COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: Greeny leaving WSU for West Virginia

From news services

West Virginia vice president and athletic director Wren Baker named Jen Greeny as the fifth volleyball head coach in the program's history on Wednesday.

Greeny arrives to Morgantown from Washington State, where she spent 13 seasons at the helm of the Cougar volleyball program and led WSU to three consecutive seasons with 20 wins or more. She brings a 347-199 (.636) career record to WVU, while she compiled a 235-175 (.573) overall mark during her time in Pullman.

"I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to lead the West Virginia volleyball program," Greeny said. "I would like to thank President Gordon Gee, Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker and Senior Associate Athletics Director/SWA Natasha Oakes for their vision of the future of West Virginia volleyball and trust in my abilities to build this program. I am eager to embark on this new journey in Morgantown."

A native of Davenport, Wash., Greeny brought Cougar volleyball back into the national spotlight with eight consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2016-23 and 12 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America selections. The Cougars finished in the AVCA Top 25 six times during her time at WSU, including the past four seasons.

Having been a part of the two best postseason runs in program history as both a player (1996 NCAA regional appearance) and an assistant coach (2002 NCAA regional appearance), Greeny inherited a Washington State team that went 0-18 in conference play in 2010, the year before her return to Pullman. She and her staff transformed the program into a perennial force in the Pac-12, reaching the NCAA Round of 16 as a head coach for the first time in 2018.

The Cougars matched the volleyball program record for most conference wins (14) in a single season in 2022 and 2023 and finished third the final Pac-12 standings in each season, marking the best conference finish during Greeny's 13-year tenure and the best since the 2002 WSU team that reached the NCAA regional championship.

In 2023, Greeny and Washington State finished with a 26-8 overall record, reaching 20 wins for the third consecutive season to mark the first such stretch since 1995-97. The Cougars' 26 wins in 2023 also marked the highest win total for any team under Greeny and the highest single-season win total since 1997. Additionally, WSU knocked off the eventual NCAA National Champions and then-No. 6 Texas, 3-1, at the start of the 2023 campaign.

WSU was selected as a No. 4 seed in the 2023 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, earning its eighth consecutive postseason bid, the longest stretch in program history. Washington State was selected as a host site for the 2023 tournament, marking the first time since 2018 that the tournament had been hosted in Pullman. WSU advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the second time in Greeny's tenure.

A two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2016 & 2021), Greeny has coached 12 of the Cougars' 16 AVCA All-Americans while her teams have produced 39 total postseason all-conference honors, including 17 first team All-Pac-12 selections. A former CoSIDA Academic All-American during her time as a Wazzu student-athlete, Greeny's teams also have produced 45 Pac-12 All-Academic nods and a pair of Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year award recipients.

"Jen Greeny is a proven winner and program builder," Baker said. "She has built two volleyball programs into consistent powerhouses and has excelled at the Power 5 level. When we began our search, she was the type of coach and winner that we were looking to bring to Morgantown, and this is an exciting hire for West Virginia volleyball. She will be bringing a fresh start for us in the new Big 12, and I cannot wait for her to put her mark on our program."

Greeny began her collegiate coaching career with a five-year stint at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston. Prior to turning around the LCSC program, which she led to a 112-24 (.824) record during her tenure, Greeny spent four years on WSU coach Cindy Fredrick's coaching staff. Her time as an assistant coach at WSU was highlighted by the Cougars' second-ever appearance in the regional championship of the NCAA Tournament in 2002.

As a volleyball student-athlete at WSU, she became the seventh player in Washington State history to reach 1,000 career kills and was a three time All-Pac-10 Conference selection. Greeny (Stinson) still ranks eighth in career block assists (360), fourth in total blocks (419) and eighth in solo blocks (59). Greeny received invites to train with the U.S. National Team during her playing days and has since held roles as a talent evaluator and assistant coach with USA Volleyball. She was an assistant coach on the 2016 USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team and was later invited to join the USA volleyball staff for the 2022 Women's National Team Open Program.