Coley Pawlikowski was relieved of her duties as women’s volleyball head coach Wednesday night, according to Stony Brook Athletics. She led the Seawolves to a 53-73 and three straight America East Tournament appearances in four seasons.
In her final season as head coach, Pawlikowski’s team went 8-21 overall, the worst record it has had since Stony Brook entered Division I play, and 4-8 in conference play. Despite having winning conference records in her first two years, the Seawolves have slid. They went .500 in conference play in 2015 and lost to Albany in the first round of the America East Tournament that year.
This season, the Seawolves missed the America East Tournament for the first time during Pawlikowski’s tenure and for the first time since the 2012 season.
Stony Brook also went 1-11 in away games this season and 1-5 in neutral sites. The Seawolves lost in straight sets nine times, the most since Pawlikowski’s first season with the team.
“Coley worked extremely hard to build the Stony Brook volleyball program and I am very appreciative of her efforts,” Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron said in the news release. “The expectation for our volleyball program is to compete for an America East championship every year and we will continue to pursue that goal under a new head coach. I wish Coley nothing but the best in the future.”
While the Seawolves had experienced players in previous seasons, this year the lack of upper-class leadership plagued the team – there were no seniors.
With Pawlikowski now gone, the search for a new head coach to helm the team is underway. The search will be a national one, according to the news release. Heilbron has made three hires during his tenure: women’s basketball head coach Caroline McCombs, women’s soccer head coach Brendan Faherty and men’s basketball head coach Jeff Boals, coming from Pittsburgh, Washington and Ohio State, respectively.
Correction: March 21, 2018
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Coley Pawlikowski was fired. She was relieved of her duties as head coach.
Correction: Dec. 1, 2016
A previous version of this story indicated that Shawn Heilbron has made two head coaching hires as Director of Athletics. He has made three.
jimmymacs • Dec 1, 2016 at 8:00 am
All students need to take a lesson from the collegiate athletics working world AND the outside working world: if the bottom line of your efforts is a negative one, you will be replaced. Like the old baseball player, Satchel Paige once said: “Don’t look back over your shoulder because some one might be gaining on you!”