UT Permian Basin volleyball has a new head coach at the helm as CJ Allard is set to take over the program, which was announced on Tuesday (Feb. 20) by Vice President of Athletics Todd Dooley.

Allard joins the program after spending three years (2021,2022, 2023) at Northeastern University as an assistant volleyball coach. He has also been an assistant coach at Coastal Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

"CJ brings a new level of enthusiasm for volleyball. His tireless efforts in recruiting and teaching the game of volleyball showed through over the course of our search and he stood out among some excellent candidates, "said Dooley. "We are excited for the future of Falcon Volleyball with CJ as our head coach."    

Over his nine-year coaching career, he has helped win three (2017, 2019, 2020) Sun Belt East Division Championships and a Beach Volleyball ASUN North Division Championship (2019), 8-0 in conference.

Allard has coached; the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Brigitta Petrenko (2019), two-time AVCA All-American Fourth Team member Anett Nemeth (2019 and 2020) – Anett also was Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year both of those years - the only four-time Conference Player of the Year in NCAA history, Leah Hardeman, 2017 Sun Belt Female Athlete of the Year (Leah Hardeman), 2016 SoCon Defensive Player of the Year (Christina Gregory), helped Sydney Alvis claim the 2018 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year award, coached 2015 SoCon Freshman of the Year (Allison Penner) and in his first coaching season, helped UNCG libero Katherine Santiago win SoCon Libero of the Year (2015).
 

Other Coaching Achievements

Perfect 16-0 regular season in 2020 and the highest GPA of any D1 program in the country.

10 First Team All-Sun Belt selections.

2 Second Team All-Sun Belt selections.

3 First Team All-SoCon selections.

4 Second Team All-SoCon selections.

1 First Team All-CAA

4 Second Team All-CAA

2 CAA Rookie Team members

From 2018 to 2019 - Coastal Carolina beach volleyball program had the second best total wins turnaround in NCAA beach volleyball history.

Coastal Carolina Staff Senator (2020).

Reached the Indiana state championship with Roncalli High School (2014).

"There is unbelievable opportunity at UTPB and with the UTPB athletic program," said Allard.  "There is opportunity to build championship expectations and the tools are in place to build on a winning season and work our way up the conference, then work our way up the regional rankings and the national rankings. I am very excited to bring my winning volleyball background to a volleyball state."
  
Prior to getting into coaching, Allard was a four-year manager for Ball State women's volleyball, an award-winning play-by-play broadcaster.

When asked about the goals for the volleyball program in year one,  Allard had this to say.

"The first thing we want to do is to dominate the controllables. We'll be disciplined in our fundamentals, explore the horizons of our craft, and use our energy to empower those around us," said Allard. "We want to be really good people that put out a great product for the UTPB community."