Olivia Simko will begin her third season head sand volleyball coach at CSUB in 2016. The Roadrunners will enter 2016 as an affiliate member of the Big West Conference and will have a chance to qualify for the first NCAA Sand Volleyball Championship.
The 2015 Roadrunner sand squad acheived its first national ranking, reaching No. 19 in the Dig Magazine poll. The team won a record 11 duals (11-7), with all seven losses coming to nationally ranked opponents.
In Simko’s first season as head sand coach in 2014, CSUB went 8-10 and finished third at the inaugural Pac-12 Team Tournament. Nine of the 10 dual losses that the ‘Runners suffered were to teams ranked in the AVCA Top 10 poll.
Simko served as an assistant coach for the indoor teams at CSUB (2014) and Cal Poly (2012). She is a coach with the Bakersfield Volleyball Club.
Simko (nee Waldowski) was a four-time all-conference player at UC Santa Barbara including co-freshman of the year, twice first-team selection and AVCA All-American honorable mention in 2006. As a senior at UCSB, Simko tallied 3.48 kills per set while hitting .394 as a middle blocker. That same year she averaged nearly a block per set (0.96). Prior to her tenure at UCSB, Simko redshirted her freshman season at the University of Nebraska in 2002 under coach John Cook.
Following her collegiate career, Simko spent three years as a tournament player with the Association of Volleyball Professionals. She reached her highest ranking, 60th, during the 2009 season. During the 2008 season, Simko teamed with partner Kari Pestolesi, to finish 17th at the World University Beach Volleyball Championships in Hamburg, Germany as a member of Team USA.
While at Irvine High School, Simko garnered Sea View League Co-MVP honors and was named to the All-CIF Division I First Team and was named Female Athlete of the Year for Orange County in 2002. She was ranked 16th by Volleyball Magazine’s “Fab 50” list.
Simko graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in global studies in 2007 and married John Simko in 2012. Son Jacob was born in the Fall of 2014.
