Diane Nelson
Diane Nelson is entering her sixth year as head coach of the Gonzaga volleyball program and her 10th year overall as part of the Gonzaga coaching staff.
Nelson is the first coach in GU history to record at least 11 wins in each of her first four seasons, and she set the program record for the best win percentage under a first-year head coach (17-11, .607 win percentage). During her time as head coach, four Zags have earned WCC All-Conference honors while 19 Bulldogs have been named WCC All-Academic: five First Team recipients and 14 Honorable Mention selections.
Most recently in the COVID-delayed spring season of 2021, Nelson led the Bulldogs to a 7-11 record in an ultracompetitive WCC that saw three teams reach the NCAA Tournament.
In 2019, Nelson guided a relatively youthful group of Zags to their best start since the 2015 season, going 6-3 through the first nine matches while collecting tournament titles at both the Service Academy Challenge and the Gonzaga Invitational. Gonzaga emerged as one of the best serving teams in the conference as it set a new program record for aces in a single season with 175. The Bulldogs closed the season winning five of the final eight matches, including a 3-0 Senior Day sweep over Portland, to build a solid foundation for the 2020 campaign. Sarah Penner represented the Zags on the WCC All-Conference team with her second All-WCC Honorable Mention selection.
In 2018, Nelson led a veteran group to an 11-18 overall mark and 8-10 record in West Coast Conference play. Program records fell that season as Tiyana Hallums became the program’s all-time digs leader with 1,369 career digs, surpassing Linda Bushinski’s 30-year old record of 1,303. Senior Faith Smith also became only the third Zag to record at least 1,000 career digs and 2,000 career assists. Penner collected All-WCC Honorable Mention for the Zags following a solid sophomore campaign.
In her second season, Nelson led a youthful group to a 14-16 overall record with a 9-9 mark in WCC play, good for a tie for fourth place. The Zags carried 12 underclassmen on the 2017 roster with just one senior, fifth-year graduate transfer Alyse Whitaker. Despite their youth, the Zags produced multiple top-10 season performances as a team, cracking the top-10 in nine categories: kills, assists, digs, service aces, attack percentage, attack attempts, digs per set, points and sets played.
During her first year at the helm of the program, Nelson guided the Zags to one of the best seasons in the last 27 years. The Zags went 17-11 overall and 10-8 in WCC play, both marks better than any since at least 1994. The Zags finished third in the WCC, their highest finish in that span as well. Among the notable results were a win against Pepperdine on the road—the program’s first-ever win in Malibu—and a 3-0 record and tournament title at the 2016 Utah Volleyball Classic. The 2016 season continued an upward trend for the Zags, being the third consecutive winning season. In 2014, Gonzaga went 17-12, eclipsing the .500 mark for the first time since 1994. They went 16-15 a year later for the first consecutive pair of winning seasons since 1989-90.
Gonzaga has developed in every aspect of the game since Nelson joined the staff. In 2014, the Bulldogs finished among the top-20 in kills, kills per set, assists and assists per set, while 2015 saw more digs per set and better passing than any time in the previous six years.
During her time as an assistant, Nelson was instrumental in developing two-time AVCA All-America Honorable Mention outside hitter Savannah Blinn. Blinn was also selected as First Team AVCA All-Region and was a three-time All-WCC First Team honoree.
A former Bulldog herself, Nelson is the first alum to take the reins of the volleyball program. She played from 1995-98 and is one of 14 Zags who’ve posted 1,000 career kills, ending with 1,094. She’s eighth on the all-time service aces list with 95, and she earned a spot on the conference All-Academic squad as a senior in 1998.
In addition to her college experience, Nelson played professionally on the AVP and FIVB Tours, winning two tournaments and earning a top-32 ranking. While starting out as a professional, she also coached at Santa Fe Christina High School in Solana Beach, Calif., for five years. She led the school to four state title matches, winning in 2003 and 2005.
Since joining the Gonzaga staff, she married Ryan Nelson, a teacher at Mt. Spokane High School. The couple lives in Spokane and has a son named Mason and daughter named Mia.
