To be a leader means to be respected by your teammates; respect is not automatically given. It is earned.
Senior Ty Laporte has earned her position as a leader on the Ole Miss volleyball team.
Standing 6 feet tall, the Irmo, South Carolina native has always had remarkable athletic ability. Laporte graduated from Dutch Fork High School, where she played basketball and volleyball and ran track.
She was the three-time state champion in the high jump and was an All-State selection all four years. Her senior volleyball season, she made All-Region and All-State. She was voted MVP of her team and named Player of the Year.
Ty committed to be a Rebel her senior year of high school. After a visit, she fell in love with Oxford, the beautiful Ole Miss campus and all of the coaching staff. She knew Ole Miss would be her family away from home.
“I’m really competitive, and I’m a small middle. I think the idea of people doubting me has been what’s really pushed me,” Laporte said. “A lot of people said I couldn’t make it and said I wasn’t going to go to a big D1 school. That motivated me to prove people wrong.”
One characteristic of a good leader is being vocal, and Laporte is not afraid to speak up. She is known for holding her teammates accountable and always looking to help her fellow players get better.
“My first practice, [Laporte and Clair] were right beside me and helping me improve,” Taylor Alexander sophomore English major said. “They would say ‘We see that you’re doing this, try changing it to this,’ and it helped me to be more comfortable. She showed me things that I didn’t see, and she encouraged me.”
On paper, her work ethic and courage to keep her teammates in-line without hesitation might make an outsider think Laporte is that serious all the time, but she’s not. Her energy is so contagious that it can be felt from the stands. In between sets and kills, she’s hyped. She dances and jumps around and gets her teammates into the game. A true leader is a game day player, and Laporte is definitely one.
Being a great athlete also means being able to overcome adversity. Her first season, she tore her ACL in the preseason and had to redshirt her first year, but she did not let her injury get her down. The next season, she came out swinging, literally. In her very first collegiate match, she had seven kills and hit .636, an attacking average that tied for a season high. She had the best attacking percentage on the team for the whole season (.312) and the best in the SEC among freshmen.
The next two years, she kept the ball rolling. Consistently maintaining high attacking averages, making the SEC Academic Honor Roll and being named to the Rebel’s leadership team, it seemed liked there was nothing Ty Laporte couldn’t do. In 2014, Laporte had a record high of 23 kills in a five-setter at Missouri. She also started 28 of the 29 games in which she played. Under the new leadership of head coach Steven McRoberts, Laporte and the Rebels helped bring Ole Miss their first tournament title away from Oxford since 2007.
After a big victory and the conclusion of non-conference play at the ‘Fight Like Hal’ Memorial Tournament last weekend in Birmingham, Alabama, the Rebels have won eight straight tournament titles. Laporte was named MVP of that tournament, and finished with 37 kills and a .544 average.
She is third all-time in block assists at Ole Miss with 235. She has recently moved into the fourth position in all-time total blocks with 278. She is currently ranked sixth in the SEC with a hitting percentage of .392.
The Rebels are currently off to their best start in school history (14-1). This week, Laporte received her first SEC Weekly Honor and was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Last week, she led the team with averages of 3.47 kills per set, one block per set, and is hitting .506. The Rebels have now won 10 games in a row.
“I want to be able to look back and say ‘I got in the gym every day and worked my butt off. I never slacked and I pushed my teammates. I never gave up on anybody, never gave up on a play,’” Laporte said. “I want to give my everything, so no matter what the result, I can say ‘We tried and we worked hard.’ So we’ll walk away with no regrets.”
