Coach Stokes MSU Highlights • 2006 NCAA Second Round for first time in school history • 2005 and 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Champions • 2003 Missouri Valley Conference Regular Season Champions • 2003, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07 and ‘08 NCAA Tournament • State Farm MVC Tournament finals five of the past eight seasons • Linette White - 2003 AVCA 3rd team All America • Sabrina Apker - 2004 AVCA HM All-America • Three Verizon Academic All-Americans • 43 Missouri Valley Conference Scholar Athlete selections • Combined cumulative grade point average above 3.20 over the last 15 years • 50 all-MVC selections • Seven-time top-10 regional ranking • Twelve 20-win seasons including 11 straight • 30 MVC Players of the Week • Five Professional Players • One member of the Canadian National Team
Stokes helped put together teams Did you know??? that won four straight Big Sky In 1996, Melissa Stokes was the first MVC/Gateway rookie Conference championships, earned coach to win 20 (20-11) matches since 1983, when Eastern four NCAA Tournament berths and Illinois posted a 26-10 mark under first-year coach Betty went 103-21 (.831) during her stay Ralston. Stokes is the only current Valley coach who won 20 matches in her first season. in Moscow. In 1995, Idaho went 28-5 and was nationally ranked for six weeks, finishing 21st in the final poll after losing in the NCAA first round. In 1994, the Vandals were ranked for 10 straight weeks during a 31-3 season and ended up 19th after getting to the NCAA second round for the second year in a row. Idaho was 24-6 in 1993 and 24-7 in 1992. Stokes served a stint as head coach of the Idaho men’s varsity volleyball club team and coached the Missouri State men’s club team in the spring of 1997. Before going to Idaho, Stokes coached high school volleyball in California and won four of a possible five conference titles while serving as the head girls coach at San Pasqual High in Escondido during the fall of 1990 and 1991 and as the boys’ coach at St. Augustine High in San Diego during the spring from 1990 to 1992. She also served from 1988 to 1992 as a head coach in the San Diego Volleyball Club, training boys and girls aged 14 to 18 for
regional and national competition. As a setter at SDSU, Stokes helped the Aztecs to two NCAA Tournament appearances. She finished her career ranked fourth on the school’s career assists list with 2,239 and was seventh on the all-time single season charts with 1,108 in 1987. In 1986, SDSU was ranked first in the nation for six weeks en route to a 37-9 final record. Prior to attending SDSU, Stokes was a multi-sport standout at Granite Hills High School, where she was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in May 2009. Stokes, who won USVBA All-America honors in 1986, competed from 1990 to 1997 in the California Beach Volleyball Association. A member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, Stokes received her Master of Science degree in sports and recreation management from Idaho in 1995. Since taking over at Missouri State Stokes has served on numerous committees with the AVCA. She has been a voter on the AVCA top 25 poll since 2005 while also voting in 1998, and has been on the AVCA all-regional and regional coach of the year committee. In 2001, 2002 and 2003, Stokes was also a member of the AVCA regional coaches poll committee, and has held a spot on the Regional Advisory Committee since 2007. Also very active in the Springfield community, Stokes was named the 2001 Big Sister of the Year by Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Ozarks. In 2006, Stokes spent nearly a month on a mission in Thailand, working at a children’s home, teaching English and serving meals, among other things, to Thai youth.
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Missouri State University
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