CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah volleyball team and new head coach Pete Hoyer are ready to open the 2018 season at the UNLV Invitational this weekend in Las Vegas.
New Head Coach
Back in February, director of athletics Debbie Corum announced the hiring of Pete Hoyer as the new head coach of the Thunderbird women's volleyball program.
"After an extensive national search, we are thrilled that Pete will be joining our staff as head volleyball coach," Corum said at the time of Hoyer's hiring. "Pete was highly recommended to us by coaches who have competed against him and during the interview process we became convinced that he was the right fit to elevate this program to the next level."
Hoyer was most recently at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he was the associate head coach for the Roadrunners. While at UTSA, Hoyer was responsible for recruiting and training, while also working with the setters. Hoyer also served as the assistant volleyball coach for North Carolina State from 2010-2015, and helped lead the Wolfpack to five consecutive seasons with 16-plus victories, and three consecutive seasons with 20-plus wins.
New Staff
Shortly after being hired on as the head coach of the volleyball program, Hoyer announced his supporting staff for the 2018 season. Lorelle Hoyer and Annie Stephens were both named assistant coaches in April 2018.
Most recently, Lorelle Hoyer was the Director of Volleyball Operations at the University of Texas San Antonio, where she'd collaborate with the marketing team and game operations staff to help home contests run smoothly, assist with team travel and create recruiting materials.
Stephens is a former Thunderbird student-athlete, and served as an assistant coach for the last three seasons on the previous volleyball staff. Along with her various coach duties, Stephens also served as Southern Utah's camp coordinator. Stephens was a four-year student-athlete for Southern Utah and holds the single-match record for hitting percentage.
New Faces On the Court
Six new Thunderbirds were added to the Southern Utah roster in the offseason. Miahna Waters, Emma Mangum, Corrin Peterson, Katie Montgomery, Abigail Longson, and Thea Leiataua all joined the team during the spring and will be looking to make a name for themselves as Thunderbirds.
Leiataua is the only new face that is not going to be a freshman when the season begins. The junior transferred from Snow College where she was named to the Region 18 All-Conference Second Team and finished second on the team in kills last season.
UNLV Invitational Preview
This weekend marks the official opening of the 2018 NCAA volleyball season and the Thunderbirds will open the season in Las Vegas at the UNLV Invitational. Southern Utah will play three matches over two days and will be competing against the host Rebels, Indiana University, and LIU Brooklyn.
Three of the four teams at the tournament have new head coaches including the Thunderbirds. The Rebels hired head coach Dawn Sullivan in January after serving as an assistant coach for 13 seasons at Iowa State. The Hoosiers hired Steve Aird in December after serving as the head coach at Maryland for four years.
The Blackbirds of LIU Brooklyn are the defending two-time Northeast Conference champions and this season they were picked to be at the top of the standings once again.
Match Info
The Thunderbirds will kick things off on Friday at 1:00 p.m. Mountain time against LIU Brooklyn followed by a second match that day against UNLV at 8:00 p.m. Mountain time. SUU will wrap up the tournament on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Mountain time against Indiana.
Live stats for all matches can be found at suutbirds.com.
Follow Us
Stay up to date during the 2018 Thunderbird volleyball season by following @SUUVolleyball on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Volleyball page on Facebook.
