Fourth year Cowgirl volleyball player starts her season off with a new major and a new position on the team.
Hailey Zuroske is a senior from Omaha, Nebraska who just got accepted into the pharmacy program at UW. Despite starting a new academic goal, Zuroske has faced the challenge of learning a new position as the libero for her team after being an outside for her first three years on the team.
“I love the new challenge of trying to train for something you’ve never trained for before,” Zuroske said about moving to libero this year.
Being at the University of Wyoming has been a great experience for Zuroske. Her teammates, coaches, and having access to her favorite hobbies make her college life more enjoyable.
“I honestly love all the girls. We all are such great teammates to each other on and off the floor and I think that’s what has made it so fun. It’s like, all my best friends are also my teammates.”
Outside of academics, Zuroske loves to participate in hiking. Along with her new achievements, she has recently tried a new hobby.
“I love hiking. I always go to the Snowy Range and that is my favorite hike I’ve ever done.” Zuroske said on the subject. “I just like going outside. I recently started paddleboarding in the summer, which I’ve never done before but overall, just being outside and some nice weather here and there’s so much more to do.”
A big subject in the sports world is mental health. UW volleyball puts their own approach to help the mental wellness of their players.
“We’ve got so many resources for mental health here which is so nice. And the coaches help as well. Like we have to fill out wellness every morning.” Zuroske explains about how the coaches implement mental wellness communication. On that sheet you fill out how you feel that morning, what is going on academically that day and outside of school and volleyball practice and participating in that helps keep the coaches up to speed with the team’s individual and overall mental performance.
“This has been the nicest thing for me, especially in pharmacy school, I’m gonna have rough weeks and being able to let them know like ‘Hey, I’m super stressed this week,’ let’s them know how to run practices and figure out where I’m at and stuff like that.”
For the past three years on the team, Zuroske has one game that sticks out to her the most as her favorite. It was a home game against CSU last year when they won in five matches.
“That was just amazing. We had nothing to lose and I felt like that was our best team performance and it was so much fun the whole game so that has definitely been my favorite.”
Being seven and a half hours away from home has given Zuroske a big appreciation for her supporters. With it being the Cowgirl’s senior year, her mom wants to attend all the matches she can. To Zuroske, the best part is looking in the stands at the end of the match and seeing her parents in the audience.
“They’ve been my biggest supporters. Just like no matter what goes on in your life they’re here for me. That’s really helped me out.”
