March 29, 2005

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Bringing 15 years of experience in the collegiate game, Rick McLaughlin has been named assistant women's volleyball coach at UC Santa Barbara, Gaucho head coach Kathy Gregory announced Tuesday.

McLaughlin began his appointment at UCSB on March 28 - replacing Angela Rock who left the program after one season to pursue private business interests - but will also continue in his current role as top assistant coach with the Pepperdine University men's team through season's end. He is in his fourth year with the Waves, who in 2005 are ranked No. 1 nationally and could continue playing through the NCAA Championships in early May under 22-year head coach Marv Dunphy.

"I love it up here in Santa Barbara, and it's going to be great working for Kathy," McLaughlin said. "I go from working with one of the most successful men's coaches ever to one of the legends of the women's game, and I'm excited about it."

During his tenure at Pepperdine, the Waves have been one of the nation's top programs. His first two years saw the Malibu, Calif., school make back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances, reaching the championship match in 2003. Following a fourth-place Mountain Pacific Sports Federation finish in 2004, Pepperdine is on a roll this season, boasting a league-leading 17-1 record and current 15-match winning streak. He was previously an assistant with the Waves in 1991 and 1992.

Following his first stint in Malibu, McLaughlin spent eight seasons as head coach of the Loyola Marymount men's team from 1993 through 2000, after which the program was dropped by the university. Tabbed the MPSF Coach of the Year in both 1998 and 2000, McLaughlin's final LMU squad advanced to the league tournament semifinals after upsetting top-ranked Long Beach State in the first round. He was later named the 2000 ASICS/Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year as his Lions also posted wins over perennial powers UCLA and Penn. Loyola Marymount also advanced to the eight-team MPSF Tournament in 1998, snapping a seven-year absence from postseason play en route to finishing the year ranked 12th nationally.

After leaving LMU, McLaughlin was the men's volleyball coach and a physical education instructor at Santa Monica College in 2000-01. That fall, he joined the staff of his older brother Jim - a UCSB alumnus - to help rebuild the women's program at Washington. McLaughlin also has extensive coaching experience at the national level, assisting the U.S. National men's and women's teams in 1993.

As a player, McLaughlin was a four-year starting setter from 1987-90 at Loyola Marymount, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. In 1999 he completed a master's program in education at Azusa Pacific.

"Rick brings the most experience of any assistant coach I've ever hired," Gregory stated. "He's an expert at motivating athletes, as well as breaking down teams with VolleyData (a computer program). He will help us immediately in training, implementing new techniques such as swing blocking."

McLaughin will join a Gaucho program that has captured three consecutive Big West Conference championships and finished its 2004 campaign with a 24-4 overall record and No. 21 national ranking. UCSB is one of only four schools in the country to qualify for all 23 NCAA Championships dating back to the tournament's inception in 1981, all under Gregory who just competed her 30th season in Santa Barbara.