Division I Women's Volleyball Coaching Positions Filled

Delaware and Virginia Tech are the latest schools to fill the position of head women's volleyball coach.

Jan 13, 2017 by Megan Kaplon

Division I Women's Volleyball Coaching Positions Filled

Tis the season for big-time women's volleyball coaching hires to be announced. Two Division I head coaching positions have been filled in past couple of days, adding their number to the list of head and assistant coaching hires that have been announced since the end of the 2016 season.

Jill Lytle Wilson takes the reigns at Virginia Tech, replacing Chris Riley who resigned in December. Wilson comes to Blacksburg from Louisiana State, where she was an associate head coach. A four-year starting outside hitter at LSU, Wilson joined the coaching ranks as a student assistant at her alma mater immediately after completing her eligibility. She then went on to coach at North Carolina and Wake Forest before returning to LSU as an assistant in 2007.

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Delaware hired Sara Matthews to fill the head coaching vacancy within its women's volleyball program. Previous head coach Bonnie Kenny was fired midway through the 2016 season, and the Delaware Athletic Department has not given a reason for her termination. Matthews comes to Newark from Texas Christian, where she served as an assistant coach. Before TCU, she was an assistant at West Virginia and the director of operations at USC. Matthews played two seasons at James Madison before transferring to Kansas, where she completed her collegiate career.

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Newly hired Louisville head coach Dani Busboom-Kelly completed her staff this week, adding former UCSB assistant Kolby O'Donnell as a second assistant after announcing the hiring of Dan Meske in December. O'Donnell played at Lees-McRae and has served on the coaching staffs of Miami, Appalachian State, and Radford University.

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Other recent notable hirings include Tom Black, who left Loyola Marymount after six seasons to take the head coach position at Georgia. In addition to his position at LMU, Black also served as an assistant with the U.S. women's national team.

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Former national team libero Kayla Banwarth will fill the hole left in the Nebraska coaching staff by Busboom-Kelly's acceptance of the Louisville job. Banwarth played at Nebraska from 2007-10 and was the starting libero on the 2016 Olympic team. For the past two seasons, she served as a volunteer assistant with the Pepperdine men's team.

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At Arizona State, Sanja Tomasevic takes over after the departure of Stevie Mussie. Tomasevic, who played at Washington, came to Tempe, AZ, with Mussie in 2016, but Mussie was let go after just one season.

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The head coaching position at Stanford is open and has yet to be filled since the retirement announcement of 16-year coach John Dunning. Loyola Marymount is still hunting for Black's replacement, as well. Stay tuned for news on those hiring announcements once they are released.