PULLMAN, Wash. --
Burdette Greeny has been promoted to Associate Head Coach for the Washington State University volleyball program, Head Coach
Jen Greeny announced Friday.
Greeny has been an assistant coach with the Cougar volleyball program since March 2011. As the lead recruiter for the Cougars, he was instrumental in rebuilding the program back into an NCAA Tournament team.
The 2016 season was filled with milestones. WSU ended the season ranked No. 24 in the Final AVCA Coaches Poll with a 22-12 overall record: the most wins in a season since 2002, and tied for fifth-best all-time wins in Cougars history. WSU's 11-9 Pac-12 record, tied for fifth place in the highly competitive conference, was the most conference wins for the Cougars since 2002. The Cougars received an at-large bid to the 2016 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament for the 11th time in school history and defeated Marquette in the First Round before falling to No. 3 Wisconsin on the Badgers home court in Madison, Wis., in the Second Round.
Greeny's recruiting prowess is evident in the PrepVolleyball.com's national rankings. WSU is one of only 15 programs in the nation to have two Top 25 and one Honorable Mention recruiting class between 2013 and 2015: 14th in 2013, honorable mention in 2014, and 21st in 2015. The 2013 and 2015 recruiting classes are two of the highest-ranked recruiting classes ever in any sport in the history of Washington State Athletics. The Cougars recruit against the best with eight Pac-12 teams ranked in the PrepVolleyball.com's Top 30 and seven in the Top 21. Among Greeny's WSU recruits are six PrepVolleyball.com Top 100 players and two Gatorade State Players of the Year.
The first high school recruit signed by Greeny was
Kate Sommer from Pacific Palisades, Calif., and the Sunshine Volleyball Club, who broke the program's dig record to be become the all-time leader with 1,954 digs. The first high school recruit to commit to 2013 recruiting class ranked 14th-best nationally was
Haley MacDonald, a setter from Bothell, Wash., who finished her career with the fourth-most assists in program history. The second high school recruit to commit to the 2013 class was
Kyra Holt from Hercules, Calif., and the Encore VBC. Holt finished in eight WSU all-time career records, the second-most in program history, and became one of only four All-Americans in Cougar volleyball history.
Two middle blockers,
Taylor Mims from Billings, Mont., and
Claire Martin from Bremerton, Wash., were signees in the 21st-best national recruiting class in 2015. In 2016 as sophomores, Mims and Martin finished in the Top 25 in the nation in blocks per set and total blocks. Greeny was integral to the recruitment and development of these front row players who became one of the elite blocking units in the nation the last two years: in 2016 WSU was number two in team total blocks behind national champion Stanford and third-best nationally in team blocks per set, also behind Stanford. This was a significant factor to Washington State finishing fourth among for all Power 5 conference schools and 26th overall in opponent hitting percentage, behind only AVCA Top 25 team No. 4 Nebraska, No. 11 Kansas, and No. 12 North Carolina.
Casey Schoenlein, a 6-5 junior opposite, and
McKenna Woodford, a 6-4 sophomore outside hitter, became the first Cougar volleyball players be named to a US National Team since 1997.
The Cougars will have 11 veteran players from the 2016 squad for the Fall 2017 season.
