West Virginia University Athletics

Reed Sunahara enters his ninth season at the helm after being named the coach of the West Virginia University volleyball program in March of 2015.
 
Under his direction, the Mountaineers made the postseason for the first time in program history, when the squad earned its at-large bid in the 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championships. WVU played Illinois in the first round but fell in four sets.
 
West Virginia finished the 2021 season at 19-10 and 8-8 in the Big 12 Conference. The squad posted a program-best, 8-8 mark for the second consecutive year to finish third overall in the Big 12.
 
Sunahara helped the team to open the 2021 season, 10-0 for the first time since 2017. The 2021 season was highlighted when the Mountaineers swept No. 23 Michigan in a match on Sept. 3. The win tallied Sunahara’s 400th career win. The squad went on to tally its first win at Iowa State, as well as a season sweep over Oklahoma for the first time in program history.
 
Following the 2021 season, Sunahara led six individuals who finished in the top-10 of four Big 12 categories, while Lacey Zerwas and Skye Stokes ranked in the NCAA top-50 in assists and service aces, respectively. Zerwas was also named to the 2021 Academic All-America Third Team for the first time in her career. She is the second Mountaineer all-time to garner the award.

Sunahara then led the team to a program-best eight conference matches during the 2020 season, ending with an 8-8 overall mark to finish fourth overall. West Virginia also earned a series split with Oklahoma for the first time since 2017 and defeated the Sooners in Norman for the first time in program history.

From an individual standpoint, Sunahara has seen seven Mountaineers earn All-Big 12 recognition: Payton Caffrey, Katelyn Evans, Briana Lynch, Erin Slinde, Mia Swanegan Lacey Zerwas and Adrian Ell. 

Additionally, Lynch was named to the 2021 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Midwest Region First Team. The honor marked the first of her career, as she became the first Mountaineer since 2016 to collect first-team recognition.
 
In addition to the squad’s All-Big 12 honors, Caffrey was named the 2016 AVCA Freshman of the Year and was awarded a spot on the AVCA All-Midwest Region Team. She then landed on the AVCA All-Midwest Region Honorable Mention list a year later. Sunahara’s team has earned eight Big 12 Player of the Week nods, led by Caffrey with five weekly honors.
 
The Mountaineers also have enjoyed great success off the court. Since Sunahara was named coach in 2015, WVU has been awarded the prestigious AVCA Team Academic Award (3.3 team grade point average or higher) five times and has earned 57 Academic All-Big 12 honors, with a program-record nine Academic All-Big 12 First Team members coming in 2019.
 
Additionally, Katie DeMeo was twice named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District II Volleyball Team (2018-19), the first Mountaineer to receive the honor under Sunahara’s direction since Hannah Shreve in 2016.
 
In 2021 Lacey Zerwas was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District II Volleyball Team. Zerwas also earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors and the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award from the Big 12 Conference, the league’s highest academic honor, joining DeMeo in 2019, Gianna Gotterba in 2017 and Shreve in 2015 as WVU recipients.
 
In 2020 the Mountaineers made history after posting a program-best eight conference matches, ending with an 8-8 overall mark to finish fourth overall. West Virginia also earned a series split with Oklahoma for the first time since 2017 and defeated the Sooners in Norman for the first time in program history.
 
The season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. WVU, as well as the other eight members of the Big 12 conference played 16 league matches. Each program played eight doubleheaders with competition against the same opponent in consecutive days at the same site.
 
The teams were not permitted to play any non-conference opponents during the fall season. Fall championships were moved to spring 2021. WVU concluded its spring slate with five nonconference matches with a 2-3 record.
 
At season end, Lynch earned Big 12 postseason awards, landing on the All-Big 12 First Team and she was awarded a spot on the AVCA All-Midwest Region First Team; the honor marked the first of her career.
 
In 2019, West Virginia earned 12 wins, including a trio of victories in conference play. The Mountaineers recorded their 700th win in program history at Delaware on Aug. 30, while Sunahara collected his 375th career victory. The squad’s schedule difficultly was no different, as it competed against the No. 1 team in the nation three times (at Baylor on Oct. 26, at Texas on Nov. 3 and vs. Baylor on Nov. 26).
 
The Mountaineers completed their season with a thrilling, 3-2 comeback win over Kansas in the regular-season finale on Nov. 30, at the WVU Coliseum. West Virginia has taken Kansas to five sets in four of its last five matches, and with the win, the Mountaineers defeated the Jayhawks at the WVU Coliseum for the first time in program history.
 
At season end, Evans and Lynch earned Big 12 postseason awards, landing on the All-Big 12 Second Team for the first time in their careers. Evans also was awarded a spot on the All-Midwest Region Honorable Mention Team by the AVCA; the honor marked the first of her career.
 
Individually, Alexa Hasting anchored WVU’s floor defense and finished her junior campaign ranked inside the top five of two junior season categories. She is third in digs per set (4.18) and is tied for fourth in total digs (451). She ranked second in the Big 12 in digs per set and eclipsed her 1,000th career dig midway through the season. Evans also collected her 1,000th career kill.
 
The 2018 team was one of Sunahara’s youngest squads; featuring no seniors, the Mountaineers posted an 11-win season. WVU played four teams ranked inside the AVCA Top-25 Poll, facing nationally-ranked Texas and Baylor twice in league action in addition to nonconference matches against No. 1 Stanford and No. 9 BYU. The season was highlighted with a win against in-state foe Marshall on Nov. 7, to capture the Golden Ball Trophy for the third time in the last four years.
 
Four Mountaineers finished the season in the top 10 of five Big 12 categories: Lacey Zerwas ranked sixth with 9.18 assists per set, Evans ranked ninth with 3.17 kills per set, Kristina Jordan ranked 10th with 0.22 aces per set and DeMeo ranked fifth with 1.27 blocks per set and 10th with a .289 hitting percentage.
 
The 2017 season was when West Virginia made its mark in the record book. The Mountaineers made the postseason for the first time in 26 years, advancing to the NIVC Semifinals. WVU also won three of its last four league matches, upsetting No. 14 Kansas in the regular-season finale for its first-ever win over a top-25 team.
 
West Virginia finished the 2017 campaign in fifth place for the first time since joining the conference in 2012. Additionally, WVU’s 21-13 record is only the second time in program history the Mountaineers have won 20 or more matches since their move to big-time volleyball in the Big East in 1995. With 21 wins in 2017, Sunahara earned his highest win total as coach of the Mountaineers.
 
WVU also tied the team’s longest win streak since 2014 with a win over TCU on Sept. 20, notching 10 consecutive victories in the span of 18 days. However, the streak was snapped on Sept. 23, as the team suffered a heartbreaking five-set loss to No. 6 Texas inside the WVU Coliseum.
 
The 2016 season saw WVU more than double its 2015 win total, posting 12 victories in Sunahara’s second season. On Sept. 27, Sunahara notched his first Big 12 win with a sweep of Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. The Mountaineers added a win over TCU a week later and finished the season with three league triumphs, while dropping a heartbreaker to No. 4 Kansas in five sets to end their home slate in November.
 
Under Sunahara’s guidance, Caffrey, who earned Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors four times, became the first Mountaineer in program history to earn AVCA Midwest Region Freshman of the Year accolades in addition to spots on the AVCA All-Midwest Region Team, All-Big 12 First Team and All-Big 12 Freshman Team. Slinde joined Caffrey in receiving league accolades, as she landed on the All-Big 12 Freshman Team.
 
In his first season guiding the Mountaineers, Sunahara led the program to a thrilling, 3-2 win over Marshall. The victory marked WVU’s first over its in-state rival since 2010, bringing the Golden Ball Trophy back to Morgantown.
 
In addition to Sunahara’s more than 15 years of NCAA Division I experience and strong ties to USA Volleyball, he has coached five AVCA All-Americans, three AVCA Region Freshman of the Year honorees, three Conference Player of the Year selections, six Conference Freshman of the Year selections and 28 all-conference honorees.
 
He joined the Mountaineers after spending the previous season as the coach at Buffalo, accruing a 17-15 mark in his one season with the Bulls.
 
Sunahara served as the top assistant for the U.S. National Team from March of 2013 to January of 2014, helping Team USA to a 25-6 record and a No. 2 world ranking at the time. He also served as the head coach for Team USA during its gold medal run at the 2012 Women’s Pan American Cup in Juarez, Mexico, and was a NORCECA instructor, guiding the Jamaican National Team and U18 NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship teams to gold medals as well.
 
Prior to his time with USA Volleyball, Sunahara spent 12 seasons as the head coach at Cincinnati, where he led the Bearcats to eight NCAA Tournament appearances and recorded 20 or more wins every season. The Bearcats won the 2011 Big East Tournament, finishing with an overall record of 27-10 and a league mark of 12-2, while a trio of players garnered all-conference accolades.
 
Cincinnati also was the 2009 and 2010 Big East regular season champions, with Stephanie Niemer garnering Big East Player of the Year and AVCA All-America honors both seasons. The Bearcats advanced to the NCAA Second Round in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
 
The Bearcats won a share of the first-ever Big East regular-season crown in 2008, posting an impressive 14-0 home record. Sunahara guided the program to the NCAA Second Round for the second time in program history, with Jessie Nevitt earning her fourth All-Big East First Team honor and her third All-America accolade. From 2000-07, Cincinnati posted double-digit conference wins on six occasions.
 
Sunahara garnered Big East Coach of the Year accolades in 2008 and 2010 and was the 2001 Conference USA Coach of the Year. Prior to joining the Big East, Cincinnati won the 2001 and 2003 Conference USA Championships, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament both seasons and advancing to the NCAA Second Round in 2001. He departed as the winningest coach in UC history.
 
Sunahara spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Bearcats, helping them to the 1999 Conference USA Tournament Championship. He served as the head coach for the University of Toledo from 1995-96 after serving as an assistant coach for the Rockets from 1993-94.
 
Sunahara got his start in coaching as an assistant with the men’s team at UCLA, his alma mater, from 1990-93 after serving as a graduate assistant in 1987 and 1989. He helped the Bruins to national championships in 1987, 1989 and 1993.
 
A voter in the AVCA Top-25 Poll from 2002-11, Sunahara was the Conference USA Volleyball President from 2002-03 and was the Big East Volleyball President from 2006-07. He also was a head coaches committee representative from 2006-08 and served on the AVCA All-American Selection Committee in 2014.
 
A native of Hilo, Hawaii, Sunahara was a two-time All-American and three-time NCAA Champion at UCLA alongside Olympians Ricci Luyties, Doug Partie, Dave Saunders and AVP legend and current U.S. Olympic Team coach Karch Kiraly before graduating with a degree in sociology in 1989. He won a pair of USVBA National Championships with Nike/Molten in 1987 and 1990 and went on to play professionally for Cisneros Isla Verdes in the Canary Islands, Spain.

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