Draft Prospect Profile: S Hannah Hogue
Hogue has proven herself to be a steady hand for the Razorbacks.
Long before she was setting for the Razorbacks in tournament play, Hannah Hogue was a high schooler in Fort Smith, Arkansas who would have a packed trophy case by the time she graduated. Jason Watson, who leads the Arkansas volleyball program, quickly set his sights on her, but expected a challenging road to get the commitment.
Not only would he have to fend off other schools, Watson was unsure that Hogue was in it for the long haul as a volleyball player. She was also a D1 caliber recruit in softball, a much more popular sport in that area of the country, and could have easily had a future on the diamond.
Additionally, standing at just 5’8, Hogue’s size muddied the waters a bit. Watson was initially on the fence about whether to recruit her as a setter or a libero. This was the recipe for what he described to me as ‘the worst recruiting pitch ever’ — “We want you to come play here, but we have no idea what position you're going to be. What do you think?”
Luckily, Hogue had her heart set on both the sport and the school long before Watson got involved. She told the story with much less drama than the coach had. Once he made the offer, it was an easy decision for her to join Watson’s Razorbacks.
“I grew up just an hour south of Fayetteville, so I always wanted to go to Arkansas,” said Hogue. “I've played volleyball since I was about nine and just fell in love with it. I played other sports, but nothing really compared to volleyball for me, so it all kind of worked out pretty well so far.”
Hogue has gotten playing time in each of her years at Arkansas, but in a 6-2 system, the workload was distributed between herself and another setter during her first two seasons. Arkansas shifted to a 5-1 system last year, meaning the 2023 season was her first taking the team entirely under her wing. She thrived in the role, dishing the ball out to a trio of excellent hitters en route to a 28-6 record. Two of those hitters — Jill Gillen and Maggie Cartwright — would go on to be selected in the PVF’s inaugural draft.
Hogue explained to me that being the primary setter helped her stay mentally locked in during the game.
“It helps you get into a bit of a groove if you're out there all the time. If I set a hitter the last ball, I'm not having to come out and wait to set them again, to fix what they need me to be fix, or things like that. It really just helped me get in a rhythm and feel comfortable. I knew what I was getting better at and trying to change each game,” she said.
The ability to stay calm and get the most out of any situation is what makes Hogue special. It’s what she called the “unquantifiable aspects of the game.”
“I think I can lead my team and just kind of understand the game in a way that I kind of know who to get the ball to in a moment that can be kind of stressful and those kinds of things that you don't necessarily see on the stat sheet or something like that. So maybe, like, the game within the game, I feel confident in that area,” she said. “I can pretty much not stop until I think I've won.”
She’s also confident in her ability to maximize her hitters, which she pointed out as something that might fall through the cracks when watching her play.
“I think new people watching the game probably miss how precise really good setters are. You have to really be looking for it… feeling where my hitters are and changing the sets just a little bit to give them the best opportunity to score,” she said.
Coach Watson got a little more technical with me when it comes to how his star setter plays the game. He explained to me that, when getting a ball out to her hitters, it’s most important for Hogue to maintain the tempo of the play and let them adjust to the ball rather than prioritize the perfect location. She’s taken this philosophy to heart; Hogue has a finely tuned internal clock. It can be difficult for opponents to shake her out of her rhythm.
“Can you maintain tempo when things aren't going great? When that initial contact is not ideal? [That’s how] a big bulk of the women's game is played. As a setter, can you work really, really hard in those phases to throw off a ball that enables the hitters, once again, to be in the right tempo and in the right location? That's where I think she's become really, really adept,” said the coach.
That ability is going to be put to the test in the upcoming season. Hogue is now working with a much less experienced group of offensive weapons, which means there will be even less room for error in her gameplay. To combat that, Watson and Hogue are working to add to her list of well-refined skills.
“I've really challenged myself this spring to just work on some sets that have been usually uncomfortable for me last fall and years prior. Spent a lot of time just working on a little bit more range as a setter. I just had to kind of be willing for it to look bad for a couple practices and, you know, just not being afraid to fail at it. Eventually it'll get better,” remembered Hogue. “If I can keep myself off balance in what I'm going to do, then truly the defense will be off balance as well.”
Watson explained what kind of sets he was working to install with Hogue, and gave a little reasoning for the change as well.
“We've asked her to be a little bit more aggressive going overhead, like setting the right side more than she was a year ago, because she didn't have to. We're trying to disrupt the pattern a little bit that she had last year, which worked well for us. There was nothing wrong with the pattern. But that same pattern may not be able to be as efficient, as effective, this year. We've identified that, and we're trying to get her to kind of be a little uncomfortable, perhaps forcing some balls in a different pattern than she did last year,” he said.
Additionally, while setters are not a primary weapon, Hogue is looking to shoulder a measure of the offensive load herself.
“We figured out that I hadn’t lost a joust, and that was probably my best offense. So we just kind of worked on that and really tried to be aggressive. I don't try to force it too much because I recognize that our hitters can score far better than I can and if I can just give them a ball, they'll do their job. I’m just taking what the defense gives me. I can go up on a tie ball and they're not going to come with me. I'll put the ball away,” she said.
Hogue is able to power her team in more ways than one. In addition to running one of the best offenses in the nation, she was a force at the service line. She dropped a total of 51 aces on opposing teams during the 2023 season. The only Power 5 setter who accumulated more aces than Hogue last year was Indiana’s Camryn Haworth, who I wrote about back in May.
As with Haworth, the fact that Hogue can more than hold her own at the line makes her substantially more value as a potential PVF draftee. Most teams only set aside two roster spots for setters, which makes it hard for someone without professional experience to win over a team who could just sign a low risk veteran instead. Hogue could increase her appeal for that second spot — or as one of the two practice squad players — by doubling as both a backup and serving specialist.
Coach Watson made his case for Hogue as a future PVF player on the merit of her and team oriented spirit.
“I think she's developed a remarkable way in which to communicate with the athletes around her -- seeking clear and concise feedback from them on set location and tempo and what it is that they're after, and then goes about doing her work in that space,” explained Watson.
“The concern I have is, you know, teams are enamored with height, right? They like tall,” he continued. “And I get it. The game's played above the net, and if you're tall, it's a little easier to get above the net. You know, I get all of that. But if you're looking for someone that can set and be a good volleyball player and make volleyball plays, you know, has a good serve and can dig a ball, can defend a tip and cover teammates and isn't a knucklehead, right? I think if a team in the PVF took a chance on someone like Hannah Hogue, their return on that investment is just going to always be positive”
“I hope there are some teams that are going to be brave enough to do that because I think she's just going to add to the mean level of play, not only in your team, but in your gym. I think somebody like Hannah Hogue that's just going to grind and activate every day and is going to make everybody around them better. Nobody's going to do that as well as I've seen Hannah Hogue do,” he concluded.
When I asked Hogue what she thinks her future in the sport could look like, she was surprisingly blunt. “It’s a mystery to me,” she said as I choked back a laugh. “I would love to go play pro if I'm given the chance, but obviously, I can't predict what's going to happen. So I'm just going to see what happens and play this last season as hard as I can, like always, and hope that it falls my way, I guess.”
Some quotes were lightly altered for clarity. To read the full, unedited transcripts of my interviews with Watson and Hogue, click here. To watch full games, click here and here.