For the first time since 2014, the Waynesburg volleyball team is on the upswing thanks in part to a brand-new coaching regime.

Head coach Hayley Kirby and assistant coach Kate McCullough are brand new to the coaching staff but are no strangers to the sport.

Kirby spent the first three years of her coaching career at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and McCullough had tenures within western Pennsylvania high schools including West Shamokin, Franklin Regional and, most recently, Uniontown. McCullough works as a history and English teacher at nearby Mapletown High School and wanted to get back into coaching after a two-year hiatus.

Kirby is no stranger to turning around struggling programs. While at Earlham College, she inherited a team that went 4-24 in 2014 before improving to a 15-13 record in 2017.

“When the job opened up, I saw that [Waynesburg’s] record wasn’t so great,” said Kirby. “I saw it as something that I could build up and make into my own program.”

The team’s last playoff appearance was 10 years ago in 2008. Coming into the 2018 season, Waynesburg won just six games in the last three years, including back-to-back one-win seasons.

However, the volleyball team went on its best three-game stretch in four years, with wins over Pitt-Greensburg and Central State, each match ending 3-1.

While the record may be a bleak 3-13, Kirby has instilled something that she thought the team had been missing.

“Confidence,” Kirby said. “I don’t think [the players] had confidence in themselves, and I think we’ve done a good job of telling them that they can do this.”

McCullough agreed with Kirby and added that they needed a spark in motivation.

“The girls were just beat down a little bit,” McCullough added. “They didn’t think they could do it, so we just gave them the motivation to play hard.”

Not only has the confidence led to more wins, but also better overall performances. As a matter of fact, Kirby thinks the team has looked better in defeat.

“Against Earlham, we played the best game we’ve ever played,” said Kirby. “Westminster was No. 1 in the conference, too, and we gave them a scare in the second set. We play much better when we play better teams, which is big with tough competition coming up.”

Against Earlham, Waynesburg was swept but the largest deficit was just five points.

While the players adjust to the new coaching staff, Kirby and McCullough have some transitioning to do of their own.

Kirby, who’s just 25-years-old, is in her first season as a head coach after being the associate head coach at Earlham College. McCullough has had to adjust from being a head coach high school level to coaching collegiate athletes.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I have to do that I didn’t think I had to do,” Kirby said. “I didn’t have as much responsibility then as I do now. But with the small age gap, I think the players understand that we were just there a few years ago instead of 20 years ago. We can relate to them not just in volleyball, but in real life.”

“I think the big difference has been the maturity,” said McCullough. “They have been around the game a little bit longer, you can talk a little bit more honestly with these kids than you can with high school kids.”

The Waynesburg University volleyball team dropped its match at home on Tuesday to St. Vincent, 3-1.  They will continue Presidents’ Athletic Conference play this week against Chatham University Thursday.