Ali Skayhan enters her third season as the head volleyball coach at USC Upstate during the 2025 season after being introduced as the program's 11th head coach on Dec. 23, 2022.
In just three seasons, Coach Ali Skayhan has elevated USC Upstate volleyball into one of the Big South’s most consistently rising programs. Under her leadership, the Spartans have delivered back-to-back winning conference seasons, their highest-ever Big South finish, and the largest All-Conference haul in program history. Skayhan guided Upstate to major conference award winners in consecutive years — a first in the program’s Division I era — highlighted by setter Kamyla Vega David earning Big South Freshman of the Year (2024) and Setter of the Year (2025). Her emphasis on a student-athlete experience aligns with a strong academic culture, as her teams have captured the AVCA Team Academic Award in all three seasons and maintained one of the league’s highest GPAs.
The Spartans opened 2025 by embarking on the program’s first-ever foreign tour, spending nearly two weeks competing across Europe — a springboard into one of the most productive seasons of Upstate’s Division I era. Upstate went on to win 14 matches and secure a .500 or better record for just the second time since 2015. The program earned its highest preseason recognition since joining the league with three Preseason All-Big South selections: seniors Ady O’Grady and Savannah Page, plus sophomore setter Kamyla Vega David. Offensively, Upstate accomplished a feat not seen in 14 years as three Spartan attackers posted 15 or more kills in a single match. The program also captured its 12th AVCA Team Academic Award while maintaining a 3.68 team GPA, marking consecutive wins in Skayhan’s first two seasons and the seventh straight academic honor of her coaching career.
Individually, the season produced record-setting moments. Vega David surpassed 2,000 career assists, becoming just the fourth setter of the DI era to reach the milestone, while freshman outside hitter Summer Kohler broke the program’s freshman kills record. Freshman libero Sophia Overholt added the freshman digs record as part of a standout first collegiate season. As postseason awards were announced, Upstate secured a program-record five All-Big South selections and a second straight major conference award. Vega David was named Big South Setter of the Year and a First Team All-Conference honoree, teaming with O’Grady, the program’s first-ever four-time All-Conference selection, to mark the first season with multiple First Team honorees. Kohler earned Second Team All-Big South honors, while Haneline and Overholt collected Honorable Mention recognition — all three also landed on the All-Freshman Team, the largest freshman class award haul in school history.
In her second season leading the Spartans, Skayhan guided Upstate to 13 wins and an 8–6 Big South record, marking a three-game improvement and the program’s second-highest conference win total of the Division I era. Upstate finished above .500 in Big South play for just the second time since 2007 and earned its highest-ever conference finish, securing the No. 3 seed in the Big South Championship. The Spartans tied the program’s D1-era record with four All-Conference selections and, for the first time in the Division I era, produced a major conference award winner as freshman setter Kamyla Vega David was named Big South Freshman of the Year.
Vega David added Second Team All-Big South and All-Freshman honors, leading all league setters in total assists and ranking top-10 nationally among NCAA setters and freshmen in assists and digs. Junior middle blocker Ady O’Grady earned All-Conference recognition for the third straight year, becoming only the second Spartan to do so in the DI era. Junior right-side hitter Savannah Page secured her first career All-Big South award, while senior libero Julia Gladhill earned her third consecutive Big South All-Academic selection. Off the court, Skayhan’s continued academic emphasis resulted in four Spartans being named College Sports Communicators Academic All-District for the second straight year.
In her first season at the helm of the Spartan program, she oversaw the program's second-largest (+6) win total improvement in the program's Division I era (2007-pres.) as Upstate's 12 wins marked the most wins by a first-year in their inaugural season since Jennifer Calloway in 1996. Skayhan also became the first Upstate head volleyball coach since Chris Hawkins in 1994 to win her debut match and first two matches of the season, defeating Queens (W, 3-1) and Stonehill (W, 3-0) at the Eagle Challenge on Aug. 25, 2023.
Under her tutelage, the Spartans saw improvement in all six major statistical team categories, putting forth the best team marks in kills per set since 2015, in hitting percentage since 2008, in assists per set since 2015, in service aces per set since 2021, in digs per set since 2017, and in blocks per set since 2022.
In 2023, four different Spartans garnered All-Big South selection with middle blocker Ady O'Grady (Second Team), outside hitter Ashleigh Nicoll (Honorable Mention), setter Kayla Spangler (Honorable Mention), and libero Julia Gladhill (All-Academic) garnering honors--tied for the most in a single season (2018) in the program's D1 era. All four All-Conference Spartans added nods as College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selections while the program earned its 11th American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Honor Roll distinction.
Skayhan joined the Upstate program following a successful stint at Wofford College—spending the last three seasons as the program's associate head coach—where she helped engineer one of the most historic stretches of Terrier volleyball. During her four years with the program, the Terriers achieved their best Southern Conference regular season finish, their second SoCon Championship Game appearance, and had more players named All-SoCon than in the previous 21 seasons in the conference combined.
A former All-American setter herself, Skayhan has tutored a setter that has garnered All-Conference honors in each of the last three seasons while seeing a setter finish the season with north of 7.00 assists per set in each of her four seasons at Wofford. She has also tutored the only two Terrier setters to garner All-SoCon recognition.
In 2022, she oversaw the most efficient offense in Wofford history as the Terriers finished the season with a .226 hitting percentage with middle blocker Millie Loehr ending the year ranked 25th in the NCAA in hitting efficiency (.391). For her efforts, Loehr earned Second Team All-SoCon honors under Skayhan's direction with middle blocker Sarah Barham and setter Victoria Hensley also earning Second Team and All-Freshman honors, respectively.
The season also marked a banner year in the classroom as four players were named College Sports Communicators—formally CoSIDA—Academic All-District honorees with the total doubling the previous number of recipients for the honor in program history.
Skayhan also helped Wofford to a historic run during the 2021 season as the Terriers claimed their best-ever SoCon finish, tying for third in the regular season standings before advancing to the SoCon Tournament Championship Game—just the second-ever appearance for the program. The season also saw Wofford set a then-program record for team hitting efficiency (.213) as setter Emily Hodsdon ranked 42nd in the country in total assists with 1,149—the 10th most in a single season in program history.
Along with Hodsdon, Barham ranked in the top 50 in her position's prime statistical category, ranking 29th in the nation in total blocks with a program record 138. Both players garnered Second Team All-Big South honors following the year while middle blocker Sarah MacLean earned All-Freshman Team recognition.
During the 2020-21 season—a season shortened and pushed to the spring by the Covid-19 global pandemic—Skayhan helped Wofford to a semifinal appearance in the SoCon Tournament with middle blocker Riley Coonan earning a spot on the event's All-Tournament Team. The accoladed added to a long list for Coonan during the season as she earned First Team All-SoCon honors, AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region honors—the first such honors for a Terrier in program history—and CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.
Alongside Coonan, Barham earned Second Team and All-Freshman Team honors from the SoCon as she's the lone player in Wofford history to earn three All-Conference selections from the SoCon. Also earning All-Freshman Team honors was Hodsdon who became the first Terrier setter to garner All-SoCon honors in program history.
In her first season with the Terriers, Skayhan helped setter Lorissa King reach the 3,000 assists plateau for her career as she eclipsed the mark by averaging 10.25 assists per set during the 2019 season, the seventh-best single-season assists per set total in program history. She also helped the program collect top 25 statistical finishes in both aces per set (21st in the NCAA) and total aces (22nd) during the campaign.
Coonan and outside hitters Catie Cronister and Meghan Yaffa each earned All-SoCon honors with Coonan and Cronister taking home Second Team accolades and Yaffa finding herself on the All-Freshman squad.
Prior to making her way to the Hub City to work at Wofford, Skayhan spent two seasons as the associate head coach at San Francisco, helping turn around a program that had gone winless in conference play in the season prior to her arrival. In 2018, the Dons won a pair of West Coast Conference matches, the program's first league wins in nearly two seasons while in 2019, outside hitter Kathya Garcia—a member of Skayhan's final recruiting class—garnered All-WCC recognition, the first such recognition by a San Francisco student-athlete in five seasons. Overall, three members of her final recruiting class earned All-WCC honors.
During her coaching career, Skayhan's teams carry a tradition of excellence in the classroom, carrying a streak of six straight USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award distinctions.
Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Skayhan was a standout setter at both the professional and collegiate ranks, following up her four-year career at Florida Southern with a three-year stint playing professionally in Europe.
In 2015, she helped Békéscsabai Röplabda SE (BRSE) Volleyball Club to a Hungarian Extraliga Championship before signing with Schwarz-Weiß Erfurt (SWE) Volleyteam in 2016. With SWE, Skayhan earned German Bundesliga 2 MVP honors, helping her club to a league runner-up finish before serving as the team captain as SWE transitioned to Bundesliga 1 in 2017.
During her collegiate career, Skayhan was one of the best setters in the history of the Florida Southern program as she twice earned AVCA All-American honors, a First Team nod in 2014, and a Second Team nod in 2012. She also finds her name littered throughout the Mocs record book, ranking fifth in career assists (3,947), ninth in career digs (1,323), and 10th in career assists per set (8.42). She was also named a member of the Sunshine State Conference's All-Decade Team (2010-19).
In the classroom, she was a five-time member of the SSC's Honor Roll and a four-time recipient of the NACDA Academic Achievement Award. She was also the recipient of the AVCA Coaches 4 Coaches Scholarship in 2014.
A native of Portland, Ore., Skayhan graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Human Movement and Performance from Florida Southern in 2014. She and her husband, Sven, daughter, Lyra, and son, Leo reside in Spartanburg.
