As the college volleyball season begins winding down, Hughes is realizing she doesn’t want her senior campaign to end.

“It’s kind of hard to realize it’s all coming to an end,” she said. “But I’m trying to enjoy my time while I’m here and I don’t know, I just can’t believe it’s already almost over. It’s just been a lot, a fun time traveling, and it’s just a fun group of people to be around with every day in the gym.

“Not all the outcomes that we wanted, but it’s been a good culture, so it’s fun.”

Hughes has 604 kills and 888 digs through 86 matches in her career so far at YSU, and Penguins coach Aline Scott has a lot of respect for Hughes.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Western Reserve graduate and Youngstown State senior Aleah Hughes cheers for a teammate during a match last week.

“She’s an outstanding leader by example, she’s great in the classroom, she works hard every single day,” Scott said. “She’s the first one in, last one out, like there’s really no one better than Aleah in terms of leading by example.”

Hughes embraces her role as a leader.

“I try to lead a lot by example and just try to keep everyone calm on the court,” she said.

Scott views Hughes as one of her key players.

“She’s one of my top two best all-around players. She can hit, she can block, she can attack,” Scott said. “She serves really well, I mean in terms of like every skill, she contributes several points every set regardless if it’s front row or back row. We always count on her for a lot, she carries a lot of the load.”

Scott said she thinks that Hughes’ brain makes up for any limitations her size has given her.

“I think that she became a smarter player, knowing that she wasn’t as tall or jumped as high as some of the other kids in the league,” Scott said. “She really had to learn how to manage that and become a smarter attacker.”

Hughes has the unique opportunity to play with her younger sister, Alexis, during her final season at YSU. As a freshman, Alexis is happy to be able to play on the same team with her older sister one last time.

“I really enjoy it,” she said. “I played with her when I was a freshman in high school, too, and it’s really cool to see how different we are in different aspects. In a lot different game (compared to high school), you can see how much we’ve both changed throughout our time, and it’s a lot more competitive, I would say.”

YSU has the unique distinction of having two sets of sisters on its team, as Brooklen and Kaybrie Pe’a from Bountiful, Utah, also play volleyball at Youngstown State.

Scott thinks having two sets of sisters helps build the chemistry within her team.

“It’s interesting, and I think it brings a different dynamic because we always talk about family and they live it every day. They kind of see that bond and (it) shows the other kids, so we kind of become closer because of it,” Scott said.

Family is part of the reason why Hughes wanted to play at YSU.

“It means a lot, especially because a lot of my family can come watch me, and it just means a lot for them to be able to come and play for the area I grew up in,” Hughes said. “It means a lot to me. I said I don’t know how people who do it, that go away. I give them a lot of credit, because I don’t know if I could make it far away from home.”

It hasn’t been the season the Penguins (8-18, 2-10) have wanted, but with three regular season games left Hughes has a plan in place post graduation.

“My goal is to graduate with an education degree and hopefully teach somewhere in the localish area,” she said.