Women's Volleyball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- edwin.allen@siu.edu
- Phone:
- 618-453-5473
Ed Allen ranks 6th among the winningest, active Division I head coaches with 705 career victories entering the 2024 season. His 2023 team at SIU finished 20-12 overall and earned the program’s first appearance in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship postseason tournament.
In 33 seasons as a head coach, Allen has posted 30 winning seasons, guided his teams to nine conference championships, six NCAA Tournament appearances, while winning conference coach-of-year honors six times.
Prior to SIU, Allen spent eight seasons at Alabama (2011-18), taking a Crimson Tide program that had gone seven years without a winning season and building it into a postseason contender. The squad won 24 matches in 2013 and a school-record 26 victories in 2014. Of Alabama’s five NCAA Tournament appearances in its history, Allen led the Crimson Tide to two of those berths.
Allen had a remarkable five-year stint at Tulsa (2006-10), where he was 133-37 and became the fastest Golden Hurricane coach to reach 100 wins in school history. He won three Conference USA titles at Tulsa and earned the program’s first NCAA tournament berth in 2007. He was a two-time coach-of-the-year winner, including the 2010 season, when Allen guided the Golden Hurricane to a school-record 31 wins, a 20-0 conference record, and the program's second NCAA Tournament bid.
Prior to Tulsa, Allen spent three seasons (2003-05) as the head volleyball coach at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. During his tenure, Allen’s teams compiled an overall 94-18 record, a 39-3 conference mark, won three South Atlantic Conference Championships, two conference tournament titles and qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament twice. At Presbyterian, Allen coached two All-Americans, three conference players of the year, two conference tournament MVPs, one freshman of the year, 12 all-conference players and five all-region selections.
Allen served on the NCAA Division II Head Coaches Committee, NCAA Division II South Region Poll Committee and NCAA Division II South Region Player Committee while at Presbyterian
Allen began his collegiate coaching career in 1992 at Division III Anderson University (Ind.), where his teams achieved a program-record 11-straight winning seasons, won 17 tournament titles, and posted a 267-128 record. Next, he coached at Division II Presbyterian College (S.C.) and compiled an overall 94-18 record, a 39-3 conference mark, won three South Atlantic Conference Championships, and made two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Allen earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1988 and his master’s degree in athletic administration in 1996, both from Ball State. He is a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Allen and his wife, Karis, have three sons: Drake, Payton and Nolan
at SIU
- Enters the 2024 season ranked 6th in the nation in wins (705) among active, Division I coaches
- Won 20 games in 2023, the program’s first 20-win season since 2015
- The +12 win improvement in 2022 was the largest jump in school history.
- Anna Jaworski finished second in the country with 1,336 assists in the regular season. She averaged the most assists in the Valley (11.52) and sixth-most in the NCAA.
- In 2019, Rachel Maguire led the nation with 13 triple-doubles, becoming the first Saluki since at least 1994 to lead the nation in a statistical category. SIU led the nation in total digs (2,368) and finished 16th nationally with a 17.67 digs per set average.
- Recorded a program-best 26 wins in 2014 after tying the single- season record of 24 in 2013
- Won the program’s first match at the NCAA Tournament, defeating Samford in five sets on Dec. 4, 2014, in Tallahassee, Fla.
- Made back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2013-14, the first consecutive appearances by the Tide since 2006-07
- 2013 AVCA South Region Coach of the Year
- 2010 AVCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year and Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2010
- Made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007 and 2010, winning 31 games in 2010, including a first-round NCAA Tournament victory
- Two AVCA All-Americans, 24 All-Conference USA honorees, two C-USA Players of the Year and three C-USA Setters of the Year
- Team set a school record with 13 conference victories in 2006 and 2009, then broke the record with 20 C-USA wins in 2010
- Made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2004 and 2005
- Coached two AVCA All-Americans and three conference players of the year
- Won more than 30 matches twice in three years
- Two-time South Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year
- Two-time Coach of the Year in the Heartland Collegiate Conference
- Recorded 11 straight winning seasons, won 17 tournament titles, posted nine 20-win seasons
- Coached two conference players of the year, 34 all-conference players and 23 all-tournament performers
