Alaina brings something rare to the field: an instinct for knowing what energizes each player, and an unwavering commitment to championing them every step of the way. That commitment is rooted in her experience as a player. She graduated from VCU in 2018, where she earned NFHCA All-Academic Squad honors in her junior and senior years and VCU's Michael Brown Award for all-around excellence as a senior, a distinction that speaks as much to her character as her athleticism.

Her coaching career began during her college years and has never stopped. She has coached at the club level, run beginner clinics, and served as a USA Field Hockey Futures coach, now known as Nexus, in Virginia Beach in 2017 and 2018. Through it all, her investment in every player she coaches has remained total.

When she's not coaching, Alaina serves as the Associate Director of Emergency Management at UVA, where she and her team are responsible for facilitating preparedness activities, coordinating the University's response and recovery efforts, and maintaining mitigation strategies to ensure the safety and resilience of the institution–work that reflects the same calm, purposeful leadership she brings to Ascend every day.

Alaina lives in Fishersville with her husband Jeremy and their two quirky dachshunds, Penny and Maggie. When she's not on the field or at UVA, you'll find her tending her garden, knitting, practicing her stained glass artwork, trying new foods, or planning her next adventure–recent travels have taken her to Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Barbados.