Hampton University Athletics

Janay Yancey is entering her first season as head coach of the Hampton University volleyball program after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the Lady Pirates. She takes over a program that has won 40 matches over the past two season, along with back-to-back MEAC Tournament titles.
 
Hampton went a combined 21-3 in MEAC play in those two seasons.
 
In 2014, the Lady Pirates won a program Div. I-record 21 matches and went 11-1 in conference play, tying for the MEAC Northern Division regular season title before sweeping Howard in the championship match of the MEAC Tournament to win the crown.
 
The Lady Pirates then faced North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Much of Yancey’s on-court coaching focused on the middle blockers, and Hampton ranked fourth in the MEAC in blocks last season with an average of 1.85 per set. Two Lady Pirates ranked in the top 10 in the conference in blocks: middle blockers Marija Kocevska (ninth) and Kennedy Kenney (10th).
 
In fact, seven players had at least 25 total blocks last season. Kocevska led the way with 91, while rightside Vendula Strakova – the two-time reigning MEAC Player of the Year and AVCA All-America Honorable Mention – had 81 total blocks.
 
Kenney was third on the team with 59 total blocks last season.
 
Kitija Megne, who was First Team All-MEAC as a setter, was fourth on the team with 43 total blocks.
 
Yancey joined the program in 2013 before helping guide the Lady Pirates to their first-ever MEAC Tournament championship. Hampton won 19 matches last season – tying a program Div. I record for wins in a season – and went 10-2 in conference play to win its first-ever MEAC Northern Division regular-season title.
 
In winning the MEAC, the Lady Pirates made their first-ever NCAA Div. I Tournament appearance, taking on No. 7 seed Stanford in the first round.
 
Yancey began her coaching career as a student assistant at Middle Tennessee State in 2010, when MTSU won the Sun Belt Conference championship with a 29-6 record and made its fifth NCAA appearance. In 2011, Yancey joined South Alabama as a graduate assistant.
 
Her collegiate playing career began at North Carolina State in 2006, and Yancey lettered there for two seasons as a middle blocker; as a sophomore, Yancey averaged 2.07 kills and 0.62 blocks per set. She transferred to Middle Tennessee State in 2008, and she was named All-Sun Belt Tournament as a senior in 2009.
 
In 2008, Yancey was named to the Sun Belt’s Commissioner’s List for academic excellence.
 
MTSU won the Sun Belt in 2009, and in both of Yancey’s season at MTSU, the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament. She ranks fifth in MTSU program history in career blocks per set, having averaged 1.09 blocks per set in her two years with the program.
 
Yancey hit .368 in 2008, recording MTSU’s seventh-best single-season hitting percentage, and her .364 hitting percentage as a senior in 2009 is the ninth-highest mark in a single season in MTSU history.
 
Yancey graduated from MTSU in 2009 with a B.S. in Exercise Science, before earning an M.S. in Exercise Science from South Alabama in 2011. In 2011, she was a recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Minority Coaches Scholarship.
 
In her spare time, Yancey enjoys reading, volunteering for Compassion International, and playing sand volleyball.
 
Yancey, a native of Columbia, Tenn., is a member of the AVCA and a 2014 graduate of the NCAA Women Coaches Academy.