Union College volleybal head coach Melissa DeRan enters her fourth season at Union College.
DeRan is coming off her best season at Union after the Dutchwomen compiled a 22-11 record and a berth into the Liberty League playoffs. DeRan led Union to the championship match where they fell to Clarkson. DeRan guided three players (Marissa Vollmer, Rachel Wyman and Lauren Woods) to Liberty League post-season awards. Vollmer also recieved honors from the AVCA and ECAC. The Dutchwomen's 22-11 2013 record is the best since 2008 (36-6).
DeRan, formerly a head coach at St. Lawrence University and Tiffin University, was named head volleyball coach on April 21, 2011 by Jim McLaughlin, Director of Athletics at Union.
DeRan came to Union after serving as an assistant at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Beacons produced a record of 30-5 and won the Little East Conference Championship in her one year on campus, the 2010 season. UMass Boston finished in the top 20 in the AVCA National Poll for the first time in school history, and also reached the NCAA Division III Elite Eight for the first time.
For three seasons, 2007-09, DeRan was the head volleyball coach, assistant track and field coach, and strength and conditioning coordinator at St. Lawrence. She was 77-39 for a winning percentage of 66% and became St. Lawrence's all-time winningest coach in just three years. She was the 2009 Liberty League Volleyball Coach of the Year, leading the Saints to a school record win total with a 30-8 season. Her first year featured 19 wins, the most in 15 seasons, and the Saints won 28 in her second year. DeRan produced 12 Liberty League All-Academic student-athletes in her three seasons. In 2009, Abigail Rose earned player of the year honors under DeRan's guidance. She trained three National Champions, seven all-Americans, and six national qualifiers for the track and field program. DeRan helped lead the track and field program to a third place national finish in 2010 indoor season, and joined other staff members as the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year three times (2007 indoor and outdoor, 2008 outdoor).
DeRan was a graduate assistant at Otterbien in the 2006 season. That squad won 22 matches and broke 13 school records. She was the head coach at Tiffin, where she also assisted the track and field program, for three seasons (2000-03). Six all-conference honorees and four Academic All-Americans were produced during her tenure. DeRan also has coached in the Gold Medal Squared summer camp program, which trains high school and middle school age athletes throughout the country.
A 1999 graduate of Murray State University, DeRan was the captain of the Division I Racers in her senior season. She received a Master of Arts from St. Lawrence and earned a Secondary Teaching Certificate from Capital University.
