Feb. 25, 2005
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Athletics Department officially announced the hiring of Nancy Somera as the head coach of Gamecock volleyball on Friday. Somera comes to South Carolina after six years as the head coach at Oregon State and replaces Kim Hudson, who resigned from coaching in January. Somera’s husband Ben, who served as an assistant on the Oregon State staff, will be named associate head coach for the Gamecocks.
“We are very excited to have Nancy and Ben Somera join the Gamecock family,” said USC Senior Women’s Administrator Val Sheley. “They bring a wealth of experience from the PAC-10, which is a volleyball powerhouse conference, to our program.”
During their tenure, the Somera’s guided Oregon State to a 77-98 record and led them to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 with a 17-12 record and a fifth-place finish in the Pac-10. The tournament appearance was the second ever for the Beavers, the first since 1983. Oregon State finished at .500 or better in one of the toughest volleyball conferences in the country, the Pac-10, in three of Somera’s six seasons. Academically, Somera’s teams led the OSU athletic department in team GPA for nine of 15 terms with a team GPA of 3.3.
“We are very excited about South Carolina. Kim Hudson had established a solid program here and we are looking forward to continue building on that tradition,” said Somera. “We are excited about the changes of something new and the chance to do something different. This will be an opportunity to work with more great people both in the business and in our new community.”
Prior to OSU, Somera served as an assistant coach at her alma mater, University of Southern California from 1991 to 1998. As an assistant, she served in seven NCAA Tournament appearances and contributed to the athletic development of seven All-Americans.
Formerly Nancy Hillman, Somera was a four-year starter and a member of Southern California’s 1985 Final Four team. She was a two-time All Pac-10 Team selection (1987, 1988) and she served as team captain from 1986-88. In 1989 she was a Pac-10 Medal recipient and was a four-year Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. The Glendale, Calif. native is a USC Top-10 record holder in kills, total attempts, digs, digs average, aces and aces average.
She graduated in 1989 with a B.A. in journalism/broadcasting and in 1994 she earned her masters degree in education, also from Southern California.
The Somera’s have two children, an eight-year old son Sam and a four-year old daughter Maile.
