That suits her just fine. She had a singular goal upon getting to campus, make an impact. Three weeks into the season, it is clear she is well on her way to leaving her mark on the program.

“I just wanted to fit in, and, be another piece of the puzzle that fit really, really well,” she said. “So I was willing to do anything that would make me do that. I told him (coach Matt Jennings) that in my process of committing here, ‘listen, whatever you need, I’ll be there. Like (if) you need me go get the Jimmy John’s. I’ll go get the Jimmy John’s or something. I embraced it and I wanted to be everything that this team needs, no matter what that looks like.

“I told everyone when I first got here, ‘If you need me to be a bench captain, I’ll be the bench captain. If you need me to be your six rotations outside, I can do that too. Whatever you guys need, I will be there, I think that just allowed everyone to kind of put full trust in me.”

In an interesting twist of fate, Corwin was originally recruited by Jennings and his staff as she was coming out of the Pittsburgh Elite volleyball club, the same club that Jennings coached at before he made the trek north to coach the Huskies. Corwin also was familiar with Jennings, so when she was looking for a place to play volleyball and attend college-level classes, Michigan Tech was very high on her list.

Michigan Tech defensive specialist Alayna Corwin passes a ball during a match against Grand Valley State Friday, Sept. 15, at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

Of course, a large selling point in Michigan Tech’s favor is the engineering program.

“I was actually looking at Tech before I even committed to Marshall,” said Corwin. “I went through the whole recruiting process out of high school, and Tech was actually on my list, specifically because of the engineering program. Both of my parents are engineers, and they kind of pushed me in engineering. So I was like, ‘OK, let me do it.’ We were just looking at the top schools in the country for engineering and that had volleyball.”

The process of her coming to Michigan Tech hit a snag when COVID hit. Jennings and his staff had to adjust their approach to recruiting as student athletes were awarded a bonus year from the NCAA. So, there were no scholarship opportunities for Corwin in Houghton, which then helped steer her to Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia, which is about a three-hour drive from her hometown of Morgantown, and also is located in the same state.

She redshirted in her first year at Marshall in 2021. The following year, she saw action in 24 sets over 13 matches. She figured a change of venue might do her some good, so she discussed her situation with the coaching staff at Marshall, and then, on the advice of one of her assistant coaches, she entered the transfer portal, hoping that Michigan Tech would still be interested two seasons later.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“I made another list (with) Michigan Tech being one of the top schools, if not the top squad,” she said. “(I) believe it was the top. I remember telling my assistant coach at Marshall, ‘I really want to go to Tech,’ and she said, ‘OK,’ and she called Coach Jennings. Coach Jennings actually coached at my old club, Pittsburgh Elite, for the years before I was there, but he still knew of me and I still have that relationship with him because of that.

“So, I just was making my list of schools again, and then my coach reached out to Coach Jennings, and then he reached out back to me. I remember emailing him the second I got in the portal. I said ‘Hey, I would love to come up here, and kind of continue the process that we kind of put on pause two years ago.’ He reached back out to me. He said, ‘OK, Alayna, let’s get on a phone call. So, the next day, the day right after I got on the portal, he called me the day right after. We had an amazing conversation on the phone about volleyball, about what it would look like for me to be in this program, from what it would look like for me to travel all the way up here just to go on a visit. I knew that he, in his head, the roster was at 19, and then I reached out, and (he said) we want to have you be the 20th, because of the relationship previous, and because he likes who I am as a player.”

Jennings loves to say that it feels like the Huskies have known Corwin forever.

“It feels like we’ve known Lena for longer than we probably have,” he said. “When we first met her, she was coming on to high school in West Virginia, and COVID hit. We kind of kind of shut down recruiting there for a bit, and she chose to go to to Marshall, which is nearby to where she’s from.

“She found us again when looking to transfer, and she’s just been a great addition to the team.”

Jennings loves all the intangible things that Corwin brings to the table, both in practice and in games.

“She’s a heck of an athlete,” he said. “She she brought with her, I think, a nice mixed skill set that has allowed us to kind of put her where we need. She’s strong. She makes good moves to the ball, working on the touch piece of it all, and trying to find the right spot for her back there. She’s played some libero back there so far. She’s played some right back so far. That’s just the kind of teammate she is. She’s going to do what we ask her to do, and what we need to do.”

Within her efforts to fill whatever need the Huskies have, Corwin jokes that she wants to play outside hitter, and she hopes to be able to convince Jennings at some point to let her do it.

For now, Corwin is just proud to be able to make an impact with the Huskies. She has worked her way into the lineup from the opening serve of the season, which she had the honor of taking. She has been named a team captain alongside senior outside hitter Lindy Oujiri and junior middle blocker Kaycee Meiners, and she admits that even she cannot believe things are working out so well for her.

“It gives me chills to even think about it,” she said “If you would have told me six months ago, right whenever I jumped in the portal, that this is going to be your future, I would have looked at you like you’re absolutely crazy. I never knew the amount of impact I could have on a program, especially one so far away from home.

“Coach Jennings is just amazing. He has walked me through this whole process. Just coming in as a transfer is a little difficult, right? It’s different. You come in from just different cultures, no matter what school you come from, no matter where you come from. I think that I embrace the newness.”

As a defensive specialist, Corwin knows that her game play is not judged necessarily by how many kills she gets, or how many assists she makes, but rather by how she approaches every ball on the court, and how she acts when on the bench, watching and cheering on her teammates.

“I don’t like to be flashy,” she said. “I don’t need the libero jersey. I don’t need the outside. I don’t need any of the accolades. Just knowing that they elected me captain is good enough for me.”

Getting to make the season-opening serve is a memory she will carry with her beyond her experiences at Michigan Tech, and being trusted with a leadership role means even more, if that is possible, for her.

“I can replay in my head,” she said. “I’m sure I will for the rest of my life, 1,000 times. It means a lot. It really does. I didn’t play as much at Marshall, but I have a really great starting point here, and I’m so thankful for coach putting the trust in me. He has put a lot of trust in me to do the job on the court, and off the court. (I am also thankful) especially (that) my teammates have also put that trust in me, because they elected me to be captain. There’s a lot of trust there.

“I want to be somebody who Michigan Tech volleyball is proud of, if that makes sense. I think that just knowing that I can do that, finding the program that would allow me to flourish, was very, very important. I’m so glad that it’s here, because, like I said, it’s just been amazing, and it’s everything I could ask for.”