ABILENE, Texas – Abilene Christian University director of athletics Lee De León announced Friday that ACU has hired Lubbock native and former Ole Miss assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Angela Mooney as the ninth head volleyball coach in program history.
Mooney joins the ACU Athletics program after spending the previous 13 seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Texas-El Paso, South Dakota State and Ole Miss after a four-year playing career at Texas Tech. She graduated from Texas Tech in 2004 with a degree in human development and family studies.
"I am extremely excited to be named the head coach at Abilene Christian University," said Mooney. "I would like to thank Lee De León and the hiring committee for giving me the opportunity to take on this role as we head into our first season of championship competition. My goal has always been to win at the highest level and my vision fits into the mold of Abilene Christian: to develop our student-athletes into champions. I have spent a majority of my life in West Texas having grown up just a few hours away and look forward to being home and sharing this experience with my family."
Mooney replaces former head coach Jason Bibler, who was released from his contract on Jan. 27, after posting a record of 27-63 in three seasons as the ACU head coach. Mooney was chosen from a large group of qualified candidates and agreed to a four-year contract with ACU upon her acceptance of the job.
"ACU is a special place and this is an exciting time to be a Wildcat," De León said. "We had a terrific pool of candidates, but early on in the search, Angela's name rose to the top of our list and it stayed there throughout the process.
"I'm thrilled to add her, her husband David, and their two sons (Jacob and Jett) to the Wildcat family," he said of Mooney. "Angela is a Lubbock native, knows and loves this area and is an outstanding recruiter and coach. She'll be a tremendous role model as a Christian coach, wife and mother for the
great young women we have in our program."
Mooney helped lead Ole Miss to a 61-35 record over the last three seasons as the program posted three straight winning seasons for the first time since the mid-1980s and the most wins in a three-year span since the teams from 1984-86 went 70-43. Last May, the Ole Miss recruiting class – which was spearheaded by Mooney – was recognized as one of the top classes in NCAA Division I volleyball by PrepVolleyball.com.
The class included an all-America player and six players who won and or competed for state championships, earned all-state honors and played for high-level club teams, as well as succeeded in the classroom.
While at Ole Miss, Mooney helped coach several players to individual honors, including middle blocker Nakeyta Clair, who became the second all-America in program history. Off the court, the Rebels have earned a 100 percent graduation success all three years during Mooney's tenure, as well as a perfect APR score of 1000. Aubrey Edie earned academic all-America honors in 2015 as well as all-district honors in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Fourteen players made the SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Before joining the Ole Miss program, Mooney spent the 2013 season as the top assistant coach at South Dakota State. Prior to her stop at SDSU, Mooney was an assistant at UTEP for nine years where she played an instrumental role for the Miners in recruiting, training middle blockers, academics, community outreach and coordinating the UTEP volleyball camps.
In her nine years on the bench at UTEP, Mooney tutored two AVCA honorable mention all-America players, two Midwest all-region honorable mention honorees, four all-conference performers, including three in the 2011 and 2012 seasons and 11 conference players of the week. Only three UTEP players earned all-conference recognition in the first 30 years of the program, and all three Miners who received all-freshman team accolades came during her time in El Paso.
Mooney also brings extensive coaching experience at the club level. She coached for the Texas Power Volleyball Club from 2001-04. In her inaugural season as head coach, Texas Power won the Sun Country Regional Championship and qualified for the 2004 Junior Olympic National Tournament. She also served as an assistant for Texas Power the previous three years, helping the team make appearances at the AAU national tournament in 2001 and the National Invitational in 2002.
In 2005, Mooney teamed with the El Paso Sunspots Volleyball Club as the head coach of their top 18s team. The Sunspots' 18-Heat won the Sun Country Regional Championship, qualifying for the 2005 Junior Olympic National Tournament.
In 2009, Mooney captured her fourth regional championship in five years as head coach of the Sunspots 18s, and again returned to the Junior Olympic National Tournament in Miami, Fla. She also served as the co-head coach of the 2007 Sun Country High Performance team that competed in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Mooney joined the coaching ranks after a solid career with the Red Raiders from 2000-03. She recorded 930 kills, 348 digs and 229 blocks in her career, and also earned academic all-Big 12 honors in 2003. She was a two-year team captain and was the President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2003-2004.
