Averett University named Olivia Earls as its first head coach for the men's volleyball program, which will play its inaugural season during the 2023-24 academic year. Averett announced the addition of men's volleyball as its 25th sport on Feb. 1, 2023.
Earls will take on head coaching duties for the new men’s program while continuing to lead the women’s team after a successful head coaching debut on the women’s side in 2022. In her first season coaching Averett’s storied women’s volleyball program, Earls was voted ODAC Coach of the Year after guiding the Cougars to a 20-11 record with a 10-2 mark in the conference. Averett finished as the ODAC runner-up in the regular season as well as in the conference tournament. Earls produced the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) State Defensive Player of the Year, two all-state selections, three all-conference selections and two all-tournament team honorees this past fall.
“Olivia has been a valuable asset to our department, both on and off the court, since joining the Averett family,” said Meg Stevens, Averett vice president, director of athletics and campus operations. “The ODAC Coach of the Year honors she received in just her first season are well-deserved, and she is poised to start a successful men’s volleyball program here at Averett on top of maintaining a championship-caliber women’s volleyball program.”
Earls is excited to build Averett’s inaugural men’s volleyball program. She’ll also join an exclusive list of female head coaches who will coach men’s volleyball at any of the NCAA’s three divisions.
"I am grateful to Averett President Dr. Tiffany Franks and Meg Stevens for their support and excited for the opportunity to start and grow the men’s game here at Averett University,” Earls said. “I look forward to watching our volleyball community rally around this new program as we embark on our path to laying a foundation for tradition and success on the men’s side — just as we have done in years past with the women’s game. I am eager to get moving on the recruiting trail as we look toward competing in the spring of 2024.”
Earls played four seasons at Roanoke College and served as an assistant coach for two seasons from 2020-21 at Ferrum College, including serving as the interim head coach for the Panthers during the fall 2020 semester. Prior to joining the coaching staff at Ferrum, Earls was a graduate assistant at Division II University of Charleston from 2018-20. In addition to her college coaching experience, Earls previously coached club volleyball. She was the head coach of 17 Regional and 18 American Vantage Volleyball from 2019-20, head coach for 17 Open Roanoke United Volleyball from 2017-18 and was a three-year assistant coach for the 16, 17 and 18 Club Roanoke United Volleyball.
As a student-athlete, Earls was a four-year member of Roanoke’s volleyball program from 2014-17 and served as team captain during her senior season.
A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Earls earned her Bachelor of Science in health and physical education from Roanoke in 2017 and received her Master of Science in strategic leadership from Charleston in 2019.
