EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon beach volleyball head coach Jason Dillard has announced the addition of Lucy Pennington-Russell as the program’s new assistant coach. Pennington-Russell was a 2022 AVCA Thirty Under 30 Beach Award winner during her time at Division II Lincoln Memorial.
In her first season as head coach at Lincoln Memorial, Pennington-Russell guided the Railsplitters to a program-record 13 wins. It was LMU’s highest win total since the 2017 season (10). The AVCA’s Thirty Under 30 Beach program announced its first-ever class in 2021 and serves as a recognition to the up-and-coming coaches at every level of the sport.
Pennington-Russell’s coaching career began at Carson-Newman in 2019 as a graduate assistant for the indoor team. That year, Carson-Newman finished 28-8, advanced to the national quarterfinals—or Elite 8—and won NCAA DII Southeast Region and South Atlantic Conference Tournament titles.
That spring, Pennington-Russell also served as the interim head coach for the Carson-Newman beach volleyball team. The Eagles posted a 6-1 record during the shortened season. For her work during the 2019-20 campaign, Pennington-Russell was a Coach of the Year nominee within the Carson-Newman athletic department.
Pennington-Russell has additional indoor coaching experience at Lincoln Memorial (2021) and, most recently, at Emory & Henry College (2022). Working primarily with the team’s middle blockers, she helped coach the group go from 0.61 blocks per set in the first five matches to 2.45 in the last five.
Pennington-Russell graduated from Carson-Newman (2017) with a degree in communication and went on to earn a master’s in education with an emphasis in coaching (2021), also at Carson-Newman.
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