SAN DIEGO — After leading the Toreros to their most successful season ever and receiving the AVCA National Coach of the Year award last week, San Diego volleyball head coach
Jennifer Petrie was named the VolleyballMag.com National Coach of the Year, the publication announced on Thursday morning.
It's Petrie's first such award from VolleyballMag.com, and it comes after she was named both the AVCA Pacific South Region Coach of the Year, and the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year, accolades she has now received three and seven times, respectively.
She earned the designation as the nation's top women's volleyball coach following a season that elevated both San Diego volleyball and USD Athletics to new, unprecedented heights. Under her direction in 2022 the Toreros raced to a 31-2 record, including a perfect 18-0 mark in WCC play for just the third time ever. The Toreros' lone two losses in 2022 came at the hands of the teams that played for this year's national championship — Texas and Louisville — and her team took a set from both the Longhorns and the Cardinals.
Under Petrie this season, San Diego set a school record with 28 consecutive wins, good for the second-best overall winning percentage (.939) and longest win streak (28 matches) in the country. After beginning the season at No. 25 in the AVCA Division I Women's Coaches Poll, her team moved up or maintained position in every AVCA Poll until November 28. The Toreros tied a program-high No. 2 national ranking on October 31 and held strong there for four straight weeks, giving them 12 weeks in the nation's Top 5 through 15 total polls. USD eventually finished at No. 3 in the final AVCA Top 25 Poll (December 19), the highest placement it's ever concluded a season with.
With her at the helm San Diego swept 20 of 33 matches in 2022, including 13 of 18 WCC contests, and went 8-2 against the AVCA Top 25 and 3-2 against the AVCA Top 10.
The Toreros' excellence under Petrie this season didn't stop in the regular season. After capturing their 12th West Coast Conference Championship and receiving a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, postseason matches returned to the Jenny Craig Pavilion for just the third time ever, and San Diego beat Northern Colorado and seven-seed No. 24 Washington State in the event's first and second rounds to advance to its fifth-ever Regional Semifinal.
San Diego then met three-seed No. 15 Kentucky in Palo Alto, where it swept the Wildcats 3-0 in the Sweet 16, moving USD to the first Elite Eight appearance in program history. Two days later, the Toreros completed a stunning 3-2 win over Stanford, silencing the Maples Pavilion as it punched its ticket to its first-ever Final Four.
In addition to the Toreros' team success, Petrie's mentorship also helped the Toreros take home a flurry of conference, regional, and national awards. This season saw Petrie mentor an AVCA First Team All-American (
Gabby Blossom), an AVCA Second Team All-American (
Grace Frohling) an AVCA Third Team All-American (
Katie Lukes), the AVCA Pacific South Region Player of the Year (
Gabby Blossom), three AVCA Pacific South All-Region Team members (
Grace Frohling,
Katie Lukes, and
Gabby Blossom), an AVCA Pacific South All-Region Honorable Mention (
Breana Edwards), the 2022 WCC Player of the Year (Lukes), Setter of the Year (Blossom), and Libero of the Year (
Annie Benbow), in addition to four All-WCC First Team selections, two All-WCC Second Team selections, and an All-WCC Honorable mention.
Petrie, a San Diego native who attended local Mt. Carmel High School, just completed her 24th season as head coach at USD. She became the third head coach in program history in 1999, succeeding three-time WCC Coach of the Year Sue Snyder. The Toreros enjoyed immediate success under Petrie, finishing 23-6 and advancing into the NCAA Tournament's second round during her inaugural season in the fall of 1999.
Her collegiate coaching career began when she joined the volleyball staff at Indiana State University where she served as top assistant from 1992 to 1993. Petrie then took the top assistant position at North Carolina, Chapel Hill from 1994 to 1997, before joining Sue Snyder's staff at the University of San Diego for the 1997 campaign. Petrie helped San Diego win back-to-back WCC Championships as the Toreros' top assistant in 1997 and 1998.
With a career record of 478-165 (.743) as head coach, she has advanced USD to the NCAA Tournament in 22 of the past 24 seasons, including trips to the tournament in each of the last 13 years and eight WCC Championships.
