During the early days of the COVID pandemic, when everything outside was shut down, Chris Mack started challenging his daughter, Hailee, to nightly foosball games.
The family had a foosball table in their basement and the two started playing every night. For the first month, Chris consistently crushed his teenage daughter.
After that, things changed.
"Either my hands started to reflect my age or she just became a lot better," Chris, who is currently the men's basketball coach at USF, said.
Soon, Hailee couldn't lose. At the beginning, she was upset at losing, so she honed her skills until she started winning.
That, Chris said, is at the heart of Hailee's competitive spirit. Now a junior, Hailee was the first player to commit to Vanderbilt volleyball's
resurrected program and is one one of its liberos. She's never been afraid to blaze a trail, and now she hopes to lead the Commodores to build on their first season in 2025.
Vanderbilt finished the 2025 season 9-18, 3-12 in the SEC. The Commodores also won two matches in the SEC tournament, giving them something to build on in 2026.
Vanderbilt started off the season 2-0 with wins over Charleston and Memphis, and Hailee recorded 17 digs in the two games.
Hailee Mack helped start two different volleyball programs
Hailee Mack grew up around basketball. Her father coached at Xavier and then Louisville throughout her childhood, and her mother also played the sport.
A young Hailee loved being around the teams her father coached. She wanted to be a college athlete early on; she loved the idea of being part of a team and traveling together. The players on those teams were role models to look up to. She even wanted to go to the NBA, just like them.
"Our coaches, some of them have kids, and I want to be what those players were to me growing up," Hailee told The Tennessean. "I looked up to them so much and my dad did a really good job bringing me and my sister around them and just being friends with them."
Hailee and her sister, Lainee, played basketball and soccer growing up, but volleyball was the sport they fell in love with. For Hailee, it was the grit of the sport that appealed to her, diving for balls and knowing there would be a point scored on every play.
Growing up, Hailee was small, so she played the libero position. She loved playing defense, and even when she had a late growth spurt in high school − she's now six feet tall − she didn't want to transition to being a hitter.
In 2022, Chris was fired from Louisville and decided to take time off coaching. The family relocated to Florida, and in 2023, Hailee's senior year, IMG Academy decided to start up a volleyball program. Chris was familiar with IMG's basketball program and encouraged her to try it. Hailee became part of that inaugural class.
Then there was her recruiting process. Hailee struggled at times to generate interest. Chris, used to basketball recruiting where playing AAU was the most important, hadn't realized at first that the key to getting recruited in volleyball was attending camps. But she managed to get an offer from Missouri and originally committed there. But once the Tigers' coaching staff was fired, she decided to reopen her process.
Russell Corbelli, one of the assistant coaches on that Missouri staff, came to Vanderbilt in 2023 as part of the rebooted program. He was tasked with finding an inaugural class of players who were willing to redshirt the 2024-25 season before beginning play in fall 2025. That's how the process began with Hailee.
"On my visit, the coaches, it was one of their first weeks here," Hailee said. "I remember them trying to show me around, but they didn't really know much about Vanderbilt's campus. There wasn't much to show for the volleyball program. ... But for some reason, I just fell in love."
How Hailee Mack has bought into Vanderbilt's build
Hailee helped recruit some of the other members of the inaugural class. She remembers blowing up current teammate Reese Animashaun's phone, trying to convince her. Eventually, six freshmen and four transfers joined the program in 2024.
They weren't playing official games, only practicing, and they needed practice players from the men's club team without a full roster. That year brought the team closer together, something Hailee thinks is key to cohesiveness. But she missed playing in real games.
"I'm a super competitive person and I didn't realize how hard it would be to go a full year without competing," Hailee said.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Vanderbilt volleyball's Hailee Mack was inspired by players dad, Chris, coached | Exclusive
