Ellen Hayes
	Position: Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Experience: Fourth Season E-Mail: ellenh@uic.edu

Ellen Hayes was named an assistant coach for UIC on April 9, 2009 by head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, and was named the Recruiting Coordinator in the summer of 2012.

In her first season on the bench for the Flames in 2009, Hayes was instrumental in helping the team achieve a three-win improvement in Horizon League play. UIC notched key regular season victories over Loyola, Milwaukee and Cleveland State, who would go on to capture the Horizon League Championship.

Also in the Chicago native's first season with the Flames, the squad made it to the Horizon League Tournament semifinals in November, a round that they had not reached since 2006.

In year two, the Flames captured the Best Western Invitational championship in Jacksonville, Fla. It was the first non-conference tournament victory away from Chicago for the Flames in over 15 years. UIC also took second at the Chicagoland Challenge, falling to eventual NCAA Tournament team, Northwestern.

Hayes, who serves as the team's primary recruiting coordinator, was equally busy in the offseason. Hayes, along with Schumacher-Cawley, secured committments seven future Flames, marking the largest class in the duo's tenure at UIC.

In 2012 Hayes was named one of just 30 recipients in the country for the American Volleyball Coaches Association's (AVCA) "Thirty Under 30" Award. She was one of only 11 assistant coaches in the nation selected to the honor.

Hayes, who played on the prep level at local powerhouse Mother McAuley and in the collegiate ranks at DePaul, came to UIC after two years as an assistant coach at Marshall.

Hayes served as an assistant to head coach Mitch Jacobs at Marshall for the 2007 and 2008 campaigns. While there she helped the Thundering Herd win the 2007 Conference USA regular season title and post records of 36-24 overall and 20-12 in conference play.

The Evergreen Park, Ill. native was a decorated four-year letterwinner as a libero for the Blue Demons from 2002-2006, serving as DePaul's team captain from 2004-06. Hayes earned All-Conference USA Third Team accolades in 2004, when she set the school's fifth all-time best mark in single-season digs with 510 and established the McGrath Arena record for digs in a single match (34) against Tulane that October.

Off the court Hayes was a BIG EAST Academic All-Star, a C-USA Academic Honor Roll student-athlete and a constant on the DePaul Athletic Director's Honor Roll. She was an active member of DePaul's Student-Athlete Captain's Council, serving as the organization's vice president in 2006-07, and earned both the DePaul University Outstanding Senior Award and the DePaul Senior Leadership Award for Athletics.

As a prep star at Mother McAuley on Chicago's South Side, Hayes was a key component for the Mighty Macs during their IHSA volleyball championship run in 2000. She has served as a counselor at the Mother McAuley High School Volleyball Camps since 1999 and and as a coach and camp counselor for the Elite Volleyball School in Chicago since 2003.

Hayes, who resides in Chicago, graduated from DePaul with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education with a concentration in English in March of 2007. She received her Master of Arts in secondary education from Marshall in May of 2009.

UIC Flames Women's Volleyball

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