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. In one season as head coach at UTPB, Allard has a career record of 16-9.
It was an exciting first season for Coach Allard and the Falcons, who finished 2024 with a .640 winning percentage (16-9 overall), which is the best winning percentage since the 2019 season, and ended the season on a four-match winning streak, which hasn't been done since the 2015 season. UTPB had a No. 10 ranking in the NCAA South Central Regional Poll and tied for sixth place in the Lone Star Conference at 9-7. Unfortunately, a four-team tiebreaker for sixth place in the conference standings kept the Falcons out of the LSC Tournament. The Falcons had the conference's No. 1 defense in respect to opponents’ hitting percentage (.153), blocks per set (2.40) and opponents' assists (10.64). UTPB ranked No. 23 in all of NCAA Division II in blocks per set as a team, was 38th in opponents' hitting percentage, and was 80th in total blocks (221.0). Senior middle hitter Chyra Thompson was named second-team all-conference and had the second-best individual season in school history after ranking fourth in the LSC in blocks per set (1.02) and seventh in hitting percentage (.329). During UTPB's 3-0 sweep against Lubbock Christian University on September 20 (Laredo, Texas), the Falcons set a new program record for hitting percentage in a single match at .392 percent on 102 attempts. The previous record was .330 percent in a 3-0 home win against University of the Southwest on November 7, 2015. Lastly, for the first time since joining the Lone Star Conference, UTPB had two players named an LSC Player of the Week in the same season while freshman outside hitter Ashlee Macias became the first UTPB volleyball player to be named the LSC Freshman of the Week.
Allard joined the UTPB 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.
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).
Prior to getting into coaching, Allard was a four-year manager for Ball State women's volleyball, an award-winning play-by-play broadcaster.
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Tejas at UTPB
|
| Year |
Season at UTPB |
Overall Record |
Conference Record |
Conference Finish/Accolades |
| 2024 |
1st |
16-9 |
9-7 |
T-6th LSC |
| Overall |
16-9 (.640 pct.) |
9-7 (.563 pct.) |
|
