There wasn’t one single moment when Indiana volleyball head coach Steve Aird knew that his 2025 squad would be special. His confidence in his team grew gradually; there were checkpoints.
The first indicator was the Hoosiers’ first match of the season at the University of Miami, when after losing the first two sets, Indiana pulled off a reverse sweep for its first win of the season.
The next was Indiana’s Big Ten road trip in early October. After winning their first two conference matches, the Hoosiers traveled to the West Coast to take on then-No. 17 USC and then-No. 24 UCLA, where they defeated both California teams 3-1.
“That’s hard to do, and really hard to do historically,” Aird said. “So, I felt like not only could we travel and play well on the road, but for a really young team, we just showed a lot of poise and fight. So, probably after that weekend, I was like, ‘OK, I think we've got a chance to have a good year.’”
The Hoosiers didn’t just have a “good year” like Aird had thought in early October. They broke multiple program records for arguably the best season in program history. But Indiana believes its best is still ahead.
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When Aird was hired as head coach of Indiana volleyball in December 2017, the Hoosiers had won just one Big Ten game the season prior. They were by no means a volleyball powerhouse like Aird’s alma mater Penn State, which has eight women’s national championship titles and two men’s. Still, he saw the potential.
“I always thought that Indiana had a rightful place amongst the best in the country, the best in the nation... but it's taken a long time,” Aird said. “But every single year we've been better and better and better.”
In Aird’s first season as Indiana’s head coach in 2018, the Hoosiers won seven Big Ten matches and had a conference win percentage of .350, but they didn’t surpass that mark until 2022. Then, Indiana had a winning percentage of .450, which grew to .550 in 2023 and fell to .400 in 2024. The number rose dramatically in 2025, when Indiana won 14 conference matches for a win percentage of .700, each the highest in program history.
Indiana finished 2025 with a 3-0 loss to the University of Texas at Austin in the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals. The defeat put the Hoosiers’ record at 25-8, their best ever.
Indiana also finished fifth in the Big Ten standings, which marked its best place in program history. The Hoosiers’ Sweet 16 appearance tied the best in program history, and their No. 13 rank in the final AVCA poll was a program best.
Aird’s success with Indiana volleyball has been a slow burn — the opposite of what he said happened with Indiana football and head coach Curt Cignetti’s quick rise to the top in just two seasons — but the turnaround is something he’s proud of.
“It hasn't been smooth,” Aird said. “First, you got to stop the rock going down the hill, and then you got to start pushing the rock up the hill. But then you get really good people, and people who believe in what you're doing, and care about you and care about the program, and they help you push the rock, and that's what we've done over the last few years.”
Much of Indiana’s 2025 roster was built through a freshman class. Three freshmen consistently slotted into the starting lineup alongside the veterans, while others played situational roles. Aird said that roster make-up was part of what made last year’s team so successful. The younger players were coming in fresh, and the veterans were motivated to win.
While the Hoosiers are still young, four upperclassmen departed the program after last season, including two program greats in outside hitter Candela Alonso-Corcelles and opposite hitter Avry Tatum.
Alonso-Corcelles became the winningest player in program history with 77 total wins in four seasons with the Hoosiers and ranks eighth for all-time kills with 1,386. The former Hoosier is now playing professionally in the German Women’s Volleyball League.
While Tatum made her exit from Indiana at the end of last season, there is potential for her to return. On July 31, a District Court judge in Colorado granted a preliminary injunction that gives college athletes who graduated high school in 2022 another year of eligibility. However, the injunction was paused last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit granted the NCAA a stay on the July 31 ruling, creating uncertainty around if and when athletes could return. If Tatum becomes eligible for the season, that gap is filled.
But even if she doesn’t come back for her fifth-year, Aird is confident in the team’s depth. The Hoosiers brought in two experienced players from the transfer portal and have two incoming freshmen to round out their roster after last season's departures.
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Indiana’s mindset going into this season isn’t different than last year’s, either. The Hoosiers’ motto is “Play hard, play fast,” a philosophy Aird has tried to instill into the program for years.
“I've always believed in that, like, just having a chip on your shoulder and playing really hard and competing,” Aird said. “And to play fast, I think is how we play... I think speed kills. I don't care if it's football or hockey or basketball, like the faster you can go, the more pressure you put on people.”
It’s a perspective that University of Tennessee transfer Kiki Granberry has bought into already.
“We're playing hard, we don't go down without a fight,” the graduate student middle blocker said. “Like, we are fighters, we're scrappy. And then playing fast, like, if you see us, we're playing fast, like, it's going to be hard for other teams to catch up with us in our offense.”
While the roster and mindset remain largely the same as last year, expectations inside the program have changed. Yes, Aird said that the goal each season is to develop players, reach each team’s full potential and compete hard against their opponents, but each team is different, and after last season, the bar has raised.
Compared to recent seasons, Indiana’s nonconference schedule includes more high-level competition. In their first match, the Hoosiers take on No. 7 University of Louisville on Aug. 28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Two more preseason ranked teams — Texas A&M University and Tennessee — await the Hoosiers during their nonconference schedule, but the difficult schedule comes with the recent success.
“I don't want to dodge anyone,” Aird said. “I want to play the best. And if you're not good enough, you get back in the lab the next day and you go to work.”
The difficult schedule gives the Hoosiers a chance to test their abilities earlier in the season and raise their rating percentage index when it comes time for NCAA Tournament seeding.
Aird wants Indiana to challenge itself in the early part of the season, and the Hoosiers are looking to attack, just like they would with any other match.
“We talk about having an attack mindset all the time,” sophomore defensive specialist Hannah Leftridge said. “So, we just go into the games, just ready to attack, and we just show them that we play fast, we play hard and just get on them early. Like, we're here for a reason.”
Indiana wants to build on its historic season, and, even facing a daunting schedule, Leftridge thinks they can.
“We did set a really good bar for ourselves last year,” Leftridge said. “But I think this year, we can go further, and we can just prove to a lot of people that we've arrived, and we're still hunting people down, and we're really good this year, so we definitely have a chance.”
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki87731 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana volleyball season.
