The Jacks Volleyball team has taken a new direction. The SDSU Director of Athletics, Justin Sell, announced this past Tuesday that Nicole Cirillo will be taking over the head coaching duties for the Jackrabbit Volleyball team.

Cirillo, who becomes SDSU’s 12th volleyball coach, has a lot of experience, both in coaching and playing volleyball. Most recently, Cirillo served on the IUPUI staff as associate head coach. During the five years she was with the Jaguars, they had four of the best seasons in team history. The Jaguars won three Summit League regular-season titles, played in three consecutive Summit League Tournament title games and won the 2013 Summit League tournament championship, advancing to the program’s first NCAA Tournament.

While coaching at IUPUI, Cirillo was also the recruiting coordinator. She has recruited and coached multiple Summit League award-winning student athletes.

Additional points to be noted on Cirillo’s coaching resume include: five years as assistant coach at Missouri Southern State University, club director for the Ozarks Juniors Volleyball Club and head coach for several USA Volleyball Juniors teams.

Cirillo served as a team captain at Southwestern Illinois College (2000-2002) and the University of Central Arkansas (2002-2004) during her collegiate career. Previous to that time Cirillo played at Edwardsville High School in Edwardsville, Ill. Cirillo was named first team all-conference and all-metro player at EHS, and player of the year honors on the all-area team while leading EHS to regional and sectional championships. At Southwestern Illinois College, Cirillo was an honorable-mention all-American and a first-team all-region selection. Cirillo played in 173 games and tallied 409 kills, 125 blocks and 62 service aces at Central Arkansas. During the 2003 season, she helped the Sugar Bears to their first Gulf South Conference Tournament appearance since 1998.

Academically, Cirillo has a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from UCA, which she completed in 2004, and received her masters of science in administrative studies from Missouri State (2006).

The information for this article was retrieved from www.gojacks.com.