Vlasich Earns AVCA Division III National Coach of the Year Honor

CLAREMONT, Calif. - After guiding the CMS volleyball team to a best-ever 30-1 record, its first-ever undefeated season in SCIAC play, and an NCAA Regional championship, Kurt Vlasich earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III National Coach of the Year Award, the organization announced today.

Vlasich has guided a CMS team this season that was coming off a one-year break from the COVID-19 pandemic, and only returned one of its starters from the 2019 team, which went 27-4. The Athenas also only had two seniors this year, one of whom, libero Makenna Fall, was lost for the year midseason with a knee injury.

However, Vlasich and his staff (Jack Coberly, Morgan Coberly, Melanie Hughes, Kylie Miller) were able to help the program pick up right where it left off and hit the ground running, defeating nationally ranked UC Santa Cruz on opening day. In the season's second week, meanwhile, the Athenas had a day for the ages, defeating the No. 1 (Trinity) and No. 2 (Emory) ranked teams on the same day, beating both by 3-1 scores at the East-West Battle, hosted by Cal Lutheran. 

CMS kept its undefeated season going almost through the entire regular season, before falling in a 3-1 road match at No. 6 Calvin, hours after defeating No. 4 Hope at Calvin's Midwest Invitational on Oct. 22. The Athenas returned from that trip and survived a test on the road at Chapman on Oct. 26, winning 3-2 to enable them to finish the regular season 16-0 in SCIAC, the first undefeated regular season in program history. 

The Athenas have also added to their success in the postseason, winning the SCIAC title with another 3-2 win over Chapman at Roberts Pavilion, the program's fourth SCIAC Tournament in a row. CMS then went on to win an NCAA Regional championship, with the coaching staff and players needing to dig deep down 2-0 in the final to undefeated host Wartburg before rallying back to win 3-2 with an 18-16 win in the fifth set. 

Vlasich guided CMS to the first national title in program history in 2017, when the Athenas defeated Wittenberg 3-0 in the national championship match. In fact, it was the first national title for any women's team at CMS, with volleyball joined later that same academic year by 2018 titles from women's golf and women's tennis. 

In his ninth season at the helm, Vlasich has now won at least one Coach of the Year honor in six of them, with this being his first national honor. In 2018, he earned both the AVCA West Region Coach of the Year and the SCIAC Coach of the Year, while he also won the West Region Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2015, and captured SCIAC Coach of the Year honors in 2014 and 2017. 

CMS will open play at the NCAA Division III Championships at Washington University in Saint Louis tomorrow, when it takes on Berry in the quarterfinal round. A win would result in a rematch against either Trinity or Calvin in the semifinals on Friday, with the national championship match taking place on Saturday.