Feb. 4, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State women's volleyball assistant coach Stevie Mussie has been named the head coach at Arizona State University. Mussie served as an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions for the last two consecutive seasons.
"The hiring of Stevie Mussie at Arizona State is a terrific opportunity for Stevie to lead her own program in one of the nation's premier conferences," Penn State head coach Russ Rose said. "Although Stevie was with us for two seasons, I felt that she had all of the tools to succeed as a head coach and wish her and the Sun Devils great success."
Mussie helped the Nittany Lions to their seventh NCAA national championship title in program history in her first season with Penn State in 2014. She also served as a mentor to four AVCA All-Americans in both season, including 2014 National Freshman of the Year Ali Frantti. She also helped Penn State to a regional semifinal appearance in 2015, marking the Nittany Lions' 13th consecutive trip to the round of 16.
"I want to thank Ray Anderson, Don Bocchi, Deanna Garner Smith and Rocky Harris for the opportunity to build this program into a national power," Mussie said. I am looking forward to being the head coach here at ASU and creating a program that is consistently elite, not only in the Pac-12, but also nationally. I want to thank Russ Rose and Penn State University for the unparalleled opportunity to be a part of not only their exceptional volleyball program but their Penn State family as well."
Mussie arrived in Happy Valley after spending time as assistant coach at Virginia. While at Virginia, Mussie was involved in all aspects of recruiting, as well as training passers and pin hitters. During her tenure, she helped the program improve from a 9-22 squad in 2012 to a fifth-place team in the ACC standings in 2013. She also assisted in the development of 2013 ACC Freshman of the Year, Jasmine Burton, as well as two AVCA All-America honorable mentions and two All-ACC selections.
Prior to Virginia, Mussie spent two years as an assistant at North Carolina State, where she helped the Wolfpack move up 150 spots in the NCAA RPI rankings. The increase marked the largest improvement by a first-year staff in history.
Mussie graduated from Washington in 2008, with a bachelor's degree in sociology after transferring from Pacific in 2004. Mussie played in three consecutive NCAA tournaments during her career at Washington. She was part of the 2005 national championship squad as well as the 2006 national finals team. In her senior season with the Huskies, Mussie was named the most outstanding player at the 2006 NCAA Seattle regional and also earned first-team All-PAC 10 honors.
Following graduation, Mussie spent a year as an assistant coach at the University of Colorado, before moving to the junior club level, where she was the regional director at Team Complete Athlete, a high-profile club based in Newport Beach, Calif. from 2009-10.