July 18, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame head volleyball coach Debbie Brown recently announced that Robin Davis has been named associate head coach. Davis, who has served as an assistant on the Irish staff since 2009, retains a title he held at Notre Dame during the 2005 season.
“The loyalty that Robin has demonstrated to the Notre Dame volleyball program over the past 10 years has been amazing,” Brown said. “He is a valued and trusted employee. He is a tremendous teacher and student of the game, and not coincidentally, Notre Dame volleyball has been the best when Robin has been on staff. It was an easy decision to promote him.”
The 2011 campaign will mark Davis’ first season as associate head coach at Notre Dame, and third year of his second stint under the Golden Dome. Davis previously spent three seasons as the head coach at Boise State following five seasons with the Notre Dame program from 2001-05.
Since returning to the Irish, Davis has had an integral part in developing some of Notre Dame’s finest players, including 2010 All-Americans Serinity Phillips, Jamel Nicholas and Christina Kaelin. Davis also played a large role in the mentoring of 2010 BIG EAST Conference and AVCA Northeast Region Freshman of the Year Andrea McHugh.
Previously as an assistant coach with Notre Dame for four seasons, and as an associate head coach for one season, Davis helped lead the Fighting Irish to five consecutive BIG EAST regular-season championships and appearances at the NCAA Tournament, reaching the round of 16 in 2005. Notre Dame also finished that year with its highest-ever final national ranking – No. 12 in the AVCA poll and No. 11 in the Volleyball Magazine poll.
Notre Dame led the BIG EAST and ranked among the top five nationally in NCAA Division I in blocking in each of the five seasons following Davis’ arrival – after the program had never previously cracked the national top 10. The 2003 squad led the nation in blocking (3.72/set) and broke the school record for the second year in a row (after the previous mark had stood since 1988). Additionally, then-sophomore Lauren Brewster was tops in Division I in individual blocking (1.78/set) in 2003 after finishing fourth as a rookie. Those marked the first two NCAA statistical crowns in Notre Dame history.
In his first five years at Notre Dame, Davis helped Brewster, Lauren Kelbley, and 2001 graduate Malinda Goralski account for three of the top-eight individual seasons by Irish players in hitting percentage and four of the top nine in blocking. Brewster set a Notre Dame freshman record for both blocks (175) and block average (1.68) in 2002, while her 161 block assists were the most-ever for an Irish player in a season.
Brown also announced that intern Alisha Ewing has been promoted to the position of operations specialist.
Ewing is in her fourth year overall under the Golden Dome, having joined the Irish volleyball staff in the summer of 2008 as the program’s intern after a three-year collegiate coaching stint. She handles video filming and editing, team travel and administrative duties.
“I’m thrilled to be able to promote Alisha as our operations specialist,” Brown said. “She has been a tremendous asset to our program with her organizational skills. We are fortunate to have someone in this position that has the combination of organization, knowledge of the game, and a true sense of caring for people.”
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