Nicole Ciari

Nicole Ciari

Nicole Ciari is in her second season as a volunteer assistant coach for Santa Clara volleyball in 2022-23.

Ciari, a collegiate All-American at Division III Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa), joins the Broncos after working on the coaching staff at Los Gatos High School (Los Gatos, California). She works primarily to develop Santa Clara's middle blockers, among other tasks.

The San José, California native earned Second-Team All-America honors as a senior in 2018 to cap a standout career at Cornell. She was also named Midwest Conference Player of the Year and First Team All-MWC in her final collegiate campaign. In Ciari's four years at Cornell, she helped the Rams to three NCAA Tournaments, four MWC regular-season championships and three MWC tournament championships. She was a three-time all-conference selection, including two first-team nods, and was named honorable mention all-region as a junior in 2017.

Ciari's .302 career hitting percentage and single-season mark of 4.91 points/set as a senior are both second-best in program history. Ciari, who took the court as a middle blocker/right side, posted career totals of 1,146 kills (2.89/set), 131 aces (0.33/set), 432 digs (1.09/set) and 316.0 total blocks (0.8/set). She ranks in Cornell's top 10 in several different categories.

Ciari served as a team captain as well as the MWC student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC) chair and Cornell's SAAC president. She graduated from Cornell in May 2019 with a degree in kinesiology. Her coaching experience includes time with City Beach Volleyball Club in Santa Clara and Xtreme Volleyball Club in Mount Vernon, Iowa.