RIVERSIDE, Calif. - It was announced this week that Cal State Fullerton's Assistant Women's Volleyball Coach Nicky Cannon has been named the new head coach at UC Riverside.
Cannon has been an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton for the past three seasons. She will become just the 4th head coach in UCR's volleyball history.
"I want to express my gratitude to Cal State Fullerton and the entire Titan community for a tremendous experience over the last three years. Also, I want to thank University of New Orleans Head Women's Volleyball Coach, Ashley Preston, who gave me the opportunity to join her staff at Cal State Fullerton and empowered me to be great. Finally, I want to thank Cal State Fullerton's Head Women's Volleyball Coach, Nicole Polster, for her mentorship, friendship and continued support; Athletics Director, Jim Donovan, and the coaches, staff and student-athletes at Cal State Fullerton for giving me a voice across campus and within the department and the opportunity to coach and lead."
In her three seasons, Cannon made a big impact on the program. Last season, the Titans went 12-15 overall and 9-11 in conference play. This was the most conference wins since 2012. The Titans were 3rd in the conference at 12.01 assists/set and 5th in the conference at 12.84 kills/set. The Titans led the conference in digs at 18.62 digs/set. Neena Dimas was third in the conference at 4.18 digs/set and Elizabeth Schuster was fourth in the conference at 10.18 digs/set. Julia Crawford and Elizabeth Schuster were both given Big West Honorable Mention honors.
In her first year, the squad had a huge turnaround season, finishing the year with a 12-15 overall record, going 4-12 in conference. The 12 total wins is the most for the program since 2012 while the four conference victories is the most since 2013. The team doubled their win total from the previous year and Co-Big West Coach of the Year Ashley Preston guided the team to a Top 25 national ranking with 17.44 digs per set.
Cannon helped guide Julia Crawford to a phenomenal 2019 rookie campaign as she was awarded a spot on the All-Big West First Team and Freshman Team. Her 368 kills and 398.5 total points are the most by a Titan since the 2014 season en route to becoming just the ninth Fullerton player to earn a First Team selection and the first since Kayla Neto in 2012.
She also worked with Savahna Costello, a 2019 Big West Honorable Mention honoree. The 5'5'' libero led the conference leaderboards averaging 5.31 digs per set; a number that ranked 13th in the entire NCAA. Her 531 total digs on the year is the sixth most in Titan single-season history as she posted double-digit digs in every match but two this season. Costello currently ranks sixth all-time in the program in total digs for her career with 1,197.
Cannon joined Cal State Fullerton after spending three years as the assistant coach in both indoor and beach volleyball at Cypress Community College. In her three years as the assistant coach, she helped Nancy Welliver to an indoor and two beach conference championships as well as two state tournament appearances.
Prior to Cypress, Cannon served as Athletics Director and Head Volleyball Coach at Christ Academy High School in Wichita Falls, Texas from 2013-2015. While in Texas, Cannon also co-founded Zone-In Volleyball Academy (ZIVA), where she was the head coach for the 14's and 18's national team and club director from 2012-2019.
Nicky is also a Bring your Own Parent (BYOP) Program Instructor for the Orange County Region. The BYOP is a program designed by AVCA Hall of Fall Inductee, Ruth Nelson, to develop and provide aspiring volleyball players (ages 5-11 years old) and their parents with a strong foundation of basic volleyball skills, effective and efficient movement patterns and basic volleyball IQ.