Women's Volleyball: King ’01 returns to program as head coach

King will replace Jolie Ward, who accepted the head coaching position for the 2009-10 season following the retirement of Glenn Nelson, the winningest coach in Princeton athletics history. Ward was offered the head coach position by New York University’s women’s volleyball team, a position she accepted early this January.

King takes over a team on which she played from 1997 until her graduation in 2001. An outstanding student athlete, the outside hitter was a member of three Ivy League championship teams in 1997, 1999 and 2000. She was a key player in all three runs, winning the conference Player of the Year honor in 1999.

She began working for the team almost immediately after her graduation, joining the women’s squad as assistant coach. As Nelson began to take charge of the men’s team as well, her duties with the women’s team increased, particularly during the offseason and recruitment periods, and she was instrumental in the team’s development.

Seven years after her first victory as a student, she helped guide the Tigers to an Ivy League championship as assistant coach in 2004. They repeated the feat in 2007, when King was on the sidelines coaching the most successful women’s volleyball team in school history. The Tigers completed the only perfect season in Ivy League volleyball since the double round-robin system was implemented in 2001.

King’s assistant-coaching tenure was marked by huge success stories for the Tigers, and working under the legendary Nelson has only helped her. Her immense success as both player and assistant coach is a positive sign for Princeton’s next volleyball season.

Aside from her obvious skills as both a player and a coach, King has the additional advantage of being a former Princeton student athlete. The time she has spent at Princeton puts her in the unique position to help members of the team both on and off the volleyball court.

The Tigers’ past season was filled with plenty of roller-coaster matches, and the team started Ivy competition with a number of victories in tight five-set games. Princeton (13-12 overall, 8-6 Ivy Leasgue) eventually lost steam as the season progressed and ended up tied for third in the Ivy League behind Yale (18-8, 12-2) and Penn (17-11, 12-2).

The team’s biggest weakness last season was its play at the beginning of matches, during which the Tigers often started slowly. They hope King will take advantage of this offseason to figure out how to take a talented squad to the next level. King has several months to figure out what to do with this team, and it will be exciting come September to see her leadership in action.