Harford Community College Athletics

At first, it might have seemed impossible for year two to be even better than year one for the Fighting Owl volleyball team under the direction of Christy Callahan, but the impossible happened. Callahan has rewritten the volleyball record books and guided the Fighting Owls to the two most successful seasons in the school history.

After a 17-win 2012 campaign, Harford won a new school-record 21 times that produced back-to-back Region XX Championships in 2013. Callahan compiled an even stronger team than before that was again led offensively by two-time First-Team All-MD JUCO selection, Lexie Roberts, the best volleyball player to ever wear a Harford uniform.

Under Callahan’s guidance, Roberts set numerous school records including 613 career kills, 381 kills in a single season and an overall .297 hitting percentage. As a freshman, Roberts led the conference and ranked second in the nation in kills per set (4.13) and fourth in the nation in aces per set (0.78). As a sophomore, she was lepping the field in all categories in the conference before suffering a season-ending injury.

The Fighting Owls set a school record with three members on the All-MD JUCO list in 2013, led by Roberts. A pair of freshmen also landed on the list, as Lauren Brown earned a First-Team nod and Fabiana Della-Monica nabbed honorable mention accolades.

In 2012, sophomore Brandi Smith ranked second in the nation with 0.87 service aces per set while finishing her athletic career with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

Prior to leading the Fighting Owls, Callahan had six years of coaching experience, including three years of head coaching experience at the high school varsity level. In 2011, she was in charge at Havre de Grace High School just down the road from HCC, and prior to her stay at HdG, she was the varsity coach at Franklin High School in Baltimore.

Callahan was a four-year member of the volleyball team at Stevenson University, where she served as team captain during her senior campaign. She earned her bachelor's in interdisciplinary studies from Stevenson in 2008.