NCAA volleyball coaching carousel spins on as Long Beach hires Hildebrand, UTSA tabs Price-Torok
The season may have ended with Wisconsin’s national-championship victory Saturday over Nebraska, but the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball news continues.
Specifically, the coaching carousel spins on.
Start with Long Beach State, which hired Nebraska assistant Tyler Hildebrand, who not only played at the school but previously coached there.
UTSA hired Bradley head coach Carol Price-Torok, whose resume includes being an assistant there 14 years ago.
Head-coach openings remain at at least 25 Division I schools, including Alabama and LSU in the SEC, TCU in the Big 12, Notre Dame in the ACC, and Iowa in the Big Ten.
By the way, according to the NCAA on Twitter, attendance was a record 18,755 for the championship match at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Saturday. Next December the national semifinals and AVCA convention return to Omaha, Nebraska, with an eye on finally hitting a warm-weather city in 2023 when the gathering is in Tampa.
The NCAA men’s championship is May 5-7 at UCLA, the same weekend that the NCAA beach tournament is in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
LONG BEACH — Seven weeks after the school fired All-American alum Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer with 10 matches left, Long Beach State tabbed Nebraska associate head coach Tyler Hildbebrand as its next head coach.
Hildebrand is a former player at Beach, where he was a three-time All-American setter. He has a most interesting history, including coaching men at Long Beach after his pro career ended. He went to Nebraska as an assistant coach to coach women for the first time in 2017, but the next year left to become the director of the USA Volleyball beach national team. He returned to Nebraska in 2020.
“My family and I are honored and humbled to be coming back to lead the women’s volleyball program at my alma mater,” Hildbrand said in an LBSU newes release. “The love I have for the university, Long Beach State volleyball and the entire Long Beach community greatly influenced my decision to return to the Beach and is a dream come true.”
Long Beach State finished 16-15 last season, 10-10 in the Big West. It won its last six matches and seven of its last eight, all in the Big West.
Nebraska, of course, advanced to the NCAA final. Read more from Long Beach State here.
We wrote about Hildebrand at the NCAA final four when Nebraska won in 2017:
Nebraska assistant Hildebrand huge part of Huskers’ 2017 success
UTSA — The San Antonio school tabbed Carol Price-Torok, who has been the head coach at Bradley the past six years. Price-Torok takes over for longtime coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff. The Roadrunners finished 8-16 last season, 5-7 in Conference USA.
Price-Torok, who played at Texas A&M, was an assistant coach at UTSA under Neugebauer-Groff in 2006-07, then was at Arkansas for eight seasons before taking over at Bradley. During her time there, the Braves went 85-90, including 17-15 in 2021, 12-6 in the Missouri Valley.
Read the UTSA news story here.
UTSA is leaving Conference USA for the American Athletic Conference.
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