Kerry Messersmith Volleyball Camps at UAB
Kerry Messersmith
Head Volleyball Coach, UAB Camp Director

In just three short years, head coach Kerry Messersmith has taken the UAB volleyball program to an unprecedented level. Under her direction, the Blazers have become one of the top programs in Conference USA and have achieved success on a national level.

Messersmith and the Blazers are coming off their finest season yet in 2008, culminating with their second NCAA tournament trip in three years, the program's first ever at-large bid into the tournament and the team's first ever tournament victory. UAB set a school record for winning percentage (.771) after posting a 27-8 record for its third-straight 20-win campaign. The Blazers finished second in the Conference USA standings at 13-3 and advanced to the league tournament finals for the third consecutive year under Messersmith.

UAB was rewarded for its strong regular season with a trip to Lincoln, Neb., for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. The Blazers earned a 3-0 sweep of Missouri State on Dec. 5 before falling in the second round to No. 4 overall seed Nebraska on the Huskers' home floor at the historic NU Coliseum.

Under Messersmith's guidance, seniors Ivana Bozic and Nevena Stefanov earned AVCA All-Region honors and were selected as honorable mention All-Americans. The duo also joined fellow senior Casey Dent on the All-C-USA First Team, while Stefanov was tabbed the league's Setter of the Year. Lilly Domingos was named second-team all-conference, while Dent earned spot on the league's All-Academic Team and the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV First Team.
Since coming to UAB prior to the 2006 season, Messersmith has managed an overall record of 78-28 with a mark of 35-13 in C-USA action. Her .736 winning percentage at the school is the highest in program history.

Her achievements at UAB are the latest in a long line of coaching successes. Messersmith owns an overall coaching record of 552-280 (.663), and she came to UAB with a proven track record of resurrecting collegiate volleyball programs. Her first season with the Blazers, however, may have been her most miraculous turnaround to date.

The Blazers were a combined 15-37 in the two seasons prior to Messersmith's arrival at UAB, including a 1-24 campaign in 2004. The program had never won a Conference USA championship and had never earned a berth in the NCAA tournament. That all changed in 2006 under Messersmith's guidance and motivation.

The 2006 volleyball season was one of the greatest seasons UAB has ever seen. Under Messersmith, the Blazers won 13 straight matches that included the school's first-ever Conference USA tournament championship. With the C-USA title, Messersmith's UAB squad earned an automatic bid to play in the NCAA tournament for the first time, where the Blazers lost in the first round at fourth-ranked UCLA.

Her team's 27-10 record ranked it amongst the highest single-season wins totals in school history and was the highest win total since 1991. On Nov. 18, 2006, Messersmith's Blazers defeated top-seeded Tulsa in the semifinals of the Conference USA tournament to record her 500th career victory.

Several players earned prestigious honors in her first season at UAB, including Bozic, who was named to the All-C-USA First Team and was an AVCA All-America honorable mention selection.

Other award winners under Messersmith in 2006 were Fernanda Domingos, who was named the C-USA Newcomer of the Year, and Dent, who excelled in the classroom and on the volleyball court, earning CoSIDA District IV All-Academic Third Team and Conference USA All-Academic Team honors.

In Messersmith's second season in 2007, the Blazers finished with an overall record of 24-10 and 12-4 in Conference USA. UAB made its second straight Conference USA tournament championship match appearance en route to a runner-up finish to Tulsa after the team posted its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1992-93.

Messersmith guided three Blazers to All-Conference USA status in 2007 as Stefanov was voted to the first team, while Dent and Fernanda Domingos were named to the second team. Furthermore, Lilly Domingos was named the C-USA Newcomer of the Year. Dent was again recognized with Academic All-Region honors.

Those first two years served as a foundation for the Blazers' historic 2008 season. Despite a loss to Tulane in the finals of the C-USA tournament, the 2008 squad accomplished things no other team in program history has accomplished. In addition to their previously mentioned highlights, the Blazers also managed a school-record 16-match winning streak and finished the season rated No. 22 in the RPI, their highest finish ever. UAB received votes for nine weeks in the Bison/AVCA Coaches Poll.

Coming to UAB from Georgia Southern in December of 2005, Messersmith was the Eagles' all-time winningest coach in her tenure at the Statesboro, Ga., school, turning around a program that was 15-45 in the two seasons prior to her arrival in 2001.

The Casper, Wyo., native compiled an overall record of 116-52 at GSU and was 75-17 in Southern Conference matches. Under Messersmith, the Eagles finished 21-11 and were 14-6 in SoCon play in 2001, her first season at GSU. That effort came only a year after Georgia Southern was 11-19 overall and just 5-15 in league action.

For the 2002 and 2003 seasons, the Eagles were a combined 53-18 overall and 35-3 in conference matches. The Eagles won Southern Conference tournament titles and earned NCAA tournament berths in 2001 and 2003, while also capturing the league's regular season title in both 2002 and 2003.

Messersmith, who earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors during her time at GSU, coached four players to eight first-team all-conference accolades in her five seasons with the Eagles. Four other GSU players earned second-team all-league honors during her tenure.

Her success at Georgia Southern was just another example of a program demonstrating a dramatic turnaround under her leadership. In fact, in her 21-year career as a head coach, she has guided six teams to substantial resurgences.

Prior to taking over the Eagles' program at GSU, Messersmith spent four seasons at Arizona Western College, where she took a program that won just four matches the season before she arrived to an eighth-place finish at the NJCAA National Tournament in 2000. The Matadors finished 15-23 during her first season but then improved to 33-19 in 1998. The success would continue over the next two seasons as Arizona Western finished 38-13 in 1999 and 43-10 in Messersmith's final year there.

Before her stint at Arizona Western, Messersmith coached for two years at her alma mater, Chadron State. She guided the school to a combined record of 46-29 over the 1994 and 1995 seasons.

Messersmith also helped lead huge turnarounds as head coach at Allen County (Kan.) Community College, Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College and Pittsburg State University. Her coaching career began at Allen County CC in 1987. During her two seasons there, she compiled a mark of 61-23 and led the program to its first conference championship.

Messersmith is a 1986 graduate of Chadron State, where she earned her bachelor's degree in education. Messersmith and her husband, Hal, have two daughters, Meghan and Brynnley, and reside in Vestavia Hills, Ala.