Alaina Harrison '18 Recruiting Profile

    I've been playing volleyball since third grade. Obviously in third grade, volleyball is just a bunch of girls standing around the court shanking balls all around the gym, but in my nine year old eyes it was the real deal. My love for the sport since then has grown tremendously. I'm currently in my fourth year of high school volleyball and I have played a year of club.

    By far my favorite season was my club volleyball season. The reason being that my team spent almost every weekend together for 8 months. These were a group of girls that I started the season knowing nothing about. While they had all known each other for a few years. I loved that situation though because I fit right in and we built a strong bond on the team. My club team ended up winning our regional tournament and also winning a bid to the USA Nationals. Victory is sweet, but the bond we had as a team was sweeter.

    I can attest to the fact that club takes up a lot of time due to practices and tournaments, but even with the crazy schedules I knew academics had to come first. I maintained my 4.0 GPA and join the National Honor Society throughout my club volleyball season, and I even participated in band during this time. It was a lot of work, but I thrive when faced with a challenge. My current challenge is trying to narrow down what I want to study in college. I'm leaning heavily towards studying Kinesiology, and potentially becoming a Physical Therapist. I love getting to know people, helping them feel better, and providing people with opportunities. That's another reason why I love volleyball. Unquestionably volleyball is a team sport.  I love this aspect because then I get to communicate with my teammates and coaches about goals, and then help the team achieve those goals. 

    Through my volleyball career I have played outside hitter, right-side hitter, and defensive specialist. Currently I start for my high school's varsity team as an outside hitter, but I play all six rotations. My high school team runs a lot of cross plays and quick plays, so those are my favorite to trick the opponent.