PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Volleyball will feature seven new talented student-athletes this Fall, Head Coach Tom Gardner announced Friday.

"I am so pleased to be welcoming this group of talented young women to Caltech," Gardner said.  "These seven players bring so much experience and knowledge of the game and I can't wait to work with and see them competing in our gym.  Our future looks bright."

Karen Cao
North Potomac, MD / Montgomery Blair HS
5'5" L

Karen helped her club teams finish third at the Girls Junior National Championship in the 18 American division and earned bids to the Championships while playing 15 Open and 18 Open.  Cao was named her high school team's Defensive Player of the Year and was an All-County Honorable Mention. 
 
She was a computer science intern at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Center for Neutron Research, where she explored material similarity using graph-based crystal structure analysis and machine learning. Cao also developed various math models in international math modeling competitions to tackle real world problems such as carbon dioxide emissions, electric bike sales, land use change and opioid overdose using Python and Excel.
 
Coach Gardner commented, "Karen is a great defender who moves quickly and sees the game very well.  I am anxious to see what she brings to our team's defense and serve receive."
 

Andrea Li
Calgary, Alberta, Canada / Sir Winston Churchill HS
6'0" OH/OPP

Li received MVP honors twice as a captain and outside hitter on her high school team and was also selected to play on Team Alberta, placing silver in Tier 3 at Canada Cup.

She was a student researcher at University of Calgary partnered with Centre for Health Informatics Summer Studentship Program, and she also is a STEM Fellowship alumna and her high school's representative at the High School Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) Program. Her research under the mentor of Dr. Yuan Xu investigated the performance of a popular large language model compared with manual review in determining complete pathology responses from narrative electronic medical records.
 
"Andrea is an outstanding attacker with good size for the position," Gardner said.  "She has a great arm swing and sees the court well.  She's a wonderful addition."
 

Brittany Rosario
San Juan, PR / San Juan Math, Science and Tech Center
5'8" OH/OPP 

Brittany founded her school's Senior Varsity Girls Volleyball Team in her junior year and led the team to two tournament championships in her senior year, being named most valuable player both times.
 
Rosario twice participated in the ACS Project SEED Research Internship offered by the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. During this time, her research explored topics ranging from how non-coding mutations alter the binding affinity of transcription factors, all the way to assessing the cancer selectivity of a dual iron chelator. This experience led to her first scientific publication titled: "Disease-associated non-coding variants alter NKX2-5 DNA-binding affinity".
 
"Brittany is a dynamic six-rotation player," Gardner said.  "She is a smart and crafty attacker, and she possesses great ball control skills.  We are thrilled that she has chosen to play here."
 

Lana Saopraseuth
Vancouver, WA / Union HS
5'6" S

Lana is a 3x USAV Girls National Championship qualifier and a USA National Beach Tour Junior Championship qualifier, and her team won the 2024 Southeast Qualifier in Atlanta, Ga. She earned First Team honors in the Greater S. Helens League, serving as team captain and winning the MVP award.
 
Saopraseuth researched and learned about Magnetostatics and Calculus-based Physics under a Washington State University PhD Physicist. She worked as a Pharmacy Assistant in Portland, Ore. and she was a math instructor at Mathnasium.
 
"Lana is an excellent setter with really nice hands," Gardner said.  "She will contribute greatly to our offense and she defends her position quite well.   We are really excited to have her join us."

 

Ailsa Shen
Calgary, Alberta, Canada / Western Canada HS
5'10" S/OPP

Ailsa is an accomplished player who led her team to victory in the 2023 ASAA Alberta High School 4A Provincial Championships. Additionally, she was the 2022 Best of the West Volleyball Championships Silver Medalist and the 2021 Volleyball Alberta Beach Provincial Champion.
 
Shen earned prestigious awards in math contests, including USA Mathematical Olympiad qualifier and Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Direct Qualifier (Top 50 in Canada). She was invited to the Math Prize for Girls event and was named Young Women in Mathematics Akamai Certificate winner. She also conducted independent research on mathematical modeling using Fourier transform and coded a particle visualization model to simulate water jet dynamics in synchronization with sound frequencies.
 
Coach Gardner commented, "Ailsa is a very strong player who will help us as a setter and/or attacker and is strong in all six rotations.  I am excited to see her in action, especially in the front row."
 

Stephanie Wallen
Miami, FL / Ransom Everglades HS
5'11" S/OPP

Stephanie helped lead her team in winning the 2023 Tournament of Champions Platinum Championship in the Premier Division. Individually, she won her schools Coaches Award and Leadership Award, she is a two-time All-Dade Honorable Mention and she was the recipient of the 2023 Florida Athletic Coaches Association All-State Award.
 
Wallen co-founded her schools Girls for STEM affinity group, and was also a leader on her school's programming team and taught weekly meetings on computer science. She additionaly volunteered for Code Art, an organization that uses an artistic approach to provide educational opportunities in computer science to girls. Stephanie took Abstract Algebra and Intro to Probability classes at the University of Miami.
 
"Stephanie is a terrific player," Gardner said.  "She has the versatility to play multiple positions and has a great sense of the game.  We can't wait to see her many contributions."

 

Noelle Wilkinson
Bentonville, AR / Thaden School
6'1" MB/OH

Noelle has numerous individual recognitions as a player, including two-time team captain, two-time Team MVP, four-time All-Conference and two-time All-State Tournament Team.
 
Wilkinson has participated in a wide variety of activities, including creating a literature analysis-based dynamic web page for Homer's The Odyssey, tutoring students in physics and math and acting as a TA in an algebra class, completing Natural Language Processing-based research on Borderline Personality Disorder and a research fellowship with Veritas AI that concentrated on computational cognition.
 
Coach Gardner commented, "Noelle is a great blocker with quick lateral movement and a strong attacker who can hit effectively from all three front row positions.  I am so excited to see her anchoring our front row."
 

"The 2024 team will be our youngest on record, but what we lack in age, we make up for in a high-level of volleyball intelligence a strong work ethic and determination," said Gardner. "We are returning players who are fixated on making our team as strong and connected as possible, to achieve at a high level. I can't wait to feel the energy on the court and begin building our chemistry."