St. Olaf College Athletics

Alicia Wood is in her second season as the head volleyball coach at St. Olaf in 2025-26 after being hired as the program's 11th head coach on June 4, 2024.

Through two seasons, Wood led St. Olaf to a 46-19 (.707) overall record, including a 27-9 record in 2025 for the program's winningest season since 2010. In 2025, the Oles won their first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular-season title since 2010, went undefeated in MIAC play (11-0) for the first time since 1996, and claimed their first NCAA Tournament win since 2010 before pushing second-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University to five sets in the second round.

St. Olaf qualified for the MIAC Playoffs in each of the last two seasons to stretch its playoff streak to eight seasons, falling in the championship match in 2025 and in the quarterfinals in 2024. Wood was named the MIAC Coach of the Year in 2025 by her peers. During her time on the Hill, Wood coached three American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Americans or Honorable Mention All-Americans, four AVCA All-Region selections, a two-time MIAC Defensive Player of the Year, six All-MIAC honorees, eight College Sports Communicators Academic All-District selections, and 28 Academic All-MIAC honorees.

Wood came to St. Olaf after spending the previous four seasons as the head women’s volleyball coach at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill. In her final season leading the Lady Blues, Wood was named the 2023 Midwest Conference Coach of the Year after guiding her team to a second-place finish in the regular season and a runner-up finish in the MWC Tournament.
  
Last fall, Wood led Illinois College to an 18-13 overall record, including a 7-1 mark in conference play, culminating in the program’s first appearance in the championship match of the MWC Tournament in over two decades.The Lady Blues qualified for the MWC Tournament in each of Wood’s three full seasons after 2020 season was canceled nine matches in due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
Over three-plus seasons at Illinois College, Wood’s teams won a total of 46 matches, picking up at least 11 victories and five MWC wins in all three complete seasons while going a combined 18-6 against conference foes in the regular season. She coached eight All-MWC honorees over the last three seasons (no awards in 2020), including four total selections and two first-team honorees in 2023. Under Wood’s leadership, Illinois College had the 2023 MWC Newcomer of the Year and its second-ever American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region selection in 2023. In April 2023, Wood was one of 30 volleyball coaches from across the country at all levels to be named to the AVCA Thirty Under 30 list.
 
Prior to her time at Illinois College, Wood was an assistant women’s volleyball coach at DePauw University during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. The Tigers made NCAA Tournament appearances in both seasons, including advancing to the second round in 2018, and won their first North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament title in 2019. Wood was part of a coaching staff that produced the NCAC Player of the Year in both seasons and had a pair of AVCA All-Americans. Across her time at Illinois College and DePauw, Wood has led or been on the coaching staff of teams that have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award in five of the last six seasons.
 
After transferring from NCAA Division III Bluffton University, Wood graduated from NCAA Division II Ursuline College in 2015 as a double major in sports management and business administration with a minor in coaching. She started her coaching career at the high school and club levels in Ohio and Indiana before serving as an assistant coach at Cuyahoga Community College in Highland, Ohio for three seasons prior to coaching at DePauw.
 

THE OLES UNDER ALICIA WOOD
SEASON	OVERALL	PCT.	MIAC	PCT.	MIAC / MIAC PLAYOFFS / NOTES
2024	19-10	.655	6-5	.545	6th / Quarterfinals of MIAC Playoffs
2025	27-9	.750	11-0	1.000	1st / MIAC Playoff Runner-Up / NCAA Second Round
TOTAL	46-19	.707	16-5	.762