“I grew up a tomboy and always loved superheroes — Ninja Turtles and all of that. I just love Spider-Man. Always have, always will,” she said.
“He’s in my room. He’s on my key chain. I want to be Spider-Man. I’m SECRETLY Spider-Man sometimes.”
Yes, she imagines herself being able to fire webs from her wrists like him.
Asked where that would help most in volleyball, she looked toward the rafters in the Nutter Center and said, “If I could shoot a web to the Jumbotron and use it to jump higher, that would be really nice.”
The junior outside hitter may only have superpowers in her dreams, but she’s able to do things on the court that most mere mortals can’t.
Though she’s not tall for a hitter at her listed height of 5-11 — “I’m 5-11 and three-quarters,” she insists — her specialty is high-velocity spikes that look as if they’ve been shot out of a grenade-launcher.
Ayro (pronounced A-row) leads the Horizon League with 4.3 kills per set, a sizeable jump from last year’s 3.4 mark.
But she’s still learning, with the help of coach Travers Green, to mix it up a bit.
“As an outside hitter, you don’t always get the perfect set. You have to handle a lot of junk. You can’t always hit every ball hard. There has to be a little bit of a balance with that,” he said.
“But we were working last year on some things with her in that space that took away from her style as a player. Mya and I have talked a lot about trying to work on certain things, but still keeping her identity as a player — let her go a little bit.”
That’s just what Ayro wanted to hear.
“I was a ‘middle’ before I was an outside. As a middle, you have to be a lot faster and more explosive. It was a hard transition, coming to an outside position where you have to slow down — especially in college where it’s a fast tempo,” she said.
“This year, he’s really been trusting me. I love it. I can do either way, but I like to be able to do my thing.”
She’s on pace to rack up the most kills in a season at Wright State since the 1980s.
Lauren Yacobucci, who was the 2024 league setter of the year, knows Ayro can turn even a subpar pass into a point.
And that’s not the only way she’s wowing teammates.
“She’s really strong. She lifts a lot of weight. Comparatively to the rest of the team, she (lifts) significantly more. In the weight room, you can tell she’s a big, buff athlete, and she’s got a lot of strength in her. And she jumps really high,” Yacobucci said.
Ayro transferred from UConn after her freshman year despite being a starter.
The issue wasn’t with the program. She admitted to having internal struggles and needed to be closer to her hometown of Greenwood, Ind.
“I loved every girl on that team so much with everything in me. We were a family. But it was 14 hours from home. I struggle with mental health, so being that far from family was not the best combination for me,” she said.
“I decided about halfway through my freshman year that I needed to come home, to be able to see my family, to watch my little siblings grow up. We have a huge age gap. My siblings are in elementary and middle school. I wanted them be able to grow up and have family around.”
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
The Ayros are now just a two-hour drive away.
“My family comes to every single game. I get to have dinner with them afterward. I’m much happier,” Ayro said.
Green said the staff is selective about taking transfers, but any program in the region would have wanted a freshman starter from a Big East school.
What appealed to Ayro about Wright State, apart from being near home, was her connection with the staff.
“When I was on my visit, Trav talked about things that a lot of coaches don’t usually see about myself — how I want to win, how I’m obviously a fast player and I want to be outside but play six rotations,” she said.
“Wright State was a good spot. I felt like I could have my own personal space while being on a team where the coach truly values me as a person and a player.”
Green has seen a difference in Ayro since she arrived.
“She’s someone that wants it more than anyone, but she’s found a happy balance of understanding that it’s just volleyball and not putting too much pressure on herself,” he said.
As for her game, he said: “The associate head coach at Pitt told me she’s one of the hardest hitters in the country, and that’s absolutely true.”
Ayro plays with a swagger no matter the opponent, and it seems to be contagious.
The Raiders have tested themselves against major-conference schools and have gone 6-2 since last season.
“I have that type of mindset where I really don’t think anybody can beat me as a player. I’ve been ‘underground’ my entire career, and people don’t expect anything out of me. I’m going to show them what I know I can do,” she said.
“Big-name teams, I don’t really fear. .. That’s been the biggest thing in getting me this far — not really thinking other people are above me and having trust in myself to be able to play at the same level.”
Though she may not be fighting crime or making sure good triumphs over evil, she’s just like Spider-Man in one sense.
He’s fond of saying, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And that’s a concept Ayro has readily embraced.
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