NCAA | Seattle U finally hires new volleyball coach

James Finley arrives from VCU, where he left amid controversy

More than two months after Shannon Ellis announced she was stepping down as head volleyball coach at Seattle University, the Redhawks have, at long last, named her successor.

Seattle VB | Ellis leaves SU; Junior Volleyball gears up

Shannon Ellis leaves a strong legacy at Seattle U

Girls and boys club volleyball tryouts in full swing

Shannon Ellis is a class act.

Shannon Ellis
-photo by Eric Badeau for Seattle University

Since taking over the helm of the Seattle University volleyball program in 2004, Ellis has always been a bright light on the Seattle-area volleyball scene.

Pac-12 | What we learned from Washington’s win against Seattle U

#7 Washington 3, Seattle University 0 (25-15, 25-10, 25-21)

next: Friday, September 7 | 7pm | Long Beach State @ Washington

The Washington Huskies continue to do right. As in right side.

Senior Kylin Muñoz and sophomore Kaleigh Nelson—both playing primarily on the right side—were all but unstoppable in Washington’s 3-0 win in a crosstown friendly against Seattle U.

Muñoz had 8 kills and no errors on 14 swings (.571), while Nelson added five kills and no errors on 7 swings (.714) … that’s a combined 13 kills, no errors on 21 attempts (.619). That’s money.

“The right side was not our strongest side last season,” said Washington coach Jim McLaughlin. “We put a real emphasis on it this year.”

Washington's Cassie Strickland serves an ace against Seattle U
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

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Special Report: Why fewer women are coaching D1 volleyball

IN THE PAST 15 YEARS, THE PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN COACHING WOMEN’S D1 VOLLEYBALL TEAMS HAS PLUMMETTED—FROM 62% TO 47%. MORE THAN EVER, MALE HEAD COACHES DOMINATE THE WOMEN’S GAME … A TREND NOT SEEN IN OTHER D1 TEAM SPORTS. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING IN VOLLEYBALL? A VOLLEYBLOG SEATTLE SPECIAL REPORT.

• Update: Kathy DeBoer, Executive Director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, reacts to this report. See AVCA Director: “We don’t have a lot of good solutions”
• Correction: Apologies for misspelling the last name of Florida Coach Mary Wise.

Last season, every Pac-10 women’s volleyball head coach was a man. This season, one-quarter of the Pac-12 is run by women. Two of those coaches—Utah’s Beth Launiere and Colorado’s Liz Kritza will be in Seattle this weekend to face the Washington Huskies. Launiere and Kritza will also meet WSU’s first-year coach Jen Greeny this weekend in Pullman; Greeny is the third member of the Pac-12’s small, but growing, coaching sorority.

From zero to 25 percent: Sounds like real progress for women seeking top volleyball jobs. But across the country, the trend is decidedly in the other direction. D1 women’s volleyball is increasingly a man’s game.

Volleyblog Seattle gleaned numbers from a recent NCAA report titled Race and Gender Demographics 2009-2010. We found that the percentage of female head coaches in Division 1 volleyball has plummeted since 1995, from 62% to 47% last season. No other D1 women’s team sport has experienced anything close to this gender shift.

“It’s one of the very few sports where, since Title IX, there’s fewer women head coaches than there were before,” says Shannon Ellis, head coach at Seattle University. “That’s surprising to a lot of people.”

“Women are getting into the volleyball profession after college, and then, at some point, we have a high rate of attrition,” says Utah’s Launiere. “We’re losing them before they get to become D1 head coaches.”

“It seems like the higher the strength of the conference, the fewer and fewer female coaches you find,” says Colorado’s Kritza.

What’s happening in volleyball? And why? Ellis, Launiere and Kritza revealed some intriguing theories during conversations this week with Volleyblog Seattle.

Seattle U defeats Gonzaga 3-2

A real marathon tonight in Seattle University's Connelly Center.

Seattle U won for just the second time this season, defeating cross-state rival Gonzaga 3-2. Four of the sets were decided by four points or less. (28-26, 21-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-12) The fifth set featured a 7-1 SU run, with Jordan Keller of Mukilteo at the service line.

Cristin Richards

Cristin Richards of Tumwater, seeing her first action after an ankle injury, had a monster night for the Redhawks: 26 kills on 48 swings (.396), 11 digs, 3 blocks and 2 aces. Seattle U recorded 17.5 team blocks; Allison Farley of Happy Valley, OR had a hand (or two) in nine blocks.

Meredith Crenshaw recorded 14 kills against just 2 errors for the Zags (.414)

"We were swinging at everything we could and blasting balls, and I am proud of my team for keeping the pressure on them," head coach Shannon Ellis said after the match.

SU, a Division 1 independent, now plays 10 of its next 11 matches on the road. The only home date in that stretch is September 29, in an exhibition against Trinity Western.

Gonzaga is now 6-5 on the season.