Steve Aird is entering his 12th season as a head coach in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball. Including two seasons in an assistant role at Penn State, Aird has coached a lot of athletes.

But there’s something special about this year’s roster at Indiana.

“This is the most aligned program, deep top-to-bottom group of people that I’ve been around since 2013 when I won a championship at Penn State,” Aird said Monday afternoon in Chicago at Big Ten Volleyball Media Days.

The Hoosiers finished 10th in the Big Ten last season, with a 15-15 (8-12) record. 

“We have depth. We’ve got fantastic talent. Recruiting has gone exceptionally well,” Aird said. “We’ve had a couple good years. I think we’re right at the beginning of what’s going to be a pretty impressive stretch for the next three or four years, and I couldn’t be more proud to do that.” 

Aird credited associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Rachel Morris, as well as assistant coaches Kevin Hodge and Matt Kearns, with helping the Hoosiers recruit successfully this offseason. There are seven freshmen and one transfer — former UCLA beach player Jessica Smith — on the Indiana roster this fall.  

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“The energy right now is awesome. They came in just hungry, honestly,” middle blocker Ava Vickers said. “They want to work. They want to compete.I think being surrounded by not only players that want that, but also freshmen who want that, it’s their first couple months in the gym and they already have this level of compete inside of them, I think it just makes us more excited for what the future holds being with them.”

Opposite hitter Avry Tatum agreed with Vickers:

“It’s been super competitive and a lot of fun, and I think it’s really good for us to have freshmen that are hungry and ready to play,” Tatum said. “It pushes us returners a lot more to be better for them and be better for us, and I think it’s been an amazing environment to be in.”