Draft Prospect Profile: OH Hailey Green
Green is a small school transfer who took her high major opportunity and ran with it.
Teams who take on a small school transfer hope they turn out like Hailey Green. She came into the West Virginia program as a junior prior to last season after two years at the University of Denver and promptly became their primary weapon on offense. Establishing herself as a constant threat to put up double-digit points, her season was highlighted by a nearly flawless outing against the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns on November 3rd.
As a former middle blocker who settled in as a pin hitter over the last couple years, Green relishes her ability to assert her will on the opposing defense. If every hitter is hungry for the ball, Green is downright ravenous. “As soon as I got to the outside, I was like, ‘Oh my god…’ My eyes turned into the star-eyed emoji, like, ‘Gimme the ball! I want it!’,” she said with a laugh. “I love hitting line. I definitely don’t hit line often enough, but when I get a line shot down it’s like ‘Oh, that felt good. That’s the shot right there!’”
A positional change, first shifting to the right side and then to the left, was the natural progression for Green. With a 6-foot-2 frame, she was adequately tall for the middle position at the club level, but things would have gotten tricky on defense against college competition. She’d been brought up in the mold of a mobile big, so when the time came to shift outside permanently, she already had a measure of comfort in her new role.
“I think as a middle, you have to work really hard at the blocking side of things and transitioning and all of that, so I kind of learned the value of being an option every time. As an outside, you don’t really have the option to not be there. You’re kind of expected to unless you’re playing the ball,” said Green. “I was trained a lot on running slides and pushing toward the outside, so I think that just being able to work those angles was helpful too.”
Moving to the right side for her first year at Denver paid immediate dividends. She was the secondary option in that offense and hit .269 on decent volume. Green was named the Summit League Freshman of the Year for her efforts.
“They wanted me to be able to play and make a difference my freshman year,” she told me. “I wasn’t gonna beat either of the upperclassmen out as a middle. They just kinda threw me out on the right side and were like ‘Okay, go hit the ball,’ and it ended up working out, obviously.”
The next year, Denver needed someone to take over the left side role, and relocating Green to the other side of the court was their answer. By refitting their star sophomore as the outside hitter, Denver opened the door for Green to get higher volume and she took to it like a gull to the wind.
“We needed someone to get kills and put the ball away and that tends to be my specialty, so they put me out there instead and it worked,” explained Green. “I like being able to see the ball coming from the setter instead of having to come from behind, it kinda comes over your shoulder weird (as an opposite). I love the outside. Ever since I was out there, I was like, ‘All right, this is it! This is my spot!’”
That’s not to say that Green is the perfect prospect. She outlined an few areas where she’s still growing as a player. For instance, passing was never a heavily emphasized aspect of her game until just a few years ago. Shouldering that responsibility while facing the best competition of her life is no small ask.
“Being able to pass as a pin is a really good quality to have, especially when you’re playing at such a high level, as I learned very quickly. The other team will pick on you if you don’t pass. They’ll find you and you’ll get the ball. I think that everything for me revolves around hitting and you have to get a pass in order to do that. So, being able to pass first and then transitioning out to hit is important.” she said.
Additionally, Green told me that she wants to become a more skilled attacker. Although she’s thrived during in-system play, she hasn’t always been the best at adapting when things go a bit awry.
“I’m working to handle balls better that aren’t perfect sets or that are more off the net. I’ve been working a lot at out of system, that seems to be my kicker sometimes. You get a lot of the junk balls and, like, there’s only one option and it’s going to you, so there’s a double block, that type of thing. Just staying patient when I’m off the net and keeping that high swing I think is what I focus on when it comes toward me. Wait and see, and then hit it high,” she said.
Working towards a more well-rounded game is a primarily mental process for Green, who openly called the mistakes she made last season ‘dumb.’ That’s especially so when it comes to becoming a more varied at the point of attack. She’s supremely confident in her ability to score on hard hit balls, and rightly so. However, she doesn’t want to lean on that quite so heavily next season, as tips accounted for less than ten percent of her shots in 2023.
I sliced up Green’s quotes in a hundred different ways trying to find a succinct way to convey what she said about her approach to hitting, but I just couldn’t stomach leaving any of it out. Instead, I’ll let her words speak for themselves:
“When I’m hitting at my top speed, throwing it off the block, hitting those deep corner shots, it’s really hard to play defense against, and I think continuing to switch between hitting cross to line you can’t shift one way or the other, because as soon as you shift, I’ll just hit it the other way. That’s unpredictability, being able to hit both sides and moving it around and keeping it out of the way of the defense so that it makes them work a lot harder. I think that’s what makes that hitting a lot more effective is that you don’t know where it’s gonna go.
That’s something I’ve been working on this offseason, just because sometimes, when you have a really good scout, you know that I’m gonna hit the ball for the most part. Just being able to work shots in, having the mindset of ‘I don’t have to hit every ball.’ Like, make plays that I see. Being able to read the ball better, if that makes sense. Being able to see the open holes. Like, when there’s a hole in the block, I don’t have to hit it in the hole, I just have to shove it through there.
I’m pretty good at being able to, you know, shake off errors. I don’t hold onto stuff super long. I think being more mindful of being in the moment and recognizing that this is not the ball, you know, that I should be trying to wail on, you know, hitting that sharp corner, something like that. So, just being more engaged with that play and being more aware in that sense. I think, physically too, just realizing that it’s okay not to hit every ball. Like I said, see ball, hit ball, but sometimes you can’t necessarily do that, so just being able to manage better.”
I’m sure you can understand why I just couldn’t pull the trigger on cutting any of that out. It’s a real treat to talk to athletes like Green who have meaningful things to say about the sport they play.
That’s just another reason why she’s perfect for the Mountaineers. With just her senior season ahead of her, she’s embracing the leadership role she has within the team, who will benefit from a steady hand after WVU underwent a coaching change this winter.
“I was a captain last year but I think continuing to step into that role and being there for my teammates. I mean, this season is obviously not going to be easy with all the new things being thrown at us,” she said.
Green also hopes that her positive influence can extend further than just the Mountaineers’ clubhouse.
“I want to be a part of something that grows volleyball. They’re a little bit behind in West Virginia, just the growth of volleyball and the competition and skill that kids there have,” she explained. “I think it’s growing, but slowly, slowly growing. I think that being able to be a face of that for WVU volleyball and having those kids look up to you and making a mark on the program; my teammates and I are excited to see where we’re gonna take this program.”
That mentality also influences her desire to play professionally, and would jump at the chance to join the PVF.
“It’s something that little Hailey would have been absolutely elated to even be in contention for. I think that having a pro league in the states is really cool too, I think that being able to be a part of one of the first couple of seasons would be really amazing and definitely a dream come true.”
Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity. Read the full interview transcript here. Watch full West Virginia games here and here.