Aaliyah's distinctive face mask gives her an extra level of protection. She took a rough hit which broke her nose during the 2022–2023 preseason. As a result, she needed to wear it to keep her face safe.

"It was a love-hate relationship at first, but we got used to each other," Aaliyah told The Kingston Whig-Standard. "The only issue I had was my peripheral vision, but I got better adjusting to it. I’m getting nose surgery soon, so I’ll be back without it."

She managed to ditch the mask for quite some time in the following season, but it didn't last. She was dealt an elbow hit during the quarterfinal of the Big East Tournament, pushing her to the floor. Aaliyah was then forced to start using the mask again.

She told CT Insider, “It's like déjà vu, here we go again. I love it. I love it. I love it just because it's kind of like my thing, how I kind of impacted the game, but it's also like kind of showing the haters to not take us lightly.”

As a result of the resurrected injury, Aaliyah needed to wear the mask for the rest of the post-season, but she said it won't affect her moving forward since she is now more acquainted with it.

"I'm not going to let it distract me or anything like that. I'm still the same player, same teammate. Just going to do what we do best, which is win and go out there and put out for UConn," she added.