Volleyball Promotes Jordan Neal to Assistant Coach
After two seasons as a volunteer, the Arkansas volleyball program has elevated Jordan Neal to assistant coach, rounding out the team’s staff for the 2023 season.
“Jordan has proven himself to be instrumental in the development of our student-athletes. His knowledge and work ethic makes this an easy decision and provides continuity across many key aspects of our program,” head coach Jason Watson said. “I know each of us is excited to continue to work alongside Jordan to further develop our team.”
Neal has been with the Razorbacks since 2021. He has helped coach Arkansas to back-to-back 20-win seasons, and the most in 10 years with 21 victories in 2022. The Hogs had several high points last season: Two top 10 wins for the first time in program history over No. 8 Washington and No. 7 Georgia Tech, their first appearance in the AVCA poll in seven years and highest rank since 1999, first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2013 and fist NCAA Tournament win since 2005.
Neal will primarily work on serving and will see increased responsibilities with the team’s setters, two areas in which the Razorbacks have been strong in for the past several years. With Neal’s guidance, Arkansas has finished in the top half of the conference in service aces per set in both of his seasons with the team and came in first in 2021 with 1.61 aces per set, also good for the fourth-best single season average in program history.
In the setting category, Neal coached Gracie Ryan for two of her five seasons at Arkansas. Ryan received AVCA All-South Region honorable mention designation in 2021 after she started every match for the Hogs at setter and finished the season with 11.12 assists per set, third in the SEC and ninth in all-time program history. Ryan concluded her career at Arkansas with 3,470 assists, good for fourth-highest ever, and played in 128 matches, ninth-highest and the most for any player in the current scoring era, dating back to 2008. The combination of Ryan and rising junior setter Hannah Hogue registered 12.74 assists per set in 2022, second-best in the SEC.
Prior to Arkansas, Neal coached at Highland High School in Gilbert, Arizona and club at Club One Volleyball and East Valley Juniors. At the club level, his teams posted three top 50 national rankings and one top 25 finish.
While at Highland High School, Jordan won the school’s first Region Coach of the Year award. His teams also won the school’s first region championship, and twice finished ranked top 5 in Arizona. In that time, Highland produced 19 All-Region Selections and 6 All-State honors. More than half of the athletes who graduated the Highland program continued their career at the collegiate level or in the coaching field.
Neal graduated from Ouachita Baptist in 2013 with a dual degree in secondary education and mathematics and has taught math at Fayetteville High School for the past two years. Jordan is married to Audrey and has a son, Carson, and a daughter, Lily.
Coach Neal and the Hogs are back in action for the 2023 season opener against Michigan State on Friday, August 25 at Barnhill Arena.
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