LYNCHBURG, Va. — Randolph College head volleyball coach
Kara Matthews has announced the addition of
Margaret Smith to the WildCats' coaching staff as an assistant coach.
Smith brings collegiate, club and high school coaching experience to Randolph, along with a background in strength and conditioning. She most recently served as a float and positional coach with East Coast Volleyball Club in Virginia Beach, where she led high-repetition drills focused on technique for liberos, pins and setters. She also served as a temporary head coach for U15, U17 and U18 national teams, with a focus on passing, serve receive and team defense. In addition, she provided individual skill instruction and completed coaching development through League One Volleyball resources.
From 2023-24, Smith picked up collegiate coaching experience when she served as an assistant coach at Bryant & Stratton, working with athletes on passing, serve receive and defense while also providing strength and conditioning instruction.
Smith previously spent two years with Beach Elite Volleyball Club in Virginia Beach, serving as an assistant coach for the regional 18s team and helping prepare 22 athletes for collegiate competition. Those athletes went on to commitments at NCAA Division I, II and III programs, as well as NAIA, NJCAA and NCCAA schools. She also worked as a positional skills coach, focusing on defensive patterns and positional footwork.
In 2021, Smith served as an assistant coach at Catholic High School in Virginia Beach, helping guide 16 athletes to the program's best season finish in recent history, including a TCIS postseason appearance and advancing to the Virginia private-school regional round.
Her coaching experience also includes international volleyball. In 2021, Smith interned with the Great Britain Women's Sitting Volleyball National Team through Volleyball England, where she developed an eight-month progressive exercise program, assisted with team training camps and helped develop Volleyball England's sitting volleyball technical module. She also compiled progression road maps for the men's and women's national teams for submission to UK Sport.
Smith also brings an accomplished playing career to Randolph. She competed at Liberty University from 2015-18, starting at libero for all four years. She finished her career second in program history with 1,784 digs and set a Liberty record with 38 digs against Campbell in 2015. During her Liberty career, Smith earned Big South All-Freshman Team honors in 2015 and was named Big South Defensive Player of the Week twice. She was also recognized as a VaSID All-State Libero and earned three Big South Presidential Honor Roll selections and one ASUN Presidential Honor Roll selection.
After Liberty, Smith competed in club beach volleyball during the 2019-20 season before being recruited to play libero at the University of East London in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) during the 2020-21 academic year. She also trained with the semi-professional Malory Eagles Volleyball Club.
Smith earned a master's degree in Sports Management from the University of East London in 2021 and a master's degree in Human Performance from Liberty in 2020. She earned her bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Liberty in 2018.
She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and holds USA Volleyball IMPACT certification. She is also SafeSport trained and holds certifications in Basic Life Support and Nonviolent Crisis Intervention.
