LEWISTON, Maine -- Emily Hayes, head coach at Lewis & Clark College for the past three years and a former assistant at St. Lawrence University and Hope College, has been appointed head coach of women's volleyball at Bates College, Director of Athletics Jason Fein announced Monday.

"To be at Bates and in the [New England Small College Athletic Conference] is just beyond exciting for me. This was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up," said Hayes. "To work at an institution with so much history and culture, and with a volleyball program with both a history of great success and then in recent years, the improvement that the program has seen -- it's just thrilling to be able to build upon and continue in that direction."

Hayes will be the 13th head coach in the history of varsity women's volleyball at Bates, a proud program that began in 1967 and once enjoyed a 36-0 campaign in 1989. She replaces Melissa DeRan, who resigned to pursue other professional interests after six years. DeRan led Bates to a 63-62 overall record and five NESCAC playoff appearances in as many seasons of competition, with the 2020 season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We're elated to welcome Emily Hayes as our new head volleyball coach," said Fein. "Her work ethic, attention to detail, and history of creating a winning culture in a highly competitive atmosphere make her the perfect choice for our program, and to lead our student-athletes. Her playing and coaching experiences will serve her well as she continues to build upon the strides made by Coach DeRan before her."

In 2018, Hayes was promoted from assistant coach to head coach after a year at Lewis & Clark, and she quickly won the college's Coach of the Year award for 2018-19 after turning the Pioneers' record around from 2-21 in 2017 to 13-10 in 2018. She developed three all-conference players in two seasons while establishing a culture of pride, trust and commitment within the program. 

Hayes' coaching style, she says, is "one that is obviously going to be playing high level volleyball and developing a championship program, but I take the responsibility really seriously to be a role model and inspire young women in more areas than the volleyball court. So developing women leaders and immersing ourselves in the community and excelling academically while also holding ourselves to incredibly high standards in terms of volleyball."

Originally hailing from Austin, Texas, Hayes attended Hope College in Michigan, where she earned a bachelor's degree in classical studies in 2014. She played setter for a year at Hope before becoming a student assistant coach for the next three seasons, in the meantime helping the Flying Dutch advance to the NCAA tournament in 2011, 2012, and 2013, including the Elite Eight in 2013. 

After graduation, she assistant-coached men's and women's volleyball for a year at Lourdes University, then joined the staff at St. Lawrence University as a graduate assistant coach in 2015. While at St. Lawrence, Hayes had six student-athletes earn All-Liberty League recognition and nine chosen for conference all-academic honors. She also established core and weightlifting programs for the team while earning a master's degree in educational leadership.

She became assistant coach at Lewis & Clark in 2017, and head coach in 2018. Throughout her six years as a collegiate coach, Hayes was part of coaching staffs that mentored eight All-Americans.

Hayes inherits a team with an identity to be formed, following two years of graduation since the team's last match. Bates returns seven players from the squad that finished 16-10 in the fall of 2019, its last season of competition. 

Hayes met with two team members during the interview process and said, "it was just so exciting to hear their excitement for the future and what they were looking for in a coach and with what they see as the potential for their program. I cannot wait to start meeting with the student athletes as a team, as well as individually, and to get to know each of them and how they learn and why they do this, why they play volleyball at the collegiate level and then get to know us as a unit and start building that together."