Norfolk State University Athletics

Duvall on the Norfolk State Volleyball Program

Interim head coach Brandon Duvall begins his sixth year leading the Norfolk State volleyball program in 2015. It will also mark his eighth straight season coaching in the Spartan program in some capacity.
 
Norfolk State’s best four-year stretch in its Division I history coincided with Duvall’s first four years in charge of the program. Overall in 18 seasons as a D-I program, Norfolk State has posted three winning records in MEAC play. All three of those have come during Duvall’s tenure as head coach, including the most successful season yet, in 2012.
 
After an injury-plagued 2011 campaign, Duvall got the program back on its feet the following year. NSU ended the 2012 season with a 14-20 overall record – the most wins in a D-I season – and a 9-3 mark in the MEAC Northern Division. That conference record along with NSU’s second-place finish in the North both stand as the all-time bests in the D-I era.
 
The 2012 season also saw NSU earn its first win in the conference tournament since 1999 and just the third victory ever in MEAC tournament play. After NSU triumphed over North Carolina Central in the quarterfinal, the Spartans nearly advanced to the MEAC final before coming up short in the semifinal round to Florida A&M in extra points in a five-set thriller.
 
As has been the case the entire time he has been head coach, records continued to fall under Duvall’s watch in 2012. Charlotte Armstead earned second-team all-conference honors for the second time in her career and finished as NSU’s all-time leader in kills, attacks, blocks, block assists and sets played. She set the single-season mark for kills, breaking her previous school record in the process, and along the way became the only player in school history ever to top 1,000 career kills.
 
Other records to fall in 2012 include single-match, -season and -career records for digs (Noelle Eagles), and the single-season records for assists (Darcy Moore) and block assists (Goda Jankauskaite).
 
NSU also posted winning conference records in 2010 (5-3) in Duvall’s rookie campaign as well as in 2013 (7-5). The 2013 season also saw the Spartans go 11-18 overall, giving Duvall bragging rights for the three winningest overall seasons in D-I history along with 2012 (14) and 2010 (13).
 
He coached a pair of All-MEAC honorees in 2013, the first time the program had at least two all-conference players since 1995 in the D-II, CIAA days. Jankauskaite was named second-team All-MEAC in 2013, with Eagles earning third-team honors. Four of NSU’s five all-MEAC honors have now come during Duvall’s head coaching tenure.
 
During the 2013 campaign, Eagles became the first NSU player ever to top 1,000 career digs. Moore set the single-match assist record and also broke her previous school record for assists in a season, becoming the first player to reach 1,000 in a single year. The following year in 2014, she topped Nicole Kessner’s career assists record as well. Jankauskaite’s total of 332 kills in 2013, meanwhile, ranked as the second-best behind Armstead’s 2012 campaign.
 
In 2012 and ’13, Duvall led NSU to perhaps its two biggest wins in D-I history, a 3-1 upset over William & Mary in 2012 and a 3-1 victory against Sam Houston State in 2013. The win over William & Mary marked the first time the Spartans ever defeated a CAA opponent, and it was against a team that finished the year almost 100 spots higher than NSU in the RPI. Sam Houston State ended the 2013 season 121 spots higher than the Spartans in the RPI.
 
In addition to the exploits on the court, Duvall has also improved NSU’s prowess in the classroom. The Spartan program held a 919 NCAA APR score the year before he became head coach. Four years later, he had improved that mark to 950, including single-year scores of 1000 and 979 the past two seasons.
 
Duvall helped raise expectations at NSU after a strong showing in his collegiate head coaching debut in 2010, a year in which he earned MEAC Coach of the Year honors. Taking over the program just weeks before the start of the season after the departure of previous head coach Jennifer Fry, Duvall led NSU to a 13-20 overall record, including the previously mentioned 5-3 conference slate, and a third-place finish in the Southern Division.
 
In the 13 prior seasons in the MEAC, the program had never finished better than 3-5 in conference play. In addition, NSU posted more overall wins (13) than any other year in the Division I era, breaking the previous mark of 11 victories set in 1999. That record, of course, lasted only two years until Duvall’s 2012 team topped it with 14 victories.
 
Duvall’s MEAC Coach of the Year award was the first major conference award for the program (Coach, Player or Rookie of the Year) since moving to D-I prior to the 1997 season.
 
In 2010, NSU’s on-court performance was illustrated by the play of Armstead, who was named to the All-MEAC second team and was one of several players to post stellar seasons for the Spartans. Along with Armstead breaking the single-season mark for kills in a season (which she again would top in 2012), Kessner set the single-season and career records for assists, marks later bested by Moore.
 
Despite injuries to the team’s starting setter, libero, middle blocker and two other reserve players that kept them out for most if not the entire season, the Spartans still managed to follow that up in 2011 with a 9-16 overall record and a 5-7 MEAC ledger in NSU’s first year in the Northern Division. Marks that would have been considered great in years past were seen as a disappointment to those in and outside the program, proving just how much expectations have been raised under Duvall.
 
In five seasons, his overall record stands at 49-96 with a MEAC mark of 28-28.
 
Prior to his current appointment, Duvall served as an assistant coach at NSU for the 2008 and ’09 seasons under Fry before being named the interim head coach in early August 2010.
 
Perhaps his greatest coaching accomplishment, though, came away from the NSU court in June 2011 when Duvall led the Coastal Virginia U-16 club team to the national title at the 38th AAU Girls’ Junior National Championships in Orlando, Fla. Duvall’s squad compiled a 14-0 record during the four-day tournament, losing just one set along the way.
 
His Coastal Virginia squad also became the first club team from the state of Virginia to win an AAU national championship. A total of 175 teams competed at the 2011 championships at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.
 
Then in 2014, Duvall’s U-17 Coastal Virginia volleyball club team took ninth at the AAU Open Nationals in Orlando, Fla.
 
Prior to arriving at NSU, Duvall served as an assistant at Virginia Wesleyan College in 2006, where he helped lead the women’s team to a 19-9 overall record and a third-place finish in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament.
 
From 2003-06, Duvall was the assistant boys volleyball coach at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Va. He helped the Wildcats to the 2004 and 2005 Southeastern District regular-season titles.
 
Duvall had assistant coach stints with the girl’s teams at Ocean Lakes High School (1998) and Tallwood High School (2002), and served as the girl’s head coach at Ocean Lakes in 1999.
 
Duvall has also worked with the Coastal Virginia Volleyball Club as an assistant under Albaugh, the former Great Bridge boys coach. Duvall has assisted the nationally ranked girls’ U-18 team since 2003 and was the head coach of the U-15 girls’ team from 2006-07.
 
He also worked with the Tidewater Volleyball Club (TVC) from 2001-03, assisting with the girls’ U-18 team and leading the U-15 team.
 
Duvall was the defensive specialist on the club team while attending Old Dominion. He continues to play in several indoor and outdoor competitions and participates in both men’s and co-ed matches at the open level.