ROLLA, Mo. – Jacquie Cason, who has spent the last three seasons as the assistant women's volleyball coach at Northwest Missouri State University, has been named as the new head coach for the Missouri S&T women's volleyball program.

Cason has been at Northwest for the last five years, the first two as a graduate assistant coach before becoming the top assistant in the Bearcat program in July 2021. In her time at Northwest, the Bearcats had a record of 100-39 that included NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in 2021 and 2022 and trips to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Tournament in each of those five seasons.

"I want to thank Melissa Ringhausen and the Miner athletics team for this tremendous opportunity," Cason said. "Challenging academics and top-notch athletic competition bring out the best in student-athletes and no NCAA Division II university rivals what Missouri S&T offers on both fronts.

"I also want to thank Coach Amy Woerth at Northwest Missouri State University for her investment in me over the past five years and for demonstrating what it takes to create a winning team culture," Cason added.

"Jacquie's resume rose to the top of a competitive pool of candidates and we are fortunate to find a coach of her caliber to join our athletic department and lead the S&T women's volleyball program," Ringhausen said.  "Jacquie has great experience recruiting and coaching at the Division II level and working under talented head coaches with winning programs.  She was a Division I student-athlete and has a degree in mechanical engineering.  These experiences will allow her to connect with our student-athletes both academically and on the court.  We are excited to welcome Jacquie to our athletic department.

Northwest reached the championship game of the MIAA Tournament in the spring season in 2021 and again in the fall season of that calendar year.  The Bearcats also won the MIAA regular season title in 2022 and while playing in the highly competitive MIAA and in the same region with teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, recorded 18 wins over nationally-ranked teams during those five seasons.  One of those 18 wins came over No.-1 ranked Washburn during the 2021 campaign which was among five victories over teams ranked in the top five in the nation since the start of the 2019 season.

At Northwest, Cason was involved in numerous aspects of the program that included being the program's recruiting coordinator, working with budgets and fundraising projects and with academic progress as well as practice planning and travel coordination.  Her primary coaching areas centered around training the middle and pin hitters.

Northwest finished among the top five in kills and attack percentage in the MIAA in four of the last five seasons – including leading the conference with 13.3 kills per set in the spring of 2021 – and also ranked among the top five in blocks in three of those seasons.
 
Before going to Northwest, Cason spent one year at Eastern Illinois University and one year at Nicholls State University as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. She was involved with scouting, film preparation and analysis, coaching the offense and developing blocking schemes at both schools.
 
Cason began her coaching career at Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville, Ky., where her junior varsity squad recorded the best record in the state in 2016. She also served as an assistant varsity coach during Sacred Heart's successful 2016 state championship run, the school's first state championship in 13 years. Sacred Heart finished that season with a No. 3 three ranking in the nation among high school programs, which included championships at the LIVT Tournament held in Louisville and the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix.
 
Cason played collegiately at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she played as a pin hitter. She served as team captain her senior season and totaled 100 or more kills in each season at UTEP, where her attack percentage mark of .306 during the 2010 season still ranks as the sixth-best single-season mark in program history.

In addition, she amassed more than 250 hours of community service over her five-year career. She was a four-time Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll selection, a seven-time honoree on the Dean's List for a semester grade point average of 3.5 higher and received the Conference USA Commissioner's Medalist award in 2011. 
 
She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UTEP in 2015 and earned her master's degree in applied health sciences at Northwest Missouri State in 2021.  She is originally from Vail, Ariz.

Cason is taking over for Andy Halaz, who stepped down after six seasons to take a position at High Performance STL's club program in St. Louis as the boy's division director.