There's no truth to the rumor that University of New Haven women's volleyball coach Christa Cooper majored in geography while putting up gaudy numbers not only on the court but in the classroom at Michigan Tech.

Twelve years after her college graduation, Cooper has certainly taken the time to get acquainted with pretty much every state in the country all in the quest to return the UNH program to national prominence.

Players from 12 states in addition to Puerto Rico are on the current UNH roster. In a season-opening win over Ursuline, the 67 kills came from players from Michigan, New York, Colorado, Hawaii, and Florida. California, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Virginia, and Washington are also represented on the diverse UNH roster. The natural question posed to Cooper is what is the Chargers' recruiting base? 

"I think our recruiting base is not having a recruiting base necessarily, we are just trying to get the best volleyball players we can here," Cooper said.

That philosophy is not just idle chatter.

While New Haven's other fall sports feature more student-athletes hailing from New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania than all the other states combined, the volleyball program's lineup features senior transfers Jessica Akiona (Kapolei, Hawaii/La Pietra- Hawaii School for Girls) and Asiya Way (Denver, Colo./Denver East), natives of Hawaii and Colorado. Michigan natives Macy Brown (Cadillac, Mich./Cadillac) and Emily Smith (Chesterfield, Mich./Anchor Bay), Sophia Leon-Tabor (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers), a freshman setter out of Florida, and Indiana-bred digs leader Rilee Jessee (Edinburgh, Ind,/Columbus East) are other key contributors to go along with junior Emily Barry (Freeport, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy), who grew up in Freeport, N.Y. which is just about a 90-minute drive from the UNH campus.

Barry is the only one of the aforementioned players who had suited up for the Chargers in 2019, Cooper's first season. It made for some learning on the fly for a new-look UNH squad especially with only about a week of preseason practice before the fall semester started.

"I think it has been really interesting because our diversity is one of our greatest assets especially when building relationships," said Akiona who had more than 500 kills and digs in her two seasons at West Alabama before she transferred to New Haven. "The best is when you hear different phrases that kids from Minnesota and (ask), 'what did you just say?' There is another player from Hawaii (freshman Sarae Miguel (Honolulu, Hawaii/Mid-Pacific Institute)) and I will understand what she is saying. We have different cultural traditions and it always keeps things interesting when we are traveling and talking. I don't think there has ever been an issue, where we are from hasn't been a barrier for anyone."

With unique styles of play in different parts of the country, there have been some growing pains getting the new hitters acclimated to the New Haven program. 

"It is really interesting when you get people from all over the country to come in and see how we all mesh and kind of teach them our things," said Smith, a sophomore from Chesterfield, Michigan. 

Nobody has needed to figure things out on the fly more than Leon-Tabor as the freshman is being diligent in trying to figure out where her teammates like to get the ball.

"We went over what everybody needs and what is best for the team," Leon-Tabor said. "Obviously communicating and becoming friends off the court really helps with our team, we have more of an open line of communication."

Some of her New Haven players were on Cooper's radar when she was an assistant coach at Ferris State. Nobody knew more about Cooper and her coaching style more than Brown, a freshman who grew up in Cadillac, Michigan, which is about a 40-minute drive to Ferris State. Brown was a regular at the volleyball camps run by the Ferris State coaches.

"I knew she was a very active coach, always teaching new things, giving you feedback," Brown said. "Also, she was very positive and I like a coach that is positive."

Cooper led the Chargers to the program's 14th straight NCAA tournament appearance in 2019 before COVID limited the Chargers to practice sessions in 2020. 

More than one player spoke about the positive energy coming from Cooper and her coaching staff being a major reason why they left home to come to UNH.

"It is definitely a family and I think our coach brings a family atmosphere into it," Smith said. "That makes it a lot easier for the people from all around the country to come here and join our family just because they know they will have a family away from home. Our coach definitely brings a very positive, friendly culture which makes it easy for people to say yes to coming here. There are a lot of good things that New Haven brings that a lot of other schools don't."

Cooper was a decorated student-athlete at Michigan Tech and she wants her players at New Haven to make the most of their time in college.

"When you are recruiting to a university and a community that you are proud of and that you know will set a student-athlete up for success long after their playing career is over, it makes your job as a coach that much easier," Cooper said. "Our admissions team does an amazing job showcasing the academia, internship opportunities, and overall student experience that will be provided here at New Haven and recruits and their families can feel it when they come visit campus. We want parents to trust their daughter is going to be challenged to grow while also being supported not only by the volleyball staff and team but the entire community here at New Haven."

Speaking of being challenged, Cooper knows that there are options for her to call on if things aren't going well with her main rotation. It makes for some competitive practices which should pay dividends down the road.  

"A lot of our drills are set up to be competitive drills, from the start of practice until the end we are constantly competing and even if you aren't in a starting role right now that doesn't mean you won't be in it," Smith said. "I think everybody on our team is kind of on an equal playing field and there is not one person who is a lot better than everybody else so every day we come in ready to practice because we know we could get that starting role at any time."

Cooper and her coaches have kept an open line of communication to the entire roster because there could come a time when their roles change.

"The challenge right now is with our deep roster, we had a ton of conversations about that and players are really excited about it," Cooper said. "It doesn't matter if it is a freshman, a transfer, a senior that had started the previous couple of years, everyone is being challenged and every day is a fight in our gym. Having our practice gym be as competitive as or more competitive than some of the games we are playing is huge that is what the good teams have."