Kristi Gray Receives Prestigious Honor from AVCA
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Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball head coach Kristi Gray has been selected as a recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Two-Year College Southwest Region Coach of the Year award for Spring 2021, the Association announced on Wednesday (June 9, 2021).
Gray is now placed on the ballot for the Spring 2021 AVCA Two-Year College National Coach of the Year award.
"I am extremely honored to receive this award", Gray said. "Earning any award is a true reflection of the team, and this couldn't have happened without the student-athletes at Odessa. I am humbled to be recognized in my transition heading to Louisiana, and even more excited for what the future holds here."
Hired as the next leader for the Ragin' Cajuns on April 26, Gray finished her fifth season at Odessa College in the spring leading the Wranglers to a sixth-place finish at the 2021 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Volleyball Championship.
Odessa finished with a 26-4 record and an undefeated mark (10-0) in Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) play. The Wranglers won 16 consecutive matches leading up to the national tournament.
Gray mentored a pair of NJCAA All-Americans in Luisa Silva Dos Santos (First Team) and Andrea Spasojevic (Second Team).
The Spring 2021 performance capped off a spectacular final two years for Gray at Odessa, with the program compiling a nearly 90-percent winning percentage in overall competitions (59-7, .893), including a spectacular 21-1 (.954) record in WJCAC matches.
Louisiana Volleyball will begin a new era in fall 2021 with Gray's inaugural season marking the first time a new leader is on the sidelines since 2008. The Ragin' Cajuns (17-7, 11-5 Sun Belt in 2020) seek to build upon the first back-to-back seasons of double-digit wins in Sun Belt Conference play and continue the climb to the top of the league standings.
