North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Hires Mary Byrne As Women's Volleyball Coach
2/14/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
"We're real excited to hire a coach with Mary Byrne's qualifications," NC State Director of Athletics Lee Fowler said. "She has an outstanding background. She played at a great program at Nebraska, and she's been a very successful coach in the toughest Division II conference in the country.
"We conducted a nationwide search and had a great pool of candidates. We want our volleyball program to become one of the top programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and we believe that Mary is the right person to start that process and move this program forward. We believe we've hired an outstanding volleyball coach."
In her eight years as head coach at South Dakota State, Byrne compiled a 175-88 overall record and a 79-56 mark in the North Central Conference. She steadily built the Jackrabbits program into a powerhouse, reaching the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in 1997, and culminating with a 29-4 overall record, a No. 4 national ranking, and the school's first North Central Conference championship this past season. Following the 2000 campaign, she was named North Central Conference Coach of the Year.
Byrne's teams won 20 or more games each of the last five years (100-31 during that time), and earned a berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament three of the last four years. SDSU has been ranked in every American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll since midway through the 1997 season. The AVCA named Byrne North Central Region Coach of the Year in 1997,
Byrne has coached four All-Americans at South Dakota State, nine All-North Central Region players, and 14 All-North Central Conference players. Her teams have maintained an overall grade-point average of 3.0 or better throughout her time at SDSU, and her last three teams each have received the AVCA Academic Excellence Award.
A 1985 graduate of the University of Nebraska, Byrne was an All-American setter as a senior in 1984, and was All-Big Eight as a sophomore, junior and senior. She served as team captain her senior season, and was an AAU Junior Olympic All-American in 1983.
After graduating from Nebraska, Byrne served as an assistant coach for four years at Southwest State University in her hometown of Marshall, Minn., and then was head coach at Marshall (Minn.) High School for two seasons. After leading Marshall High to a 26-4 record and a second-place finish in the state tournament in 1992, she was named head coach at SD State in 1993.
Byrne and her husband, Ken, have three children: Stephen, Zachary and Ashton. Byrne replaces Kim Hall, who resigned following the 2000 season.
