LEBANON, Ill. – Director of Volleyball Nickie Sanlin is excited to announce Lindsay Brown as the university's new assistant coach for both the men's and women's volleyball programs. She joined the Bearcats effectively on July 1st.
Brown will assist and enhance the on- and off-court production of McKendree volleyball under the guidance of Sanlin for the men's team and Head Coach Miranda Rodriguez for the women. She was most recently an Assistant Men's Volleyball Coach for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for the last two seasons.
"We are excited to welcome Lindsay Brown to the McKendree Volleyball family," said Sanlin. "Lindsay brings championship experience, a relentless work ethic, and a proven ability to develop student-athletes at the highest level. More importantly, she is someone who genuinely invests in people, making her a perfect fit for our culture and the future of Bearcat Volleyball."
Last season at UCLA, Brown was instrumental in assisting the team to over 20 wins for the fourth year in a row, while earning Andrew Rowan the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Collegiate Player of the Year award. In addition, seven AVCA All-Americans were bestowed, and the program reached the NCAA Men's Collegiate Volleyball Championship tournament for a fifth-straight season as they ended the year at No.3 in the final AVCA poll.
In 2025, she helped the Bruins to a third-straight NCAA title match and coached four All-Americans. Cooper Robinson was named MPSF Player of the Year and a First Team All-American. Additionally, two other First Team All-Americans and a Second Team All-American were honored. In her tenure in Los Angeles, the team won two regular-season Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) championships (including one shared) and an MPSF tournament championship in 2026.
Before arriving at UCLA, Brown was an assistant coach at Loyola University Chicago, helping the Ramblers to a 19-10 record and a 12-4 mark in conference play in 2024. The Ramblers ended the season with the third-highest hitting percentage in the country (.350), swept 12 teams, and enjoyed a seven-match winning streak from Feb. 24 to March 21. Brown helped coach several Loyola players receive individual honors at the end of the 2024 season, including Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Player of the Year and AVCA First-Team All-American Parker Van Buren and MIVA and AVCA Newcomer of the Year Daniel Fabikovic.
Prior to her time in Chicago, she spent the 2023 season at Princeton University where she served as the program's lead assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. The Tigers advanced to the EIVA Championship finals in 2023 and finished the year ranked 14th nationally while having five players garner All-EIVA honors.
Before heading to Princeton, Brown was the lead assistant coach at Purdue University Fort Wayne and was a graduate assistant for men's volleyball for two years before she was promoted to assistant coach. In 2021, she stepped into the primary coaching role while then-head coach Ryan Perrotte was on leave. Brown helped coach Pelegrin Vargas to an AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honor in 2019 and helped the Mastodons earned the No. 3 seed in the MIVA. The season was highlighted by a pair of 3-0 wins over Ball State, which had never been done in program history prior.
Brown also has experience on the national level, having coached the U.S. Boys U19 National Team in 2022 and 2023. Under Brown's leadership, the U19 squad would go on to win gold at the 2022 NORCECA Pan American Cup and secure a berth in the 2023 FIVB World Championships in the process. The U.S. would go on to take its best finish ever at the World Championships, placing 4th in Argentina in the summer of 2023.
As a former setter for Sonoma State University, Brown finished her collegiate career as the season and career assist record holder for the Sea Wolves as well as the sole owner of the career service ace record. Brown was an All-Conference selection three times and was Academic All-Conference four times.
After she finished her time at Sonoma State, she played for Volleyball Club Tirol in Austria and the NorCal Dream Team and Wildfire in the Premier Volleyball League.
Brown's coaching experience includes a head coaching position for the junior club at Empire Volleyball and assistant coaching positions at Sonoma State, Ferris State University and Dominican University of California.
Brown earned her degree in general studies with a concentration in sociology from Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2017.
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