She’s not the loudest player on the court, but everyone knows she’s there. She isn’t the tallest one at the net, but that doesn’t mean she’s an easy blocker to get around. At times, you might wonder if she has eyes in the back of her head or a rocket for an arm.
Setters aren’t typically among the most explosive players in volleyball; they don’t need to be. So when they are, everyone takes notice. Camryn Haworth is one of those athletes, bringing national attention to her individual skills and Indiana volleyball as a whole.
The junior essentially runs the floor for the Hoosiers, posing a triple threat as an elite setter who can hit with the best of them and is one of the top servers in the country, leading the NCAA with 44 aces so far in the 2023 season. She’s scrappy, tough and determined to do everything she can to succeed in every way possible.
Camryn Haworth is Indiana volleyball, and Indiana volleyball is Camryn Haworth.
“If we look back at this in three, four, five years, if this program is going where I think it’s going to, if there is a Mount Rushmore of people, she’s on it,” head coach Steve Aird said. “She’s in the three or four kids that completely changed the dynamics of what this place was.”
The west wall of Wilkinson Hall is the closest thing to Mount Rushmore Indiana volleyball currently has. It lists all of the program’s few NCAA tournament appearances and fewer All-Americans. The big white block letters, showing a program that hasn’t reached the tournament since 2010 and has one All-American from 2009, serve as inspiration and motivation for Haworth and her Hoosiers.
“I would love to make it to the tournament, from a group aspect,” Haworth said, gazing at the writing on the wall. “For myself, I would love to be an All-American.”
Neither are out of reach, as Indiana is on track for one of its best seasons in recent history. Already close to matching last season’s win total of 15, the 13-6 Hoosiers have set attendance records and competed hard against nationally ranked teams such as Nebraska and Penn State, earning a level of recognition and respect that is almost unprecedented.
Haworth is a big reason why.
“She said, ‘I’m gonna go someplace and help you make it real,’” Aird said. “And she’s done it…there isn’t a person in the country now that looks at IU volleyball and says, ‘Hey, they’re not real.’”
By the end of her high school career, Haworth could have had her pick of schools, Aird said. But at that point, the Fishers, Indiana native was already committed to Indiana and, true to her personality, wasn’t about to run away from the challenge.
Haworth’s recruitment was the first big move Aird made after Indiana hired him in December 2017 as he embarked on his goal of “building a program” in Bloomington. A close friend in Indianapolis brought Haworth to Aird’s attention, and the rest was history.
“I was here for maybe a week and a half, two weeks, and I remember driving up, walking into a practice and three minutes into the practice, I looked at him and he looked at me and I was like, ‘This kid’s going to be unbelievable,’” Aird said.
Two months later, Haworth verbally committed to Indiana. She was 13 years old, just a freshman in high school.
“It was really, really early but I knew what I wanted,” Haworth said. “It was just kind of (Aird’s) vision, and then obviously being really close to home was something that was really important to me.”
Staying close to home was one of the only guarantees that came with Haworth’s commitment to Indiana. Aird, while successful at Penn State and Maryland as an assistant and head coach, respectively, was still unproven in the Hoosier state. When she visited campus, Wilkinson Hall didn’t even exist yet.
“It was kind of just a, ‘Hey, this is a poster board of what our new facility is going to look like,’” Haworth said with a laugh.
Committing to Indiana was, in a way, committing to a possibility.
When Haworth arrived in Bloomington in 2021, the Hoosiers were struggling. The COVID-19 pandemic limited the 2020 season to only Big Ten play, resulting in a 5-15 record from a team featuring nine freshmen. Aird had one winning season under his belt, posting a 16-15 record back in 2018.
The program Aird envisioned, and pitched to Haworth, had yet to fully come to life. She would be a big stepping stone in getting there, but that too required a leap of faith.
Despite rarely playing as a full-time setter in her formative years, Aird placed Haworth in that role as soon as she joined the team. He recognized similar traits in her that he saw in his former Penn State player Micha Hancock — currently a setter for the American national team — and knew what Haworth was capable of.
“Athletically, she was like a really elite ball of clay that you can mold,” Aird said. “She had all of the attributes of the great players I’ve been around. I don’t know, I always had a gut feeling about her.”
Haworth’s talent as a setter took some time to develop. She had a lot to learn, and initial fears to get over, before she could reach her full potential as a player and a captain. As a self-proclaimed former shy person, a leader was something Haworth didn’t think she could be.
At one point, she didn’t even think she could play at Indiana at all.
“I never would have thought I would have gone here,” Haworth said. “This was even higher than I thought I could achieve.”
But she did, and she’s excelling in her role, just like Aird believed she would.
“He pushed me to be more of a leader,” Haworth said. “He was kind of like, ‘I’m handing you the keys to the program, now it’s your turn to go turn it into whatever you want it to be.’ And he’s been constantly pushing me and pushing me to do my best every single day.”
The home page for Indiana volleyball on the IU Athletics website has a new feature this season: a Volleyball Accolade Tracker. With the new heights, individually and collectively, the Hoosiers are reaching, it’s warranted. Haworth is featured twice, with program records, but her own individual records and accomplishments extend far beyond that.
Haworth is currently the only junior in NCAA Division I Volleyball with over 2,000 assists, 500 digs, 200 kills, 135 aces and 100 blocks in her career. She is the 11th player in program history to record at least 2,000 assists and broke Indiana’s rally-era (in place since 2001) career aces record with 132 at the end of September. She is the 19th member of the 100-ace club and is 62 aces away from setting a new all-time program record, with a season and a half left in her Hoosier career.
The numbers go on and on, showing Haworth as one of the top setters in the Big Ten and one of the best servers in the country. For someone who isn’t a “stereotypical looking volleyball player,” as she puts it — she’s only 5-foot-10 — Haworth has become one of the faces of the game.
How? Her work ethic, athleticism, newfound confidence and some genetics.
Haworth’s entire family is highly athletically inclined. Her father played football at Ball State, soon to be followed by her younger brother, and her mother and older sister both played collegiate volleyball. Haworth participated in a variety of sports when she was young, including soccer and gymnastics, and her family was always competing with each other in one way or another, even if it was pickup basketball in the driveway.
“My agility is really good,” Haworth said. “I’m able to jump off one foot, I’m able to run really fast and be able to do all of that just because of how I was raised in the different sports, and it helped kind of groom me into this volleyball player.”
The volleyball player Haworth is — explosive, reactive, powerful — knows how to control her body on the court, but she also knows how to take care of her mind.
“I try not to think,” Haworth said. “I just let my instincts take over, and it’s just a lot better for me.”
It’s a lot better for the rest of the team as well. Haworth’s confidence, motivation and happy attitude spread to everyone around her. Her improved understanding of the strategies and nuances of the game are reflected in the way she plays, and the way her teammates play.
Everything has combined to turn Indiana into a well-rounded, highly talented team led by someone who has all of the right qualities to do so.
“All of the programs that have ascended have all had those ‘trigger players,’ these people that decided, ‘Hey, it’s going to change now,’” Aird said. “That’s what I thought she could be.”
Haworth is, as Aird puts it, a “lightning bolt” — like All-American Mackenzie Holmes is for Indiana women’s basketball. She’s someone with great potential and skill, someone to inspire and propel everyone around them to greater heights.
“I think she’s incredibly competitive, I think she’s incredibly tough,” Aird said. “And I think when you’re building a program, that’s exactly the type of human you want to build it around.”
