POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Marist head volleyball coach Lauren Amundson is a recipient of this year's American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) Thirty Under 30 award.
This is the third time in Amundson's career that she has earned this honor. Her previous awards came in 2011 and 2012. She is the only three-time recipient on this year's list.
The AVCA began the Thirty Under 30 awards in 2009 as a way to honor 30 of the up-and-coming volleyball coaches under 30 years old at all levels of the sport.
Amundson was hired as head coach at Marist on March 27. She had served the previous six seasons as head coach of Stonehill College. There, she led the Skyhawks to an overall record of 110-68 (.618), with a mark of 61-27 (.693) in Northeast-10 Conference play. She led Stonehill to its first two appearances in the Division II NCAA Tournament, which came in 2011 and 2014. Prior to becoming a head coach, Amundson served as an assistant coach at Bryant University for two seasons.
During her time at Stonehill, Amundson's student-athletes performed in the classroom and became a vital part of the campus community. The Skyhawks earned the AVCA Team Academic Award in 2011 and have produced six Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honorees with over 60 percent of the team earning Athletic Director's Honor Roll status at the College for having a semester grade point average of 3.20 or higher.
Amundson started the Ace's Girls program at Stonehill in 2012, a free eight-week program that has run every spring semester since. The program mentors, educates and empowers young girls in both physical and mental well-being, while introducing them to fundamental volleyball skills. The volleyball team earned the inaugural “Cindy Mac” Team Spirit Award at the conclusion of the 2013-14 academic year as voted on by their fellow student-athletes at Stonehill for being the most dedicated and supportive fans of the school's 20 intercollegiate varsity programs. The team has also been active with “Be the Match,” the James Wright 5K, National Girls & Women in Sports Day, the Special Olympics as well as Team IMPACT, welcoming seven-year-old Eva Fox (and her twin sister Grace) to the team this past fall.
Amundson is an active member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and a graduate of the NCAA Women Coaches Academy (Denver, 2012). Amundson is also a charter member of The Alliance of Women Coaches and served as the Northeast-10 representative on the AVCA Head Coaches Committee and NCAA East Region Awards Committee. She was also the Northeast-10 Volleyball Coaches Chair.
