Martin County West graduate Alyssa Taylor is acting head coach of the Gustavus volleyball team for its spring schedule while head coach Rachelle Sherden is on maternity leave.
The Gusties are 1-1, opening with a 3-0 win at Concordia (Moorhead) and falling 3-2 at home to Saint Mary's on Saturday. Next on the schedule is a home match vs. Hamline Tuesday.
Like all MIAC schools, Gustavus did not have a traditional fall season due the pandemic.
"The gym has been extremely competitive," Taylor told Gustavus SID CJ Siewert. "After having a weird fall where only our first years and a couple upperclassmen were on campus at first and then practicing in pods once the whole team arrived, our girls were more than ready to practice as a full team this spring. Some of them hadn’t had the opportunity to play with each other much this fall with the pods, so it was fun to see them all come together this spring and start forming those relationships on and off the court more."
Taylor joined the Gustavus volleyball coaching staff as lead assistant in 2018 and the Gusties capture the MIAC regular-season championship with an undefreated record, the MIAC playoff championship and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years. Taylor was a senior when the Gusties won their first championship in 2015.
In 2019, she helped the team earn another trip to the MIAC playoffs for the sixth consecutive year to equal the record for consecutive MIAC playoff tournament appearances.
She's a 2015 Gustavus graduate with a degree in health fitness and returned to her alma mater after spending two years at the University of South Carolina.
Taylor started at South Carolina in January 2016 as a volleyball graduate assistant and director of beach volleyball operations. In those roles, she assisted the director of operations by running home tournaments and all aspects of team travel.
In June of 2017 Taylor was promoted to the director of volleyball operations where she was the supervisor to the graduate assistant and manager for the volleyball program. She balanced a full-time job with graduate school and was also a camp director during the summer.
Taylor was a three-year starter for Gustavus team from 2013-15.
She earned third-team all-America and MIAC Player of the Year honors as a senior.
Taylor was a team captain in 2015 and played an important role in the Gusties claiming a program-record 27 consecutive wins, winning their first MIAC title since 1986 and first NCAA tournament appearance since 2008.
Taylor led the team with 312 kills (3.09 per set), had a .341 attack percentage and a 1.14 blocks per set average (115 total). Her .341 attack rate in 2015 is third best in program history. She finished her three-year career with 946 kills, 15th in program history. She also recorded 326 career blocks, ranking 10th in program history, and was a three-time All-MIAC performer.
As a senior at MCW, she helped the Mavericks to a second-place finish in the 2010 state Class 1A tournament.