Greeny Ready for Next Challenge at West Virginia

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you are a volleyball player, parent, coach, official or fan eager to see the sport grow in West Virginia, well, your time has finally arrived.
 
That’s because Wren Baker served an ace when he hired Washington State’s Jen Greeny late last month to take over the reins of the Mountaineer program. It was a clear signal to everyone involved in women’s college volleyball that Baker is serious about supporting a first-rate program at WVU, something that’s been elusive for the Mountaineers in what will soon be their 50^th anniversary campaign in 2024.
 
Of course, volleyball at West Virginia was born out of Title IX and became a varsity sport in 1974. The team had some success competing against a predominantly small-college schedule through the early 1980s before it transitioned to the Atlantic 10 Conference.
 
West Virginia had one team in 1991 win 26 games and advance to volleyball’s version of the NIT, and there were a handful of winning seasons when the Mountaineers joined the Big East in 1995, but there were more lean years than successful ones.
 
The move to the Big 12 in 2012 saw West Virginia lose all 16 conference matches that first season, and the Mountaineers have struggled mightily to keep their heads above water during their 12-year association in a conference that boasts some of the top volleyball programs in the country, including 2023 national champion Texas.
 
West Virginia has had only two .500 seasons and two others with six wins in Big 12 play and shows an overall winning percentage of just .234 in its 184-match history in the league.
 
After earning its only NCAA Tournament bid in school history in 2021, West Virginia fell to 7-22 two years ago and then to 9-22 in 2023. Its Big 12 record over the last two seasons was 2-32, which necessitated a change in direction.
 
And the course Baker chose to take was certainly eye opening.
 
Jen Greeny is one of the most recognizable names in women’s collegiate volleyball. She was just the seventh player in Washington State history to reach 1,000 career kills and was a three-time All-Pac 10 performer during her four-year career in Pullman. She returned to her alma mater in 2011 after building Lewis Clark-State College in Lewiston, Idaho, into an NAIA volleyball power.
 
It took Greeny and her recruiting coordinator/husband, Burdette, five seasons during the pre-transfer portal era before they were able to develop a team good enough to make the NCAA Tournament in 2016. 
 
They’ve made it to the tournament every year since.
 
Twice, Greeny was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year and twice her teams reached the NCAA Tournament round of 16, including this past season when her Cougars won 26 matches and finished ranked 11^th in the final American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) rankings.
 
Her Division I head coaching credentials are as good as any coach West Virginia has hired in any sport in recent years, which makes Baker’s hire so…