YELIN RETIRES...KORDES NEW VOLLEYBALL COACH

LEONID YELIN RETIRES AS UofL VOLLEYBALL
COACH...ANNE KORDES HIRED.


We had heard the news a couple of weeks back that changes could be in store for University of Louisville Volleyball. Today, it was announced that long time coach Leonid Yelin has retired as the head coach of the CARDS and St. Louis head coach Anne Kordes has accepted the job as Louisville's new skipper.
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If you're familiar with local volleyball in the Louisville area...the name Kordes is familiar to you. Anne's father, Ron, has coached on the high school and club level for several decades and is the coach at Assumption High School in Louisville. (Photo from slu.com)
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Anne played for her dad at the club and high school level before accepting a scholarship to Cincinnati. She was the Great Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year in 1994 and was named second team All-Conference USA as a sophomore. She transferred to the University of Louisville after two years as a Bearcat.
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At Louisville, she led the Cards to the C-USA Tournament championship and NCAA Sweet Sixteen her senior year. She was also a three time C-USA All-Conference selection. After graduation, Anne began her coaching career in 1999 as an assistant at Indiana. A better opportunity quickly came along, though...and she accepted the top assistant job at Illinois. In six years at Illinois...they qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times and Sweet Sixteen twice.
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Anne accepted the head coaching job at St. Louis in 2004. In seven years there, her Billikens made three NCAA Tournament appearances, won four A-10 championships and she was selected A-10 Coach of the Year three times. Her teams has a combined league record of 59-1 over the last five years. Her lifetime record as a head coach is 146-75 (.661).
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The Louisville high school volleyball circuit is considered one of the most talented and competitive in the nation. Anne's experience with this area, the Kordes name recognition and her success and skill at developing young players will continue to create growth in the Cardinal Volleyball program for many years. Her work with youth national, select and high performance teams over the last ten years makes her an easily recognizable figure among the elite national high school programs also.
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Louisville has become a recognized power in Big East volleyball and has won the Big East Conference tournament three years in a row. They've come in second to Cincinnati in regular season play twice in a row. The 2010 Cards were a young team that improved greatly as the season progressed. Kordes will have stars Lola Arsanbeckova, Anastasia Artemeva, Emily Juhl, Taylor Brauneis, Gwen Rucker and Caitlin Welch among those in the returning class for 2011. Cardinal Arena is a great home advantage venue for Cardinal Volleyball and the 2012 NCAA Final Four Volleyball Championships will be held at the KFC YUM Center.
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Once again, Tom Jurich and Julie Hermann come through with a grand slam in a coaching hire. Or, in this case, should we say a game winning service ace...