Celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, WVU Women’s Volleyball is one of WVU’s longest running programs without a lot to show for it.
In 50 seasons, WVU has made the NCAA Tournament once- just three years ago with head coach Reed Sunahara, who departed West Virginia after his ninth season in 2023. The Mountaineers have made college volleyball’s second-tier postseason tournament, the NIVC, just twice, in 1991 and in 2017.
As a member of the Big 12, WVU has never recorded a winning conference record, going 8-8 in both 2020 and 2021 and finishing with a losing record in every other season. The most recent addition to that statistic was last season’s 2-16 Big 12, 9-22 overall campaign.
New head coach Jen Greeny is aiming for a long-term rebuild that would change that program identity. Greeny already has experience of doing so, taking Washington State, who had made 10 NCAA Tournaments in 38 seasons before Greeny’s arrival, including one in the previous eight years, to eight consecutive tournament appearances in her 12 seasons as coach.
At WVU, Greeny intends to create such a transformation again, admittedly with a more historically bare program, but with all of the resources necessary for extreme growth.
“We are thrilled to be coming to West Virginia and to be able to build the volleyball program into a national powerhouse,” Greeny said in her introductory press conference in December.
Such a transformation will take time, but in 2024, Greeny has set the stage to kickstart the rebuild. Seven new players join the Mountaineers this season, including the reigning Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference’s blocks leader, Laila Ibrahim, who led Coppin State to an MEAC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance last season.
Greeny is already building international recruiting connections in Europe, Mexico, and Canada, as well, as she sets the Morgantown recruitment pitch similar to the one she used at Washington State. Greeny plans to capitalize on the family-like nature of the WVU community in recruitment and create a volleyball hub in Morgantown.
With an extreme recruitment shift for the better already in the works, WVU’s biggest responsibility this year is to make the Mountaineers an appealing program on the court. A successful player in her own right at Washington State, Greeny knows what it takes for an athlete to be great and has a history of unlocking players’ potential. She will look to build a reputation for doing so as early as this year at West Virginia.
The shift in West Virginia’s program identity will be fittingly paired with a new court design at the Coliseum this season.
As for what is familiar, graduate student Lauren DeLo will once again take the reigns as WVU’s starting setter and captain this season. DeLo made a name for herself quickly at West Virginia, tallying 1,061 assists in her first season after transferring from Rutgers in 2023.
Joining DeLo as captain is the hitter that received many of her assists, senior outside/right side Hailey Green. Green came to WVU from Denver last season and recorded a team-high 418 kills. DeLo and Green will lead the team alongside libero Sydney Reed, who made the NCAA Final Four last season with Wisconsin.
The new-look Mountaineers, marked by familiar and new faces alike, will start their season at the Wake Forest Invitational on Aug. 30 against Navy. The invitational will be the first of three to start WVU’s out-of-conference schedule, which will conclude Sept. 21 versus Binghamton. WVU will open its conference slate at home against Cincinnati on Sept. 25.
Photo from WVU Women’s Volleyball
