Volleyball Adds an AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award Recipient to Coaching Staff

Posted: Feb 07, 2022

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara Head Volleyball Coach Erin Lindsey announced on Monday the hiring of Jessica Aschenbrenner, an American Volleyball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30 recipient, as an associate head coach.

Aschenbrenner joins the Broncos from the University of Denver, where she spent the past five years on the volleyball staff, three as an assistant coach and two as the director of operations. In the spring of 2021, she was named an AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award winner, recognized as one of the top 30 assistant coaches in the nation under the age of 30.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to join Erin Lindsey and the team here at Santa Clara," said Aschenbrenner. "I would like to thank Coach Lindsey, Director of Athletics Renee Baumgartner, Assistant Athletic Director Carl Reed, and the Santa Clara athletic department for investing in me. The commitment to student-athlete development is unmatched. It is an exciting time to join the Bronco family, and I look forward to helping Coach Lindsey execute her vision for the program. Go Broncos."

Last season, Aschenbrenner served as the defensive coordinator, her first year in that role, helping the Pioneers to a 23-6 record. Denver posted league best numbers in opponent attack percentage (.166), opponent assists (9.62), opponent kills (10.61), opponent service aces (.99), opponent digs (11.92), hitting percentage (.263), assists (12.67), and aces (1.94).

The season prior, in the spring of 2021, she coordinated the offense for the second year and assisted Denver to a regular season Summit League Championship.

In her first year as an assistant coach in 2019, Aschenbrenner helped develop Lydia Bartalo become Denver's first-ever Summit League Player of the Year and third all-time AVCA All-America selection.

Before being promoted to an assistant coach, she was the director of operations for the Pioneers program working on statistical analysis and scouting.

Over the past several years, the former University of Colorado volleyball player has been part of USA Volleyball in various capacities. During the summer of 2021, she was the assistant coach for the U.S. Women's Indoor U20 National Team who placed 5th in the FIVB Women's U20 World Championship.

Aschenbrenner also served as an assistant coach with the 2019 USA Girls Youth A1 Program and as a lead tryout coach and evaluator for the USA Girls HP Program since 2019.

Aschenbrenner earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Colorado in 2014 as well as an MBA from the University of Denver in 2020. She is currently pursuing a master of arts in sport coaching at Denver.

Coach Lindsey on Aschenbrenner: "We are so excited to welcome Jess to the Bronco Volleyball family and the Santa Clara community. Her passion for providing the very best student-athlete experience and championship volleyball team are completely in line with our values as a program. I am looking forward to leaning on Jess' technical and statistical experience and her work with USA Volleyball to enhance our preparation and in match tactics. She has experience in training and coordinating both sides of the ball, I expect her initially to step into our defensive coordinator role working with our servers, blockers and floor defense. I am also looking forward to Jess taking on our recruiting coordination to continue our success in bringing talented student-athletes to Santa Clara."

CONNECT WITH THE BRONCOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA