West Liberty University Athletics

Head coach Riley Jarett enters her fourth season at the helm of the West Liberty volleyball program and looks to continue to build on the success her program has seen within her first three years on the hilltop.

After falling one win shy of the program’s first-ever NCAA regional berth in 2021, the Hilltoppers took the next step and made their first postseason appearance in 2022 as they qualified for the Atlantic Regional of the NCAA Division II Volleyball Tournament. The 2022 West Liberty team posted their second consecutive 21-13 record with a 10-6 mark in Mountain East Conference play. WLU’s ten conference wins last season marked the first time in program history that they have reached double digit wins in conference play in back-to-back seasons.

West Liberty’s volleyball program has become a consistent name in Atlantic Regional Rankings under Jarrett’s watch, having been ranked in all six polls the past two seasons, including the highest regional ranking in team history. After previously tying the program’s highest regional ranking at No. 9 in 2021, the Hilltoppers achieved the team’s highest all-time regional ranking on November 9, 2022, rising to No. 7 in the Atlantic Region.

Through three seasons on the West Liberty bench, seven of Jarrett’s players have earned recognition by the Mountain East Conference, highlighted by Madison Clayton (2020-21, 2021) and Nyia Setla (2022) who have both earned First Team All-MEC honors. To go along with a first-team nod last season, Setla became the first WLU libero in program history to be named the Libero of the Year in 2022.

Jarrett has coached the only two NCAA Division II All-American’s in the history of West Liberty volleyball, as Madison Clayton was named AVCA and D2CCA Honorable Mention All-American in 2021 and Nyia Setla was named D2CCA Third Team All-American in 2022. Clayton holds the WLU career record for hitting percentage (.313), totaling 914 kills with 335 occurring her senior season in 2021. Setla notched the WLU single season record for total digs with 707 in 2022, averaging 5.80 digs per set, and enters her junior season in 2023 with 1,607 career digs.

Before taking the head coaching reins at WLU, Jarrett served briefly as lead assistant for the men’s and women’s volleyball programs at NCAA Division III Penn State-Behrend in the spring of 2020. The Lions’ men’s volleyball team was off to an 11-6 start when their season was halted by the pandemic in mid-March.
 
Jarrett is certainly no stranger to success on the hilltop as she helped lead the West Liberty volleyball program to 41 wins during the 2018 and 2019 seasons as a graduate assistant under former head coach Kayla Mull. That 2-year run was highlighted by a 24-10 record in 2018 which included the program’s first NCAA Division II regional ranking and a runner-up finish in the Mountain East Conference standings.

The Lorain, Ohio native enjoyed an impressive playing career at NCAA Division III Mount Union University in Alliance, Ohio. A 4-year starter from 2014-17, Jarrett was a 2-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference setter who earned OAC Player of the Week, First Team All-OAC and Honorable Mention AVCA All-Great Lakes Region laurels during a stellar senior season. She still remains in the top-10 of three career statistical categories in the Purple Raider record book, ranking second in hitting percentage (.350), fifth in assists (2,356), and seventh in assists per set (7.012).

Jarrett holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sport Business with a double minor in Business Administration and Psychology from Mount Union and earned her Master’s of Education in Sports Leadership and Coaching from West Liberty. She resides in Wheeling, W.Va. with her husband, Joel, who is a WLU alum and was a former Graduate Assistant Coach for the Hilltopper baseball team.