The University of Akron Athletics
Women's Volleyball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- thanna@uakron.edu
- Phone:
- (330) 972-7338
Follow Coach Hanna on Twitter
Tom Hanna, who guided Marist to back-to-back regular-season conference championships while earning Conference Coach of the Year honors twice, was named the head women's volleyball coach at the University of Akron on January 28, 2015.
Entering his sixth season in 2020, Hanna has a combined 50-91 record leading the Zips in five seasons
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During the 2019 campaign, Hanna led his squad to its best season taking the helm. He led the team to 17-12 overall record (9-7 MAC), clinching a berth to the 2019 MAC Volleyball Championship for the first time since 2012. Juniors Emily Weigand and Alexis Adleta both earned MAC honors with Weigand earning first-team accolades and Adleta earning honorable mention. Weigand was also named a Greater Cleveland Area Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year finalist. The team also performed well in the classroom, with a record-tying and conference leading nine Academic All-MACÂ honorees and two MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes.
During the 2018 season, Hanna let the Zips to the most wins the program has seen since 2012 with an 11-16 record. The team also performed well in the classroom, with a record tying and conference leading nine Academic All-MAC honorees and three MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes. Additionally, Kayla Gwozdz was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District IV First Team, giving Hanna 12 academic district honorees in 12 seasons.Â
During the 2017 season, Hanna led the Zips to a 6-22 overall record and 2-13 in MAC action. Academically, Akron ranked in the top 25 nationally among all Division I schools in GPA and earned an AVCA Team Academic Award. Eight Zips earned Academic All-MAC honors in addition to one being named a MAC Distinguished School Athlete. Gwozdz was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District second team.Â
During the 2016 campaign, Hanna's team posted an 8-20 mark and a 3-13 record in MAC play. The Zips enjoyed a strong year off the court with nine players earning Academic All-MAC honors, the most in a single season in Akron program history. Three players were also named MAC Distinguished Scholar Athletes.Â
In his first season as Akron head coach in 2015, Hanna led the squad to a 8-21 overall record and 2-14 mark in the MAC. UA set a school record for aces in a match with 18 against Morehead State on Sept. 18. The team performed off the court as well, with eight Zips chosen as Academic All-MAC honorees and four picked as MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes.
Hanna joined the Zips after nine seasons as the head coach at Marist College where he amassed a 139-134 overall record, including an 89-73 mark in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The two-time MAAC Coach of the Year guided his student-athletes to 16 All-MAAC selections, six All-Championship selections, 61 Academic All-MAAC honors, and 10 Academic All-District accolades. His squads earned AVCA Team Academic Awards for eight consecutive seasons.
In 2014, Hanna led the Red Foxes to their second consecutive MAAC regular-season title and tournament final appearance. Marist finished at 25-6 overall and 17-4 in MAAC play, both single-season records for wins in program history. Two players earned first-team All-Conference honors, including Setter of the Year, and seven were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team. Hanna was named the MAAC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.
In 2013, Marist shared the regular season MAAC Championship for the first time in program history, finishing 21-9 overall, 14-4 in the conference. The Red Foxes entered the MAAC Championship Tournament as the No. 2 seed, and made it to the final round before falling to Fairfield. Hanna reached his 100th career victory on Sept. 22 in the Red Foxes' 3-0 victory over Iona. He was named the MAAC Coach of the Year, while Brooke Zywick was the MAAC Libero of the Year and Mackenzie Stephens was the MAAC Player of the Year.
In 2011, Marist finished the season at 10-8 in the MAAC, Hanna's third season with a .500 MAAC record or better, and a tie for fourth place. Canisius won the third tie-breaker, by virtue of the point differential in the teams' two head-to-head meetings in the regular season, and received the final spot in the MAAC Tournament.
In 2009, Hanna coached Marist to its then-best MAAC finish in program history when they advanced to the conference championship. They defeated Fairfield in a thrilling five-set match in the MAAC Semifinals. The Red Foxes finished that season at 18-13 overall and 11-7 in the conference.
In Hanna's tenure at Marist, the Red Foxes have excelled in the classroom. Ten Red Foxes earned CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District honors. Marist earned AVCA Team Academic Awards every year since 2006, and received NCAA Public Recognition Awards in both 2013 and 2014.
During his time as an undergraduate at Marist, Hanna served as an assistant coach for the Red Foxes, helping direct recruitment strategies for the newly scholarship-enhanced program. He served as interim head coach from November 1990 to May 1991. In addition to his responsibilities with the varsity women's team, Hanna also founded and served as head coach for the men's club team.
Before becoming Marist's head coach, Hanna served as the assistant men's coach at Rutgers-Newark, helping his squad to the EIVA Tournament Semifinals in 2000. He has four years of Division I women's experience as an assistant at Bowling Green, serving as director of recruiting, scouting, film exchange, and camps.
Prior to that, he spent two seasons as the women's assistant at Ferris State University and three years assisting both the men's and women's programs at East Stroudsburg State. Hanna spent his second post-graduate season at Alaska-Anchorage, helping the nationally ranked Seawolves to the 1992 Pacific Conference Co-Championship.
On the national level, Hanna worked with the USA Men's National Volleyball Team in the summers of 1994 and 1995. He completed studies of the team's play in World League competition that were used to evaluate its performance and assist in the development of its future training and match plans. He has assisted at numerous national team program tryouts at various levels, and also assisted in a variety of responsibilities with the USA Volleyball National Team Training Center in San Diego.
Hanna graduated from Marist with a bachelor's degree in communications and a New York State Coaches Certificate minor in 1991. He continued his education at East Stroudsburg, earning a Masters of Education with a concentration in sport management in 1994.
Hanna and his wife Kristin have two daughters– Caroline and Jillian.Â
