Jenny Hazelwood Head Coach // @JennyHazelwood // Fifth Season After leaving her mark on the Mississippi State volleyball record book during a sterling four-year career as a player, Jenny (Head) Hazelwood is well underway with MSU record book revisions in her fifth season as MSU’s head volleyball coach. Hazelwood starred as a setter on the volleyball courts at MSU’s Humphrey Coliseum and the Newell-Grissom Building from 1996 to 1999 and rejoined the Mississippi State family in January 2009 as the 10th volleyball head coach in the 39-year history of the Bulldog program. Seasoned with nine years as a head volleyball coach on the collegiate level, the Pearland, Texas, native returned to her alma mater following a successful two-year stint as head coach at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. In her first three seasons at the helm of the MSU program and despite a spate of injuries to key athletes, Hazelwood has moved the Bulldog program forward in virtually every area. The Bulldogs finished with a flurry in 2009, winning four of their final five league matches en route to a 9-22 campaign and bettered that overall win total over the next three years. Her third MSU edition finished with seven league wins, second-most in program history, and finished sixth in the rugged Southeastern Conference, State’s highest league finish since 1984. Along the way Hazelwood-coached Bulldog players have earned conference and national honors for their success on the court and in the classroom. State’s 2009 unit earned AVCA Academic All-America team honors, the fourth such honor for the MSU program, and matched a school record with nine SEC Academic Honor Roll selections. Libero Kayla Woodard in 2010 became the third player at Mississippi State to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America team honors. Also in 2010, Ashley Newsome became MSU’s first All-SEC honoree in 10 seasons and a year later Caitlin Rance joined that growing list of All-SEC performers at Mississippi State. Waiting in the wings for All-SEC honors is Lainey Wyman, who in 2011 became the second MSU player all-time named to the SEC All-Freshman honor squad. Hazelwood has also overseen dramatic improvements to the Bulldogs’ home court in three seasons. The addition of new sound and lighting systems and a new scoreboard, an upgrade of locker room and team areas and the installation of colorful banners to both the interior and exterior areas of the facility are among the latest enhancements at the Newell-Grissom Building. Fan support for Bulldog volleyball has mirrored State’s steady climb under Hazelwood’s guidance. The top five and eight of the top 10 attendance marks at the Newell-Grissom Building have come during Hazelwood’s term as head coach. State eclipsed the 1,000-mark twice in 2011, including a facility-record 3,024 for the Bulldogs’ season-opener. Later in the same season in a match played in Humphrey Coliseum State established a state collegiate volleyball attendance mark when 4,525 fans cheered the Bulldogs on to a program-first win over a nationally-ranked opponent, 25th-ranked Kentucky. Hazelwood has been on a fast track in the pursuit of her goal to coach volleyball on the collegiate level. Upon graduation from Mississippi State in the spring of 2000, she stayed in the Magnolia State to launch her coaching career, serving for two seasons as head volleyball coach at NCAA Division III member Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. While directing the Choctaws’ program, she was 18
M ississippi S tate V olleyball