University of Maryland Eastern Shore Volleyball

Leading into the 2025 season, Vanessa Faircloth enters her third season at the helm, serving as the head women's volleyball coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore since June of 2023. In 2024, Faircloth led UMES to a 12-15 record with a 6-8 mark in MEAC play. In 2023, Faircloth led UMES to a 16-12 overall record with an 8-6 ledger in MEAC play along with a win in the first round of the MEAC Tournament. Faircloth came to UMES after spending two seasons as the head coach at Chowan University, where she improved the program from six wins over two seasons to eight wins in her first season and ten victories in her second. Prior to coaching at Chowan, Faircloth coached at Elizabeth City State University, leading the Vikings to their first CIAA Volleyball tournament berth since 2014 in 2018 and nine wins in 2019. Before her collegiate coaching experience, she spent four years as the recruiting coordinator and coach of the Southeast Regional Volleyball club in Chesapeake, Virginia and served as the varsity boys volleyball coach at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, taking the program to the state semifinals in 2017 while earning 6A Region Coach of the Year honors. Originally from Lumberton, North Carolina, Faircloth started her collegiate playing career at Virginia Intermont College, then wrapped up her career at Norfolk State University where she recorded 226 kills, 27 service aces, and 77 total blocks in two seasons. Faircloth graduated from NSU with her bachelor's de

After an excellent career as a player, Derionah Abner joined head coach Vanessa Faircloth's staff as a graduate assistant coach for the 2024 season. In 2023, Abner was the captain of the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks who finished 16-12 (8-6 MEAC). She appeared in 25 matches with 24 starts, earning CSC Academic All-District honors and All-MEAC honors. She finished her final season at UMES with 240 kills and a .213 hitting percentage while producing 45 blocks and 145 digs in 92 sets played. Prior to Eastern Shore, Abner played volleyball at Daytona State for two seasons, appearing in 46 matches and recording 422 kills and 291 digs. At Wekiva High School, Abner was a four-sport star, competing in volleyball, soccer, track and weightlifting. Outside of volleyball, Abner majored in rehabilitation psychology with the goal of helping recovering addicts and aims to open a vegan fast food franchise.

Noelle Eagles was hired as assistant coach for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball program on August 21, 2023. Eagles comes with extensive coaching and playing experience, having most recently served on the board for South East Region Volleyball while working the USAV/AAU circuit as head coach, where several of her student-athletes advanced to the Division 1 level. She takes pride in the personal successes of all those under her tutelage. Prior to her recent coaching roles, Eagles was a dominant force in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference as a libero for Norfolk State University, where she set modern-day records (since 2002) for single match digs (33), digs in a season (457), and career digs (1514). Coming from Indiana's volleyball hotbed, Eagles received training at Muncina Volleyball, a program that has placed over 600 student-athletes to the collegiate ranks. In 2023, she helped lead UMES to a 16-12 overall record with an 8-6 MEAC mark and a first-round tournament win. In 2024, she assisted in guiding the Hawks to a 12-15 record with a 6-8 MEAC record, contributing to the program's most All-MEAC selections since 2018.