Pittsburgh, Pa. -- Creighton volleyball assistant coach Angie Oxley Behrens has been named the Division I American Volleyball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year. The recognition was announced by the AVCA on Thursday at the Jostens Honors Banquet in Pittsburgh, Pa., home to the 2019 NCAA Volleyball Final Four.
Behrens just completed her 17th season as an assistant coach at Creighton. An original member of Kirsten Bernthal Booth's staff, she is the longest-tenured assistant coach in Creighton's Volleyball history. Behrens works closely with CU's outside hitters, while assisting with scouting and recruiting. Behrens also helps organize Creighton's volleyball camps.
Behrens was an integral part of a staff that took home Conference Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time (2012, 2015, 2016, 2019) this fall. CU graduated two women that Behrens helped train into All-American outside hitters (Taryn Kloth and Jaali Winters), and replaced them with Keeley Davis and Jaela Zimmerman, who developed into All-BIG EAST performers.The Bluejays were picked to finish second in the BIG EAST but went 17-1 in league play en route to an unprecedented sixth consecutive outright league title, defeating a top-10 Marquette team twice.
"Angie is so well deserving of this prestigious award," said Booth. "We often refer to Angie as the "glue" of Creighton Volleyball because she holds it all together. I'm so very thankful she has been by my side on this 17-year journey at Creighton. She is an outstanding on-court coach, she does so much organization for the program, but most importantly she is an incredible mentor and role model for our student-athletes. Congrats to Angie!"
The Bluejays have been ranked for 53 straight weekly polls, and been ranked at some point during each of the past eight seasons. The last 17 years have seen the Creighton team compile its top 14 single-season kill totals all-time, as well as the top nine individual single-season marks.
Behrens has trained nine outside hitters to a combined 16 all-conference honors, and Winters, Kloth and Davis have all spent time with USA Volleyball since becoming Bluejays.
Behrens has seen Creighton go 371-171 in her 17 seasons on the bench, including NCAA Tournament wins in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 (2), 2016 (3), 2017, 2018 and 2019 and seven regular-season conference titles in the past eight years. The Bluejays are also one of three programs to have won 25 matches or more in each of the last six seasons, joining BYU and Florida.