Emma Appleman enters her first season as an assistant coach for the Wesleyan volleyball program in the 2025 season. Appleman is a Class of 2025 graduate and four-year letterwinner for the volleyball program at the College of Charleston.
A four-year contributor and three-year team captain for the Cougars, Appleman played the setter position and finished her career with 1,478 assists, 814 digs, and 55 service aces in 370 sets played (106 matches). She averaged over two digs per set in all four years at CofC and posted a per-set average of 5+ assists three times. Appleman was named CSC Academic All-District as a senior in 2024 and helped lead CofC to the 2024 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship, which was just the second CAA title in program history and first since 2013.
Appleman was awarded the CAA Institutional Female Scholar-Athlete award for the 2024-25 season. She was also a finalist for the Ted Stern Cup and Stewart Walker Cup Award. The TSC is one of the highest awards a student at CofC can receive and is awarded to a graduating senior who exemplifies the character of CofC. The SWC is the most-prestigious award for CofC student-athletes and recognizes individual academic, athletic, and leadership success.
While an undergrad at CofC, Appleman was an intern in the athletics department in the spring semester of her junior year, working with the Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success and Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) to organize and implement programming and activities. Among the programming included “Wellness Wednesday” and “Senior Send Off” as well as nutrition programming working alongside the Director of Sports Nutrition.
She was also an Event Liaison for the Magee-Women’s Research Institute and Foundation, creating a partnership between the Institute and the CofC volleyball program to raise money for breast cancer research. That partnership broadened for the whole CAA after the first year and initiated the Early Detection of Breast Cancer Zoom Event.
Appleman also participated in CofC SAAC as a sophomore in 2022, the CAA SAAC as a junior in 2023, Cougar Launch (two-year leadership and mentorship program for female student-athletes) across her final two years, and studied under the Director of Yale Wellness Programs in the summer of 2023.
Prior to CofC, Appleman was a four-year starter at Guilford High School, winning Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year honors as a senior. She was the two-time Shoreline Coast Conference (SCC) Player of the Year, two-time All-State First Team selection, and back-to-back SCC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Guilford went 79-14 in her four years and made three trips to the state finals. Appleman totaled 1,118 kills and 636 digs and holds Guilford High School records for career kills and single-season kills.
A local product, Appleman resides in Guilford, Connecticut and attended Guilford High School, graduating in 2021. Her mother Erin is the current head volleyball coach at Yale University.
