
NCAA Tournament: Totaled 8 kills on .636 hitting in the NCAA 1st round match against Howard (12/4), adding 7 blocks … tallied 7 kills, 5 digs and 4 blocks in the NCAA 2nd round match against Dayton (12/5) … finished tied for 2nd on the team with 9 kills in the NCAA regional semifinals against Hawaii (12/11), while also leading the team with 2 blocks.
Before Penn State: Holds a Colorado state record after putting down 48 kills in a match with her Doherty High School team … earned 2012 Colorado Volleyball Player of the Year honors as well as team MVP accolades in 2012 and 2013 as the Spartan’s team captain for 2 consecutive seasons … guided Doherty to a state championship title in 2012 … 2-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year from 2012-13 … earned Class 5A First Team All-Conference and First Team All-State honors from 2010-13 … also earned Class 5A MVP honors … 2013-14 Under Armour First Team All-American … 2013 Mizuno First Team All-American … 2013 Volleyball Magazine Player of the Year.
