The journey to start the 2026 season was not easy for Marist volleyball. Long before the first serve, the team navigated a turbulent offseason that started almost as soon as the last whistle blew.
In December, director of athletics Tim Murray announced Sean Byron would not return as head coach after seven seasons at the helm. During his tenure, Marist won one Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament game and missed the postseason in back-to-back years.
For a team expected to head into this season maintaining most of its roster, the shakeup left the group reeling from the sudden departure of their coach and an uncertain future.
That future quickly changed when the program hired Annie DeLoid, the four-year head coach at Division III Union College, on Feb. 2. The Plymouth, Massachusetts, native was a multi-position standout and team captain at Division III Framingham State University. She won three Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) tournament championships during her four-year career, but her coaching aspirations began well before graduation.
“Once I finished [playing], I knew that I wasn’t done with volleyball,” said DeLoid. “I was coaching club the entire time that I was a college athlete. Once I graduated, I got a JV job at a high school up the road and was exploring my business career for a year, so I took my degree and did it.”
Following a graduate assistant role at Division III Averett University and an assistant coaching job at Division III Stevens Institute of Technology, she landed her first head coaching job at Union.
Over four seasons, DeLoid led the Garnet Chargers to a 67-48 overall record and earned the 2025 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year with her colleagues after a 22-9 record, their best season in a decade.
Though DeLoid heard of various head coaching vacancies, including Marist, she had little reason to think about moving up levels, let alone leaving a program she was passionate about. She had just concluded Union’s first top-two conference finish in a decade with an .875 conference winning percentage.
“I wasn’t actively seeking a job,” DeLoid said. “I had a great job, and I had a great team. [Marist] piqued my interest, and I think any job that was going to pique my interest is one I should give myself the opportunity to explore.”
The new opportunity came with an unexpected twist: DeLoid already had a connection to Marist’s athletic department. Marist women’s soccer head coach Nicole Pacapelli Ciano is married to John Ciano, the men’s soccer head coach and DeLoid’s colleague at Union.
“I met her two weeks before the job was open, and we were chatting about Marist and Union,” said DeLoid. “Obviously, the irony is that we’re now coworkers, but at the time, it was really interesting because she had mentioned how much she loved the school, and John Ciano would always mention how much Nicole loved it.”
DeLoid remembers the hiring process clearly, particularly her first meeting with her future players. Four prior successful head coaching seasons gave her confidence entering the interview.
“I came into the interview process a little less nervous than I probably ever have and was very much myself,” said DeLoid.
Her connection with the team revealed much more. During a roughly 30-minute conversation with about 10 players, including sophomore setter Caelyn Dumas and sophomore outside hitter Mallory Reck—both future captains—serious questions about tactics and DeLoid’s volleyball systems gave way to a particularly notable interaction: the players wanted to know if they could sing and dance at practice.
“Of course you can,” DeLoid told them.
That marked the beginning of the relationship between the players and their future head coach. DeLoid joked with the players, and they laughed at her jokes. At one point, the discussion pivoted to the musical Hamilton.
“As soon as you left the room, we knew that you were the coach just because of the relationship that you were able to have with them,” DeLoid recalled Marist associate athletic director Harrison Baker later telling her.
With DeLoid now in charge, that impression needed to turn into culture, both on and off the court. For returning veterans like senior outside hitter Sara Dasic, improved leadership highlights the new culture.
“I would say that last year, we did not have leadership,” said Dasic. “It’s a big difference right now because we have captains. Coaches are meeting with captains. They’re going to leadership classes, and it’s really, really helpful. We can see it and feel it on the court.”
DeLoid took a player-first approach to introducing the captaincy to Marist volleyball. After outlining her values in a PowerPoint presentation, the players nominated teammates they believed best embodied the values. Reck and Dumas received overwhelming nominations, making a vote unnecessary.
“I don’t think that it’s a privilege. I don’t think it’s a given. I think it’s hard. It’s not supposed to be this reward,” said DeLoid. “It’s a responsibility that these two have for the rest of the team.”
Responsibility, respect and putting people first are key pillars of DeLoid’s coaching philosophy. She wants players to recognize that they come from different backgrounds while still needing to work together. Freshman middle blocker Molly Malone noticed this “people over player” culture during the team’s trip to Denver in early September.
“I was downstairs in the hotel lobby at 7:15 in Denver with Annie and one of our other teammates, and I was doing homework while she was doing scout,” said Malone. “She’s just sitting there with us and understanding that we are student athletes, we do have things to do and we’ve moved practices around for people who have classes. Annie’s always going to be there to help us and make sure we’re staying on top of our stuff.”
That people-first mentality does not lower DeLoid’s standards for her players, especially off the court, and it starts with respect.
“If I ever hear of an incident of someone being rude to somebody and it getting back to me, then that’s a tough conversation that I’ll have with that person, even tougher than if someone’s not performing well on the court,” said DeLoid.
Along those same lines, DeLoid instituted what she calls a “72-hour rule.” Players have 72 hours to address conflicts or let them go so it does not affect how they play on the court.
While a veteran like Dasic sees the team working harder and improving in practice, culture is not the only shift. She sees room for improvement in one key area: confidence.
“I think we were used to losing so much, so now we have to get back on track, and I think that’s a thing that we’re trying to learn,” said Dasic. “We’re amazing at practice, but when it comes to game days, we are still trying to improve ourselves and get better.”
Still, DeLoid sees this as a “fun era” for Marist volleyball and hopes that will draw fans into McCann Arena this season.
“I’m really excited as their head coach to be here and watch what they can do this fall because I really do think it’s going to be something special,” said DeLoid.
Edited by Izzy Perry and Mike Duda
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo
Photo by Michael Lacroix-Fralish
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