Jenny Hazelwood No Longer Mississippi State Volleyball Head Coach

In an announcement by Scott Stricklin today, Mississippi State Volleyball head coach Jenny Hazelwood will be reassigned to an administrative position within the Athletic Department. This comes after an abysmal 7-26 record this season, with only two conference victories over Tennessee (3-2) and LSU (3-2). For six years, Hazelwood led the Lady Bulldog squad to a 55-129 record and a 20-96 mark in SEC play. During her coaching career, Mississippi State Volleyball accomplished its first 12 win season since 2006. Included in those 12 victories was a 3-1 win over the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in Knoxville, a feat never accomplished after 1995. Also in 2013, the Lady Bulldogs attained 8 home victories, which is enough to rank as the second-most home victories in a single season.

Coach Hazelwood was not without talent during her coaching tenure in Starkville. During her six years, the Lady Bulldogs comprised of 2 AVCA All-Americans, 5 All-SEC players, a CoSIDA Academic All-American, 36 All-SEC Academic and All-SEC Freshman Academic members. This past season, freshman libero Payton Harris ranked 2nd in the country in digs and digs per set. Harris also set a school record for digs in a season, but finished second on the SEC single-season list.

Athletic Director Scott Stricklin announced that the search for a suitable replacement has begun immediately. No timeline has been set for the announcement of Jenny Hazelwood’s successor, but expectations are high as fans look to begin a good run by this mostly overlooked program. Fans can agree that this has not been the greatest of times for the Mississippi State volleyball program, but if the next season and next coach start off on a high note, then things could change dramatically inside the Newell-Grissom Building.