In just two seasons, Ashleigh Fitzgerald has taken the Drury volleyball program to new heights in her tenure as the Panthers’ head coach.
After her initial Drury squad in 2009 finished with a 16-14 mark – DU’s first winning season since the program moved to the NCAA Division II level in 1994 – Fitzgerald and the Panthers took it up even a few notches further in 2010.
Last season’s Panthers set a program record for wins at the D-II level with their 22-13 finish, which also culminated in a second straight berth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament’s eight-team, post-season field.
The 2010 Panthers rebounded from a 1-3 road trip to open the season in Alaska by posting nine consecutive victories in a stretch in which they won 13 of their next 15 matches overall. That 14-5 beginning was Drury’s best since opening 16-3 as an NAIA member in 1990.
Included in the streak was a 3-2 victory over perennial power Rockhurst on September 21, one that was sparked by Drury’s 32-30 victory in a gut-wrenching Game Two as the Panthers beat their rivals from Kansas City in Weiser Gym for a second straight year – a team they had defeated only once since 1994 before Fitzgerald’s arrival.
The former Ashleigh Shear was an Ole Miss standout and McNeese State top assistant coach has helped the Panthers make the GLVC Tournament now for five times in their six years as a league member after falling 3-0 to top-seed Lewis in last year’s opener in Romeoville, Ill.
Before arriving at Drury, Fitzgerald, 28, had spent the past three seasons as an assistant for NCAA Division I McNeese State from Lake Charles, La., handling recruiting coordinator responsibilities in addition to on-the-floor coaching for the Southland Conference member school.
The Chapin, South Carolina native played two years for the Lady Rebels of Ole Miss (2004-05), ranking fourth in the Southeastern Conference in aces per game in 2004 and fifth in the SEC in assists in ’05. She played her first two collegiate seasons at the United States Naval Academy.
Fitzgerald was an academic standout at Ole Miss as well, earning the SEC’s post-graduate scholarship for community service in 2006. She served as a volunteer coach for the Lady Rebels in the spring of ’06.
In her three seasons at McNeese State under head coach Dale Starr, the Cowgirls posted a 46-46 overall mark, including a 19-14 overall record in 2007. McNeese State was 30-18 in her three seasons in Southland Conference play, including a 12-4 mark and East Division title in 2006.
Ashleigh and husband Drew Fitzgerald were married on July 17, 2010.
Bio and picture from drurypanthers.com
