New Cal volleyball head coach Matt McShane has added to his staff with the hiring of Spencer McLachlin as assistant coach and Cayely Thurlby as director of operations.
Both come from UCLA, where McLachlin served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Bruins’ men’s volleyball program and Thurlby was the director of operations for both the men’s and women’s programs.
McLachlin, a former All-Conference outside hitter at Stanford who helped the Cardinal win the 2010 NCAA Championship, spent the past two seasons with UCLA after serving as a full-time assistant coach at Hawaii.
“I’m thrilled to have Spencer join our staff,” McShane said. “Along with being an exceptional player, he has in the last few years become a great coach. He’s grown up with an athletic background and his knowledge of the sport is outstanding.”
While serving on Hawaii’s staff in 2015, McLachlin helped the Rainbow Warriors reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years. He has competed professionally on the beach, representing the U.S. on the NORCECA tour. He also spent time as a professional indoor player in Greece.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” McLachlin said. “When Cal came up as a possibility, it was impossible to say no. The move to Berkeley is going to be a great one. It’s a great program that I would love to be a part of.”
Thurlby played collegiately at Hawaii, where she was a teammate of current Cal assistant coach Jennifer Dorr and served as a team captain while making two NCAA Final Four appearances. Thurlby played professionally in Spain and Argentina and also was active on the AVP Tour for four years.
McShane was named head coach earlier this month after Rich Feller announced his retirement following 18 seasons with the Bears.
The Bears return four starters for the 2017 season and welcome in a recruiting class ranked No. 15 nationally by PrepVolleyball.com.
Volleyball news courtesy of Cal Athletics.
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