Raiders’ New Assistant Coach Comes to Colgate After Stints at Indiana and Lock Haven

Colgate field hockey head coach April Cornell has announced the hiring of Ayla Halus as the Raiders’ new field hockey assistant coach.

“I am extremely excited to have Ayla joining the Raider program,” Cornell said. “Ayla brings to Colgate both the knowledge and experience this program needs in an assistant coach and I believe that Ayla’s work ethic will impact the future success of this program.”

Halus comes to Colgate after a two-year stint as an assistant coach and goalkeeper specialist at Indiana University. Halus helped coach the team to back-to-back Big Ten tournament appearances.

In her time with Indiana, Halus coached goalkeeper Noelle Rother, a sophomore and two-year starter, who earned NFHCA Second Team All-Region honors in 2015 and First Team All-Big Ten in 2016. She earned five shutouts in two seasons and has a GAA of 1.96 through her first 37 career games in two seasons.

“I am very excited to be joining the Colgate Family, and would like to thank April Cornell for giving me the opportunity to work & develop as her assistant coach,” Halus said. “I am eager to get started and help our student-athletes become great teammates, leaders, and role-models both on and off the field.”

Prior to working at Indiana, Halus was a volunteer assistant coach and goalkeeping coach at Lock Haven University where she worked with three Division I goalkeepers and fine-tuned their fundamental skills. Halus also worked with the defensive unit while at Lock Haven.

Halus has been active with the USA National Futures Tournament as well as a USA High Performance coach over the past two years.

Halus played field hockey at Penn State from 2009-12, where she was a four-year letter winner and four-year member of the NFHCA/Gladiator Division I National Academic Squad as well as All-Big Ten Academic Team. She was also named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar in 2012 and 2013. Halus was named to the First Team All-Big Ten in 2010 and 2011 in addition to NFHCA First Team All-Region and second team NFHCA All-American. She led the nation with a .826 save percentage in 2010 and earned 19 shutouts in four seasons.

During her time with Penn State, the Nittany Lions won two Big Ten Championships in 2011 and 2012. The Nittany Lions also reached the second round of the NCAA in each of those two seasons.

Halus is a 2012 graduate of Penn State with a bachelor’s of science in biology and received her master’s in secondary education in May 2015.

By martha

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