Lorelle “Lo” Hoyer was named head coach of the UNCW program on Dec. 18, 2024, following a tenure leading the Crimson Hawks of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Hoyer comes to UNCW following three seasons as the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she helped the Crimson Hawks to a 67-29 record and the NCAA Division II Tournament all three seasons. Prior to her arrival in 2021, IUP had not competed in the NCAA postseason since 2017.
In her final season at IUP, the Crimson Hawks posted a 24-9 record and reached as high as second in the Atlantic Region rankings. IUP won three straight matches in the Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference to gain the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Hoyer joined IUP with seven years of Division I coaching experience, spending the 2021 season at Idaho, where she served as an assistant coach and the Vandals' recruiting coordinator. In addition to managing all aspects of recruiting, she also served as a lead scout on the coaching staff and was responsible for server training as the Vandals increased their team service aces by 34 percent.
Prior to Idaho, Hoyer spent three seasons as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, and learning specialist at Southern Utah. She assisted in all facets of the Thunderbirds program, including scheduling, travel logistics and budgeting. As the recruiting coordinator, Hoyer also worked to improve regional and national scouting. Her efforts as a learning specialist led to a major jump in team grade point average, increasing from 3.23 to 3.62.
At Southern Utah, Hoyer recruited the first Big Sky Newcomer of the Year (Shannon Webb) and first back-to-back All-Big Sky member in program history (Stacey Hone). She also helped the Thunderbirds achieve the best regular season Big Sky finish in program history, the most conference wins in a single season, and a +.329 increase in win percentage from season one to season three.
Prior to SUU, Hoyer was the director of volleyball operations at UTSA for the 2017 season. While in Texas she also served as an assistant program coordinator for the Alamo Volleyball Association. Hoyer spent two years as the Assistant Director for Triangle Volleyball Club in Raleigh, N.C. (2015-17), where she handled large scale travel, marketing, social media and supported on-court training at multiple age and skill levels as both head coach and assistant. She also served two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at North Carolina Central prior to joining Triangle.
Hoyer is a 2009 graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she was multi-year letter winner before injury sidelined her for her final two seasons. A native of Minnesota, she has a background in non-profit education where she flourished in fundraising, volunteer management, creative education planning and organizational development before re-joining the volleyball community. She earned her master's degree in physical education from North Carolina Central in 2020.
