NORFOLK, Va. – Haley Rineer was living a great life. The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania native graduated from Old Dominion in 2020 and moved to Philadelphia, where she lived with Brittney Rineer, her sister.
Her older sister, Lauren, also lived in Philly and all three enjoyed a close relationship in the city of Brotherly Love.
She was building a career as a sales representative at Medallion Bank, where family members say she was greatly admired for her hard work and her warm personality. And in the fall of 2021, she began dating Joe Naselli.
Within months, he asked her to marry him and she accepted.
Life was almost perfect until May of 2022, when she received startling news.
She was diagnosed with Synovial Cell Sarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. Fewer than 1,000 cases of the cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year and are often deadly if not caught in the early stages.
For nearly three years, Haley bravely fought against her cancer. Initially, she had surgery to remove a large mass, along with half of her left lung, and then endured months of chemotherapy.
The hope was that the cancer had been cured, but it returned in early 2024 and she had more surgery and more chemo.
“She endured countless procedures and medications and faced unimaginable pain, yet she never once wavered in her fight,” said her father, Rory Rineer. “No matter how hard it got, she refused to give up. She pushed forward with unwavering resilience, never allowing us to second-guess that she would keep going, no matter what it took.”
Alas, she succumbed on March 21, 2025.
Instagram post on Haley Rineer
Haley was a member of the ODU women’s lacrosse team for four seasons, and loved her time there. Former ODU teammates Mary Katherine Maloney, Michelle Hallman, Glory Johnson, Ryann Bauer and Brooke Frey, who was also her teammate at Central Dauphin High School, became close friends who visited her often while she was sick.
On Saturday, April 4, the ODU lacrosse team will honor Haley when the Monarchs travel to Temple at noon at the Howarth Field.
The game is appropriate to honor her life given that Haley was often treated at the Temple University Hospital, as well as Penn Hospital.
Her family and friends will be in attendance and will be introduced between periods.
ODU Head Lacrosse Coach Theresa Walton said coaches and players will participate with family and friends in a postgame tailgate.
“We will present the Rineer family with Haley’s framed jersey that we will hang in our locker room as a remembrance tribute,” Walton said.
The lacrosse team has begun a fundraiser in Haley’s name that benefits the HEADstrong Foundation, which provides free housing to the families of cancer patients who travel 50 or more miles to Philadelphia to be near their loved ones when being treated for cancer.
Families stay in “Nick’s House,” named for Nicholas Colleluori, a Hofstra University lacrosse player who founded HEADstrong while battling cancer.
Fans are also asked to wear yellow, the color for Sarcoma Cancer, in honor of Haley.
CLICK HERE to donate to the HEADstrong Foundation
Haley was deeply religious and was a writer who journaled daily. The family published a collection of her journals as a book entitled “Angels on Earth.” It is available on Amazon and each of the 112 pages are a testament to her faith and love of family.
CLICK HERE to purchase Angels on Earth
“I always go back to this one image,” Haley wrote in one of her last journal entries. “It’s a tall oak tree. Feels like the branches fall and cover my whole world. And it’s me and God under that tree. Sometimes people running around, sometimes young children, sometimes I see Poppop. There is sometimes a pool around the tree of water. I like to believe those are my children playing with Jesus. Waiting for me, waiting to meet me. Experience life on earth. For now, I hope they are waiting with God, Poppop, and anyone he is protecting on high.”
Johnson, Maloney, Hallman and Bauer, who describe themselves as “Haley’s Best Friends,” penned a dedication to her recently:
“Haley was one of the most unique and engaging people on the lacrosse team. She was the kind of person everyone gravitated toward in the locker room—the one people wanted to be friends with, spend time with, and aspire to be like. She showed up every single day with a great attitude, whether she was cracking jokes, pulling pranks, or locking in when it was time to be serious,” they said. “Haley never shied away from hard work. She passed every run test with flying colors, never gave up, and practiced with the same intensity every day. She knew how to be competitive while still having fun, and she made sure the people around her did too. Being her roommates allowed us to see even more sides of Haley. We saw how deeply she cared for her closest friends, her teammates, and her family, how hard she worked in school, and how passionate she was about building a successful future and meaningful career. At the same time, she taught us how to enjoy the little moments—how even after a tough test or a long practice, we could still laugh, smile, and enjoy each other’s company.
“One of Haley’s most defining qualities was her ability to bring people together. Whether it was on a weekend or a random weekday, she was always planning the next themed party or team activity. From inviting teammates over to watch The Bachelorette to hosting freshmen for home-cooked meals instead of going to the dining hall, Haley had a way of making everyone feel included, valued, and special.”
No one misses Haley more than her parents – Rory and Christine Rineer.
Rory penned a dedication to her daughter shortly after she passed:
“Our hearts are broken that, in the end, the cancer became too aggressive, leaving us without further options,” he wrote. “But even in our sorrow, we feel so incredibly blessed to have had Haley in our lives for as long as we did. She was a light, a warrior, and a force of love who inspired all who knew her. She will forever be our guardian angel.”