Monday was a big day for Oklahoma volleyball as head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton selected the remainder of her staff, announcing Jake Barreau and Megan Pendergast as assistant coaches and Kyle Walton as volunteer assistant.
“I’m thrilled to finalize our staff with the additions of Megan, Jake and Kyle,” stated Gray-Walton. “Each of them has deep championship roots and experiences that we will rely on in building a championship culture here with Oklahoma volleyball.
“While building our staff, it was important that we had a team of young and passionate individuals that could be great role models for our players. Megan, Jake and Kyle are some of the best up and coming coaches in the profession who have earned their opportunity while doing it the right way.”
Barreau joins the OU staff after four seasons with Missouri State, specializing in work with the defensive players, which ranked fifth nationally in digs in 2015 and eighth in 2016. In his tenure, the Bears made three NCAA Tournament appearances and won the Missouri Valley regular season titles in 2016 and 2017. One of the AVCA’s Thirty Under 30 selections in 2016, Barreau also has had stints as a volunteer assistant at Wisconsin (2013) and as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Chicago State (spring 2014) and as a high school coach at Monona Grove High School in Monona, Wis.
Pendergast has spent the last four years at Tulsa. Her 2017 squad ranked second nationally in digs and third in digs per set, while pacing the American Athletic Conference in both. The Texas A&M alumna began her career as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater.
Walton, who has been head coach at Transylvania in Lexington, Kentucky since 2014, joins the Sooners after leading his team to a 20-10 mark last fall. All told in four seasons, the Pioneers went 60-54 in Division III play. Walton, who was assistant director of marketing at Transylvania, will work with OU’s marketing, camp and club efforts. Prior to his time in Lexington, Walton served as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois, SLU, Louisville and Kentucky.
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