Indiana University Athletics
Quoted: Big Ten Volleyball Media Day
8/3/2026 3:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CHICAGO – The unofficial start to volleyball season began with the Big Ten's fifth-annual Media Day on Monday (Aug. 3) in the Windy City. Head coach Steve Aird, junior setter Sade Ilawole and sophomore outside hitter Jaidyn Jager met with members of the media to discuss the season ahead in 2026.
A full transcription, provided by ASAP, can be found attached.
Full video is linked in the story.
Opening Statement…
AIRD: "Thank you, thank you, thank you for having us. Excited to be here. I want to start by thanking Commissioner Petitti and the Big Ten staff for the opportunity. We've been half a day, but it's been amazing. We're having a blast.
I want to thank President Whitten, Scott Dolson, the administration at Indiana for continuing to support the program and these young women as we continue to improve, chip away and get a little bit better every year. Administrations are a huge part of a program's success and we've got a great one at Indiana. Super proud of them.
We're coming off a fantastic year. I've joked earlier that it's taken me a little bit longer than Coach [Curt] Cignetti to get good fast. But it's been a labor of love. We've been working really hard over the last few years to develop elite-level athletes. Now we have a whole bunch of kids going on and playing professionally. Doing pretty well in the conference, pretty well nationally. Turning into what we hope to be a perennial top-20 program in the country.
It's a very daunting slate of matches to start the year. We've gone up a weight class, we think, in quality and caliber of opponent. We're not afraid to go and test the waters. Incredibly excited to host the Big Ten Tournament the first year in the state of Indiana. Lots of just really positive things happening at the school for the program, for volleyball in the state of Indiana. Especially proud and excited to be here representing them today.
With that, we will pass it out and take some questions.
On continuing to climb the latter in the Big Ten…
AIRD: "Well, I guess the best way I could describe it, it's kind of like the pinwheel in business. I spend a lot of time studying business, CEOs and GMs. You find some athletes who buy into the vision of, hey, we're going to be okay.
When I took the job, they had one conference win. It was an uphill battle. We knew it was going to take some time.
Then you get some kids who are tough, play hard, and you have a little bit of success. The community and the volleyball community gets excited. You're able to recruit on that. You have more success. Just like businesses with products and marketing. Then it's 2.0 and 3.0. The pinwheel starts to kind of fire.
So right now, I just feel like the staff has done a great job. We've got really good student-athletes. We've got some traction. Recruiting classes over the next few years are exceptional. I just think the pinwheel is starting to spin. Pushing the rock up the hill is the hardest part and getting people to buy into you from the beginning is the hardest part. At this point now, we feel like it's starting to spin pretty good.
On how the foreign tour helped the program…
ILAWOLE: "I think the international trip we got really close to each other. We had different roommates in every city we went to. I think it was an opportunity to get outside of our bubbles and hang out with people that we don't usually hang out with on the team. I think that helped grow our connection.
JAGER: "To further that, I think all of our connections have gotten so complex with every single person on the team. I think that's a very unique thing to have. It helped all of our personalities grow, grow for the team.
On playing at the Fishers Event Center and the Big Ten Tournament…
JAGER: "I loved playing in such a big arena. It was so much fun just to be with, like, my best friends on the court, even off the court. Yeah, having the crowd on top of you and over you is such an amazing and interesting feeling.
ILAWOLE: "Yeah, I think our team loves playing in big arenas. I think we're excited to go back there for the Big Ten tournament and hopefully have a little bit of a home-court advantage with some of our Bloomington fans coming to watch."
On the talent of this year's team…
AIRD: "We were a young team last year, although we lost some really elite talent. We still started and had young players. Five and six freshmen that were playing. We were just talking about Ellie [Hepler] and Sara [Snowbarger] and some of the young players. They're just happy humans. I burn pretty hot and I'm pretty intense. Having those kids that every single day they're grateful and happy and bouncing around.
Clearly, they can play. We've got good balance, good depth. I feel it's the -- the will-over-skill thing for us is really important. That's something I've always taken from Coach [Russ] Rose. I don't know if we have the top-end talent, I'm not sure if I'm the best coach in the conference, but we want to fight you from the beginning to the end. We don't care where and how. I think that's something the locker room is really locked into.
We want to compete and compete hard. If you win, great. If you don't, it's not that you didn't empty it. So, a lot of the kids coming in I think are adding pieces. But the core and the foundation of the group I think is really strong. The returning team is pretty excited."
A full transcription, provided by ASAP, can be found attached.
Full video is linked in the story.
Opening Statement…
AIRD: "Thank you, thank you, thank you for having us. Excited to be here. I want to start by thanking Commissioner Petitti and the Big Ten staff for the opportunity. We've been half a day, but it's been amazing. We're having a blast.
I want to thank President Whitten, Scott Dolson, the administration at Indiana for continuing to support the program and these young women as we continue to improve, chip away and get a little bit better every year. Administrations are a huge part of a program's success and we've got a great one at Indiana. Super proud of them.
We're coming off a fantastic year. I've joked earlier that it's taken me a little bit longer than Coach [Curt] Cignetti to get good fast. But it's been a labor of love. We've been working really hard over the last few years to develop elite-level athletes. Now we have a whole bunch of kids going on and playing professionally. Doing pretty well in the conference, pretty well nationally. Turning into what we hope to be a perennial top-20 program in the country.
It's a very daunting slate of matches to start the year. We've gone up a weight class, we think, in quality and caliber of opponent. We're not afraid to go and test the waters. Incredibly excited to host the Big Ten Tournament the first year in the state of Indiana. Lots of just really positive things happening at the school for the program, for volleyball in the state of Indiana. Especially proud and excited to be here representing them today.
With that, we will pass it out and take some questions.
On continuing to climb the latter in the Big Ten…
AIRD: "Well, I guess the best way I could describe it, it's kind of like the pinwheel in business. I spend a lot of time studying business, CEOs and GMs. You find some athletes who buy into the vision of, hey, we're going to be okay.
When I took the job, they had one conference win. It was an uphill battle. We knew it was going to take some time.
Then you get some kids who are tough, play hard, and you have a little bit of success. The community and the volleyball community gets excited. You're able to recruit on that. You have more success. Just like businesses with products and marketing. Then it's 2.0 and 3.0. The pinwheel starts to kind of fire.
So right now, I just feel like the staff has done a great job. We've got really good student-athletes. We've got some traction. Recruiting classes over the next few years are exceptional. I just think the pinwheel is starting to spin. Pushing the rock up the hill is the hardest part and getting people to buy into you from the beginning is the hardest part. At this point now, we feel like it's starting to spin pretty good.
On how the foreign tour helped the program…
ILAWOLE: "I think the international trip we got really close to each other. We had different roommates in every city we went to. I think it was an opportunity to get outside of our bubbles and hang out with people that we don't usually hang out with on the team. I think that helped grow our connection.
JAGER: "To further that, I think all of our connections have gotten so complex with every single person on the team. I think that's a very unique thing to have. It helped all of our personalities grow, grow for the team.
On playing at the Fishers Event Center and the Big Ten Tournament…
JAGER: "I loved playing in such a big arena. It was so much fun just to be with, like, my best friends on the court, even off the court. Yeah, having the crowd on top of you and over you is such an amazing and interesting feeling.
ILAWOLE: "Yeah, I think our team loves playing in big arenas. I think we're excited to go back there for the Big Ten tournament and hopefully have a little bit of a home-court advantage with some of our Bloomington fans coming to watch."
On the talent of this year's team…
AIRD: "We were a young team last year, although we lost some really elite talent. We still started and had young players. Five and six freshmen that were playing. We were just talking about Ellie [Hepler] and Sara [Snowbarger] and some of the young players. They're just happy humans. I burn pretty hot and I'm pretty intense. Having those kids that every single day they're grateful and happy and bouncing around.
Clearly, they can play. We've got good balance, good depth. I feel it's the -- the will-over-skill thing for us is really important. That's something I've always taken from Coach [Russ] Rose. I don't know if we have the top-end talent, I'm not sure if I'm the best coach in the conference, but we want to fight you from the beginning to the end. We don't care where and how. I think that's something the locker room is really locked into.
We want to compete and compete hard. If you win, great. If you don't, it's not that you didn't empty it. So, a lot of the kids coming in I think are adding pieces. But the core and the foundation of the group I think is really strong. The returning team is pretty excited."
Players Mentioned
S
/ Women's Volleyball
OH
/ Women's VolleyballMonday, August 03
Monday, August 03
Friday, December 12
Thursday, December 11