Women's Volleyball Coach Steps Down, Will Remain at USC
June 21, 1999 | Women's Volleyball
March 24, 1999
LOS ANGELES-Lisa Love, USC's head women's volleyball coach and an associate athletic director, has announced that she is stepping down from coaching to concentrate on her administrative duties at USC.
"I made this difficult decision so I could focus on a specific career direction," said Love. "I've been a college head coach for 17 years, so leaving the coaching ranks is a very hard thing to do. But I have split my time at USC between coaching and administrating for the past eight years and that's been challenging. I've had great support here in those dual roles and was encouraged to continue doing both by many people, from athletic director Mike Garrett on down. But if I want to pursue a career in athletic administration, this is the right thing to do."
Said Garrett: "I'm disappointed that we're losing Lisa as our women's volleyball coach, because her teams have always been among the nation's best. But I'm delighted we still have her in the USC athletic department and that she will devote all her energy to athletic administration. I know that's where she wants her career to go.
"We will conduct a national search for her replacement and come up with the best possible candidate."
Love coached the Women of Troy the past 10 years (1989-98) and posted a 205-93 (.688) record. Her teams earned berths into the NCAA tourney nine times and were ranked in the final national Top 15 eight times. She was the 1997 Pac-10 Co-Coach of the Year, as her squad went 23-6. This past year, USC was 24-6 overall, the program's most wins since 1985, and finished second in the Pac-10 at 16-2. The Trojans advanced to the NCAA regionals for the fifth consecutive season.
She was the president of the American Volleyball Coaches Association in 1997 and 1998.
Before coming to USC, she was the head coach at Texas-Arlington for seven seasons (1982-88), where she was 199-78, won 5 Southland Conference titles and advanced into the NCAAs four times. She was the 1988 National Coach of the Year when her team went 30-4 and was ranked seventh nationally. Her 17-year coaching record was 404-171.
In 1991, she was given the additional role of associate athletic director at USC. She oversees the women's athletics program and handles day-to-day supervision of four Trojan sports--women's basketball, tennis and swimming, plus men's swimming.
