KRISTINA HERNANDEZ
HEAD COACH

Hofstra University Director of Athletics Jack Hayes announced on March 27 the appointment of Kristina Hernandez to the position of head volleyball coach.  Hernandez joins the Hofstra staff after spending the last four seasons as the head coach at Loyola (MD) College and replaces Lauren Netherby-Sewell, who resigned on February 13 to accept the head coaching position at Fresno State.

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"Kristina has all the tools to be an outstanding coach and we are excited that she is joining the Hofstra family," said Hayes.  "She has demonstrated the ability to build a successful volleyball program and we are thrilled that she will be leading the Pride."

Hernandez completed a remarkable turnaround of the Greyhound volleyball program as she took over a squad in 2004 that had won just five matches the previous season and immediately doubled their win total in her first campaign and by her fourth season the team won 22 matches.  That win total was the most for the Loyola program since the 1992 squad set a school record with 25 victories and was the second-most in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) last season.

"I am honored by the opportunity that Hofstra has given me, and am excited to be part of a program that is so special," commented Hernandez.  "The Hofstra Volleyball program has experienced a great deal of success and I look forward to continuing and building upon the tradition that has already been established."

A strong recruiter whose 2007 team featured 14 players from seven different states, Hernandez guided the Greyhounds to 13 conference wins last year.  It marked the most-ever for the program, which had never won more than seven conference matches in a previous season in the MAAC.  In fact, the 20 combined conference wins over the past two seasons for the Greyhounds were more than the program had won in the previous six seasons combined.

During the 2007 campaign Loyola finished in the top three in the MAAC for the first time since 1997 and had three different players earn postseason accolades from the conference.  With the conference's rookie and setter of the year, as well as an All-MAAC first team member and two All-MAAC second team honorees, it was the first time since 2002 that Loyola had players named to the All-MAAC teams.  The team would also set school records for winning percentage and consecutive home and road wins.  In addition, the team established new school marks for kills, assists, digs and total blocks in a season (rally scoring format).

Turning around a program which didn't have a recent winning tradition never seemed to faze Hernandez, who guided Loyola to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the program won 12 matches in 1996 and 14 in 1997.

A 2003 summa cum laude graduate of North Carolina A&T, Hernandez played setter for the Aggies, was the team's rookie of the year as a freshman and earned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) All-Academic honors from 2001 to 2003.

Hernandez has also expanded her coaching horizons away from the Baltimore campus.  A veteran of the USA Volleyball Summer Program, Hernandez has served as a court coach with the USA Volleyball High Performance tryout camp in each of the past three years.  In 2007 she took part in the USA High Performance Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she served as a coach for the USA Youth National A2 team.

In 2004 Hernandez got her first taste of collegiate coaching as she was a volunteer assistant coach with the St. Mary's College (CA) volleyball team.

Also active in the club community, Hernandez is the associate club director for the TCA Baltimore Volleyball Club, for which she served as the head coach of the 16-1's team.  In addition, after graduating from college Hernandez worked as a head coach with the Golden Bear Junior Olympic Club in Berkeley, California. 

The MAAC representative on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I Head Coaches Committee for the past two years, Hernandez is also a member of the Northern California Volleyball Association.  She has also increased her knowledge of the sport by serving as an intern in 2003 with USA Volleyball and its Beach Volleyball, Disabled, Grassroots and Education Program.  A member of the Chesapeake Region Volleyball Association (CHRVA), Hernandez is USA Volleyball CAP 1 and Increased Mastery and Professional Application of Coaching Theory (IMPACT) certified.