Entering her seventh season at the helm of the Bradley Women's Golf Program, Morell is coming off a second consecutive season with two team titles. The 2024-25 Braves won the A-Ga-Ming Invitational to begin the season and successfully defended their Coyote Creek Classic crown, winning by 23 strokes over second place. Caroline McConnell and Jillian Cosler combined to win individual titles three times, headlined by Cosler earning medalist honors at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship and earning her second All-MVC honor in as many seasons. The conference title marked the first time a Brave had competed at a NCAA Regional since 2006.
During her time on the Hilltop, Morell has coached six players to individual championships and six MVC All-Conference selections. In addition, she has coached one MVC Conference Player of the Year (Taylor Ledwein, 2021), and two MVC Newcomers of the Year (Maria Perakis, 2022 & Jillian Cosler, 2024).
On the academic side, her program has broken team GPA records for semester and cumulative GPAs, with a 3.90 team average GPA this past spring semester of 2025.
Outside of Bradley, Morell has garnered many accolades including winning the LPGA Midwest Section Coach of the Year in both 2019 & 2021. Morell has also been serving on the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee since August 2023.
Former Jacksonville State Assistant Golf Coach Halley Morell is just the third Bradley Women’s Golf head coach since 1997, with Bradley Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Chris Reynolds announcing her appointment in June 2019.
A LPGA Certified “Class A” Teaching Professional, Morell came to Bradley after serving as assistant men’s and women’s golf coach at Jacksonville State during the 2018-19 season. The former collegiate golfer at Robert Morris (Pa.) and Penn State also was Women’s Golf Assistant Coach at UTEP for two years (2016-18). She was named Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Professionals Midwest Section Coach of the Year twice in her first three seasons at Bradley, earning the honor in 2021 and 2019.
The 2023-24 campaign saw the program's first team title under Morell's leadership, winning the 2023 ISU Redbird Invitational by one stroke over hosts Illinois State. The team score of 291-287-287=865 in Normal broke the previous team scoring record of any Bradley Women's Golf Team by 11 shots. Grace Aromando became the first golfer since 2021 to earn medalist honors and her score of 16-under-par is the best individual performance by any women's golfer in program history. Morell lead the Braves to a second team title during the season, winning the 2023 Bradley Coyote Creek Classic in nearby Bartonville. The victory marked the first multi-win season for Bradley Women's Golf since the 2015-16 season. Freshman Jillian Cosler earned Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year and First-Team All-MVC honors after averaging 74.88 strokes per round, the sixth-lowest season average in program history. Senior Grace Aromando also earned All-Conference honors.
The 2022-23 season was highlighted by a third-place finish at the Coyote Creek Classic, finishing three strokes behind Butler and Western Illinois. Mara Flaherty finished runner-up by one stroke in the tournament. Grace Aromando placed fourth at the MVC Championship, with the team placing seventh.
Highlighting the 2021-22 campaign, senior Megan Welch was named a First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection and freshman Maria Perakis took home the Valley’s Newcomer of the Year award. Morell guided the Braves to a fourth-place finish at the MVC Championship, for the squad’s best showing since 2019. Welch posted the 15th-best season stroke average (76.24) in program history, ranking eighth in the league. Perakis and Kathryn McNease were the top two in the Valley in stroke average among freshmen with Perakis’ season average of 76.52 third among Bradley freshman marks and 11th in the MVC.
The 2020-21 season was highlighted by Taylor Ledwein being selected as the MVC Golfer of the Year. Ledwein, who earned All-MVC honors for a fifth consecutive year, won a pair of individual titles during the five-tournament season that ended with the Braves tying for sixth at the MVC Championship played in St. Charles, Mo.
While her first season at Bradley was cut short, the 2019-20 campaign included three second-place team finishes and the Braves placed in the top half in the team standings in six of seven outings. Senior Taylor Ledwein missed the first three outings of the year with an injury, before returning to post what would have been a MVC season record stroke average of 72.82. Bradley carded the second lowest team round in school history (287) in the second round of the Little Rock Classic to conclude the fall schedule, in addition to posting two of the four lowest 54-hole team scores in Bradley history.
In 2018-19, Morell helped lead the Gamecocks to four team tournament titles (three men’s and one women’s) and four individual medalist crowns. In fact, the Jacksonville State men’s golf squad, which produced a trio of All-Ohio Valley Conference performers, earned its third consecutive OVC title in 2018-19 and played in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship Louisville Regional last month. On the women’s side, Morell helped guide the Gamecocks to a third-place conference finish, powered by the play of OVC Freshman of the Year Claire Vermette.
A native of Brecksville, Ohio, Morell has been active with LPGA since 2017 when she served as Teaching & Club Professional Intern and National Championship Intern at LPGA World Headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla. Last summer, she was Event Coordinator for the LPGA Foundation, organizing LPGA Leadership Academies to help keep high school girls engaged in golf, in addition to assisting at LPGA tour events. Morell will continue to assist with LPGA Lesson Zones this season, along with serving as an instructor at LPGA Leadership Academy events.
Prior to her time at Jacksonville State, Morell was Assistant Women’s Golf Coach at UTEP for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. Ranked #172 in the Golfweek.com rankings before Morell arrived in El Paso, Texas, the Miners closed the 2017-18 campaign at #110 after a second-place Conference USA finish, which was the team’s best league showing since a 2011 title. UTEP earned a pair of team tournament titles and produced three individual medalists during her two-year tenure with the team. While at UTEP, Morell earned a Master’s in Business Administration with Management Concentration in 2018.
A 2016 graduate of Penn State, Morell spent her junior and senior seasons in State College, Penn. after playing her freshman and sophomore seasons at Robert Morris. During her collegiate career, she earned one medalist crown, a pair of runner-up showings and nine top-five finishes, in addition to being named the 2013-14 Northeast Conference Co-Player of the Year. The 2016 Big 10 Sportsmanship Award winner for women’s golf, Morell also earned Big 10 Distinguished Scholar honors.
As a sophomore, Morell led Robert Morris in stroke average and capped the season with a runner-up finish at the NEC Championship. In addition to her Co-Player-of-the-Year recognition, Morell also garnered NEC Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year honors for the 2013-14 season. She holds the Robert Morris marks for lowest 54-hole tournament score, in addition to the best season and career stroke averages in program history.
Morell has appeared in five professional tournaments (four as an amateur), highlighted by a fifth-place finish at the 2017 LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals Southeast Section event at TPC Sawgrass in her lone outing as a pro. She has placed in the top 10 at the Women’s Western Amateur Championship twice, earning ninth-place showings in both 2014 and 2016. Her accomplishments also include playing in the 2013 USGA Women’s Amateur Pub Links National Championship along with the 2016 USGA Women’s Four Ball Championship.
Prior to turning professional in March 2017, Morell was ranked 627th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and had a USGA Handicap of +2.2. During her collegiate career, she was ranked as high as 278th in Golfweek.com collegiate women’s rankings.
