To last four years at Cornell is an accomplishment. To last four years as a student-athlete at Cornell is a feat that deserves special recognition. This year, five athletes on the volleyball team will reach this highly revered milestone. Each of their stories can be found below.
Eliza Konvicka
For Eliza Konvicka, the captain and right side outside hitter from Houston Texas, Cornell volleyball has been more than just four seasons on the court. It’s been an “an awesome chapter,” a journey of growth, resilience and gratitude.
“I’m just super grateful for everything that Cornell volleyball has provided,” Konvicka said.
From early morning practices to post-practice trail walks with teammates, Konvicka has found her favorite memories not in single matches or moments, but in the everyday bonds built through the game.
“Probably trail after practice or a pregame locker room chat,” she said with a smile. “We are all so close, so really anytime that we spend together.”
Reflecting on her time with the program, Konvicka describes the volleyball team in two words: “improvement and hard work”.
“My freshman year we only won six games, then seven, and now we’re having a really great year,” she said. “Everyone has worked so hard to get here. We’ve really earned it.”
Her advice to the next generation of volleyball players shows the pride and perspective of a true leader: “Don’t take winning for granted.” Having joined a rebuilding team and helped transform it into a contender, Konvicka knows success is built on consistency and commitment.
“Even when you’re winning, you have to keep up the same habits and work ethic that got you there,” she added.
As she prepares to close this chapter, Konvicka looks ahead with gratitude and excitement. Though her time as a Cornell athlete is ending, volleyball will remain a lifelong passion.
“Being done with Cornell volleyball doesn’t mean being done with volleyball,” Konvicka said. “I’ll always be competing or playing pickup.”
After graduation, Konvicka received a return offer from Visa to work as a software engineer in Austin, Texas.
Joy Liu
From hosting Uno Nights in her tiny college house to late-night Dancing with the Stars watch parties with teammates, Joy Liu, one of the Red’s setters, has filled her Cornell years with laughter, loyalty and love for the game. It’s those small, joyful moments that define her Cornell experience.
“I think what I really, really enjoy is not even the big outings,” Liu said. “It’s the small moments.. Those are the memories I’ll miss the most.”
Liu, who studies in the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, describes her Cornell experience as one built around people.
“My biggest fear freshman year was not finding any friends,” she admitted. “I used to sit in my dorm and think, ‘I’m doing college wrong.’ But I found my people. The friendships I’ve made here are why I actually look forward to coming back after breaks.”
As a senior, Liu has taken on the role she once wished for, a reassuring presence for younger players. That closeness the seniors have fostered with the team’s underclassmen, she believes, is the heart of Cornell’s recent success.
“My freshman year, there was barely any talk of us even making the Ivy tournament,” she said. “Now, we can put ourselves in a really good position for the Ivy tournament.”
Throughout her time with the Big Red, two people have especially shaped Liu’s journey: her sister and her position coach.
“My sister has always been my role model,” Liu said. “I really looked it up to her and her work ethic.
As she looks ahead to life after Cornell, Liu hopes to combine her two passions — hospitality and sports.
“My dream job is to work for a major sports organization like the MLB or NBA,” she said. “My life has always revolved around sports, and I’d love to just mesh those two parts of my life.”
For Liu, Senior Night is both a celebration and a reflection of how far she and her teammates have come.
“It’s crazy to see how much the program has changed,” she said. “This night is about celebrating that and I'm so excited just for everyone to be surrounded by our loved ones.”
Doğa Özalp
In her junior year of high school, Doğa Özalp was on the verge of quitting volleyball for good. A combination of toxic coaches and her desire to pursue higher education culminated in a nearly three-month-long benching from her club team in Turkey.
Despite being nearly done with the game, she decided to quietly enter recruitment talks with a small pool of universities, including Cornell, and the rest was history.
“I was kind of falling out of love with the sport, but coming here was almost like a second chance from God,” Özalp reflected. She felt as though the message was simply that she needed to pursue this opportunity and end on a high, “and I feel like I did that.”
Looking back on her favorite memories with the team, beating Yale at home during her junior year was an easy answer for Özalp.
“Beating the big dogs was so out of reach for my first two seasons here,” Ölzap said. “Last year was the turning point [where we said] we can actually beat those teams at the top, so that was really surreal, and I felt like everyone just came together and fought with everything that we had.”
The Red had faced a 0-2 match deficit against the top-seed Yale Bulldogs on the fateful night of Nov. 16, 2024. After an impassioned speech by head coach Trudy Vande Berg and the leaders on the team (including Özalp), Cornell pulled off a miraculous comeback and ultimately stole the match, winning the fifth set 15-11.
Expanding on this story, Özalp remarked that her biggest accomplishment across her four years was actually not surpassing 2,000 assists (which vaulted her into the top eight all time in Cornell volleyball history), but her personal growth.
“I didn’t really get much playing time my freshman year,” Özalp said. “Stepping up as a sophomore, and just getting all the playing time, it was such a huge change, and I took on the role of being the main setter.”
Özalp’s legacy will be one of leadership and mentorship, as she was a key contributor in changing the team culture. From being at the bottom of the Ivy League standings, she has seen her squad rise through adversity and injury, and now they are currently the top-seed team in the standings.
“I’m really proud of the program and what we turned it into,” Özalp said. “All the [underclassmen] see is win-win-win, and it hasn’t [always] been like that. We had to lose-lose-lose.”
As someone who is looking to go into either the fashion industry, or the sports management field, Özalp lives by a simple philosophy: “Look good. Feel good. Play good.”
Meghan Gaffigan
In her freshman season in 2022, Meghan Gaffigan wasted no time making an impact on the team. Appearing in 11 matches and 22 sets, she tallied 37 kills and 43.5 points, including seven kills and 10.5 points in a three-set matchup against Columbia. Her strong start set the tone for what would become a career marked by determination and growth.
As a sophomore, she continued to refine her game, recording seven kills across five matches, five of which came in her season debut against Syracuse. By her junior season, she expanded her presence on the court, appearing in 34 sets and totaling 38 kills and 11.0 total blocks. Highlights included a nine-kill performance against Binghamton and a strong defensive showing versus Dartmouth with four blocks.
This year, as a senior, Gaffigan has truly come into her own. Appearing in 72 sets, she’s posted career highs in kills (120), total blocks (37), digs (39) and points (141.5); all while maintaining an impressive 0.196 hitting percentage.
Across her career, Gaffigan has totaled 201 kills, 57 blocks, and 237 points over 135 sets played.
A three-time all-league selection and two-year captain at Chesterton High School before coming to Cornell, Gaffigan brought with her the same spirit of perseverance that has defined her college career. Whether it's on the court or in the huddle, Gaffigan is an A+ teammate.
“She honestly is the funniest on the team,” Özalp said. “Her energy is contagious and brings a different fire to the Red.”
As she closes her Big Red career, Meghan Gaffigan leaves behind a record of grit, steady improvement and passion for the game.
She remarked how even though the Red had dealt with multiple hurdles over the years, it was still unreal to imagine that the journey would be coming to an end.
“I think it’ll hit me in a little bit that senior night means the last home game,” Gaffigan said.
Nicole Mallus
Nicole Mallus is one of three siblings in her family, having one older sister and a younger brother. As the middle child, she always gravitated towards her sister’s activities.
“I started playing volleyball because I was a copycat,” Mallus said. “I have an older sister, and obviously I had to do everything she did, so I feel like I credit her with the beginning,” Mallus said.
From this point, she had the support of her whole family to pursue this adventure and she never looked back.
For Mallus, finding her passion was critical in her ability to perform both on the court and in the classroom as a student. She came to campus being a computer science major, but she soon realized that it wasn’t the path for her.
“I really took my time to explore and find out what it is I wanted to do, and since I did, I think there’s been a lot more joy in the work,” Mallus said.
Using this experience, she has taken the underclassmen on the team under her wing, being a mentor to those who worry about classes, pre-enrollment and finding the right major. Sharing her perspective allows her teammates to remain calm during pressures of college life, and as they try to establish a work/life balance as student athletes.
Mallus highlighted that her proudest achievement was returning from a back injury she sustained during her second season, which ultimately sidelined her for the entirety of the following season. In this difficult time, she drew two key takeaways: watching the game made her a better player upon return, and learning to be dependent on others for help was a learning curve.
“I hesitate to say I wish [the injury] didn’t happen because it definitely changed me as a player and as a person. You learn so much from watching the game, and so I think it really developed me as a player,” Mallus reflected. “Becoming dependent on another person to do anything, that’s pretty tough. I think I’m pretty proud of that.”
As Mallus has one year of athletic eligibility left, she has entered the transfer portal, looking to maximize her collegiate playing experience, while also pursuing a master’s degree in either social work or counseling. Her passion for working with underserved populations and people experiencing barriers to mental health treatment is evident by her activities on campus and her caring demeanor.
As Mallus proceeds with her next steps, she wants her legacy to be one of gratitude and appreciation for her family, teammates, and coaching staff, who all supported her through major changes, injury and figuring out her next steps.
“I could not have done any of this without the girls on the team. That’s the thing I wanted to emphasize the most,” Mallus said. “The freshmen have such wonderful personalities, and I feel so lucky that in my last year, I got to be with this group.”
The Red’s seniors will make their final regular-season appearance on Cornell’s home court against Princeton at Newman Arena on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. Coverage is available on ESPN+
