Bruce Downing (1976)
Downing has the distinction of being Stanford’s inaugural varsity women’s volleyball coach, guiding the program when it first gained varsity status in 1976. That first year, Stanford posted a 9-3 record (.750) and finished second at the Northern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NCIAC) Championship.
Art Lambert (1977)
Lambert coached the Stanford women’s volleyball team in 1977. In a one-year stint, he led the Cardinal to a 23-7-1 overall record, an 11-2 mark in NorCal Conference play and its first league title.
Lambert was also the men’s volleyball coach from 1976-78 and led the team to two conference titles and a Northern California Regional Championship berth.
In addition, he was a very successful water polo coach on The Farm, leading the men’s team for three years. In his time with the water polo program, he won two Pac-8 titles and claimed the 1976 NCAA Championship. He was the head coach of the U. S. Pan American Games team that won a gold medal in water polo in 1967, and also guided the U.S. at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Fred Sturm (1978-1985)
Sturm took over the Stanford women’s volleyball team in 1978 and spent the next eight seasons building it into a nationally recognized and respected program. Sturm compiled an impressive 193-83-3 (.699) record during his tenure, winning two conference titles, making five NCAA Championship appearances and leading the team to national runner-up finishes in 1984 and 1985.
Sturm led the Cardinal to a fifth-place NCAA finish on its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1981, then guided the team to four straight trips to the Final Four. He was tabbed WCAA Co-Coach of the Year after winning his first conference title with the program in 1984, then reaped Pac-West Coach of the Year honors the following season.
Sturm also coached the Stanford men’s volleyball team from 1979-90 and was named the 1989 ASICS NCAA Coach of the Year after his squad finished second in the nation. He was the head coach of the 1992 men’s U.S. Olympic Team in Barcelona, and also coached the U.S. at the 1987 World University Games.
Don Shaw (1984-1999)
Shaw spent 16 years as the Stanford women’s head coach (1984-99), during which he led the team to unparalleled success. Shaw guided the Cardinal to four NCAA Championships (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997) and 10 conference titles, including six Pac-10 crowns in a row between 1994 and 1999.
Shaw compiled a career winning percentage of .863 (440-70), which still ranks as the best in NCAA history, and coached 15 players to 35 AVCA All-America awards. In NCAA Tournament action, he tallied a record of 50-12, taking Stanford to 12 Final Fours and eight NCAA championship matches in 16 seasons. He was named AVCA National Coach of the Year in 1991 and took home Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year honors in 1997. Additionally, he was Regional/District Coach of the Year three times (1991, 1994, 1997) and a four-time conference coach of the year (1985, 1987, 1991, 1997).
Shaw also served as an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning U.S. Men’s National Team at the 1982 National Sports Festival, as well as an assistant for the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 1991 Pan-Am Games in Havana, Cuba.
He began his coaching career at Stanford in 1980 as an assistant to the women’s program, then was named co-head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams with Fred Sturm in 1984. After two seasons as co-head coach of both programs, Shaw took sole control of the women’s program in 1986. He guided the Cardinal through 14 more successful seasons until retiring from the women’s program in 1999. In 2001, he accepted the head coaching position with the Stanford men’s program. In six seasons as head men’s coach, Shaw collected a 90-79 (.533) record. In December 2008, he was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame.
Denise Corlett (Interim 2000)
Corlett spent the 2000 season as Stanford's interim head coach. The Cardinal finished fourth in the Pac-10 Conference that season, and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Logan Tom was named an AVCA First Team All-American and was joined by Jennifer Detmer on the All-Pac-10 Team. Additionally, six Cardinal players earned Pac-10 All-Academic honors under Corlett.
John Dunning (2001-present)
A four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year and AVCA Hall of Famer, Dunning has been in the spotlight of NCAA volleyball since he began his coaching career 31 years ago at Pacific. Since then, he has collected four national titles, matching former Cardinal coach Don Shaw for the second-most in NCAA history, and coached in the second-most Division I national title matches (9). He has taken all 31 teams he has coached to the NCAA Tournament and led 26 of those teams to an NCAA Regional.
Dunning ranks among the top five coaches all-time with a .829 career winning percentage, and among the top 10 active coaches with 861 career wins. Entering the 2016 season, Dunning boasts an 861-178 career record, with a 424-76 (.848) mark at Stanford.
In his 15 years on The Farm, Dunning has had 22 athletes earn 48 AVCA All-America honors and developed four AVCA National Players of the Year. His Stanford teams have also posted a 52-13 record in the NCAA Tournament, won eight Pac-12 titles (including seven of the past 10) and reached the national championship match in six of his 15 seasons as head coach.