NEWARK, NJ—Peter Volkert, with 348 wins and success at every stop in a women's volleyball coaching career that began at the college level in 1994, is the new head coach of the NJIT women's volleyball program, Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan announced.
 
Volkert has guided three college programs to success, beginning with Division II Pace University (1994 to 1996) in Pleasantville, NY, and continuing at the Division I level with Manhattan College (1997 to 2003) and Fordham University (2004 to 2012), both in the Bronx.
 
A 1992 graduate of Concordia College in Bronxville, NY, where he played men's volleyball, including competition against NJIT, Volkert earned a BA in History and Secondary Education at Concordia and two subsequent master's degrees from Iona College (MS in Multicultural Education, 1995; MS in Educational Administration and Supervision in 1998).
 
He began coaching girls volleyball at Good Counsel High School in White Plains, NY, in 1992 and also coached as an assistant and head coach in men's volleyball at Concordia.
 
Volkert entered the ranks of women's college volleyball at Pace in 1994, taking over a program that had been 5-23 the year before his arrival and won just one match the season before that. Against that background, he guided Pace to a 78-26 mark in three seasons (1994 to 1996)
 
In his first year, he led Pace to a conference championship and berth in the 1994 NCAA Division II national tournament. In 1995, Pace made the ECAC postseason tournament and then returned to the NCAA national tournament in 1996, reaching the Sweet Sixteen. His Pace team achieved a fifth-place regional ranking in Division II. Pace's record in his three seasons was 15-12, 33-7, and 30-7, respectively, for a combined mark of 78-26.
 
Entering the Division I level with Manhattan in time for the 1997 season, he guided the Jaspers to their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and first NCAA Division I Tournament spot in 2000 with a 23-11 record, earning MAAC Coach of the Year laurels.
 
In 2002, Manhattan won a program-record 30 matches (30-3 overall) and returned to the NCAAs after claiming another MAAC title. His last Manhattan team, in 2003, won both of its MAAC tournament matches 3-0 for back-to-back championships and another spot in the NCAAs. His record in seven seasons with Manhattan was 132-99.
 
Moving across the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx from Manhattan to Fordham and the Atlantic 10 Conference, he inherited a program that had topped 11 wins just one time in the preceding 11 years and posted a 14-16 record in his first season (2004). The following year, the Rams went 19-14 and in 2006 they won 21 matches (21-15), the program's highest total ever in its 38 years of existence. Volkert won at least 13 matches in four of the five seasons that followed the 21-15 mark. Coaching at Fordham from 2004 to 2012, he led the Rams to A-10 postseason berths in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. At 138-161, he has 21 more career wins than any of the other 10 coaches in Fordham history and his .462 winning percentage ranks third.
 
"We are very excited to add Peter to our coaching staff," said Kaplan, who was an Assistant Director of Athletics at Manhattan for part of Volkert's tenure as coach there. "I have known Peter for over 15 years. He is a proven head coach with a winning track record at his last three head coaching positions.  We feel fortunate that he was available and interested in our position."
 
Most recently, Vokert served in 2013 as an assistant coach at Iona, which was 13-5 in MAAC regular season competition, the best conference record ever for Iona since the conference began regular season championship play in 1991.
 
"I'm excited to be a head coach again and to have a second opportunity to work with Lenny (Kaplan)," said Volkert. "He was assistant AD at Manhattan, but he worked closely with our program and I know he'll be supportive of the whole program as the athletic director here at NJIT."
 
Although his won-lost record is impressive, Volkert is not focused on that area, specifically. "The first thing is we want to put a positive process in place and match that with maximum effort," said the coach. "After that, we will give the players the tools to be in the right place at the right time on both offense and defense. If we do that, the team will get positive results."
 
In taking the helm of the Highlanders, Volkert succeeds JR Martins, whose contract was not renewed after coaching the Highlanders from 2009 to 2013, when the team finished 7-15.

(front page photo courtesy Fordham Sports Information; inside photo courtesy Iona College Athletic Communications)