Anna Vallinch will be entering her first season as the assistant volleyball coach at Iowa Western. Although she is new to Iowa Western, she is not new to the area, or to the game. She is originally from Papillion, NE where she began her athletic career at Papillion LaVista High School.

Most recently Anna served as an assistant at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. Prior to that, she was the varsity assistant at Bryan High School in Bellevue, NE.

As a collegiate athlete, she had celebrated career. She began at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, but transferred after one season to Clemson. As the starting libero, she was a standout athlete for three seasons receiving numerous honors and setting several defensive records.

She holds records at Clemson for digs in a season at 620 and for digs per game at 5.04. She is also tied for most digs in a match at 36, and finished her career with 1421 defensive saves in just three seasons. In addition to setting records, she also garnered numerous honors as a Tiger. She was twice named as Defensive Player of the Year and awarded as Team MVP in 2006; she was ranked 3rd in the ACC and in the top 50 in the NCAA for digs. She served as a team captain for the 2005-2006 seasons.

She has a B.A. in Sociology from Clemson and is working towards a master’s degree in Organizational Management, with an emphasis is Sport Management.