Whenever the NC State volleyball team takes the court again, it will be managed by quite a different coaching staff, including a brand new head coach, as well as five new additions to the team.
Luka Slabe: Head Coach
Slabe joins the Wolfpack after working with USA Volleyball since 2018, most notably as the assistant coach for the USA Women’s Volleyball National Team, where he helped them qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games and take home a silver medal at the 2019 FIVB World Cup.
Before working with the national team, Slabe spent four years as an assistant coach at BYU, where they finished as NCAA runners-up in 2016 and 2017 and reached the final four in 2018. BYU also won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship in both 2016 and 2018. From 2013-2015, he was the head coach of the Slovenian National Team, where he helped to increase its world ranking after winning numerous national and international championship titles.
“Our team will be dedicated to the pursuit of mastery both on the court and in the classroom,” Slabe told NC State Athletics. “We will play hard for our fans across the country, and represent NC State with pride and honor. We will strive every day to be the best versions of ourselves and create an environment where our players continue to learn and prepare themselves for life after college.”
Leo Durkin: Volunteer Assistant Coach
Durkin is a former BYU athlete, where he played under Slabe for four seasons. At BYU, Durkin earned three consecutive AVCA All-American honors and MPSF All-Academic accolades, all while accumulating 3,282 career assists, which ranks second in BYU rally scoring history and fifth all-time. He has also played professionally for SVG Lüneburg in Germany before joining the Pack.
Megan Wargo-Kearney: Associate Head Coach
Wargo-Kearney joins NC State following four years at Arkansas, where she had a very similar position. She was an assistant coach for three seasons and was promoted to the associate head coach of the Razorbacks ahead of the 2019 season. Under her leadership, four Razorbacks earned AVCA All-South Region awards as well as All-SEC recognitions. She also spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at Truman University, guiding them to six NCAA Tournament appearances, along with two conference titles.
Along with her coaching position, she also serves as the Pack’s recruiting coordinator.
Mmachi Nwoke: Middle Blocker
Nwoke has been with the Wolfpack for a season now, but 2020 will be her first opportunity to play. She started her college career playing for Arizona State and then Kansas but transferred to NC State prior to the 2019 season where she redshirted, allowing her to use her last year of eligibility in 2020.
Nwoke hails from Grand Prairie, Texas, where she is a former Grand Prairie Offensive Player of the Year. She has 146 blocks so far in her college career.
Makenzie Taylor: Outside Hitter
Taylor started her freshman year a semester early and joined the Pack in the spring of 2020. Hailing from Mooresville, North Carolina, she was a three-time offensive player of the year for Lake Norman High School. In just a three-year period, she accumulated 721 kills and 579 digs to her name.
When asked why she chose NC State, Taylor told NC State Athletics, “I loved the campus and the team culture. I knew from my first visit here that NC State had everything I was looking for in a college environment. Everyone on the team was so welcoming and I could tell I liked the team chemistry from the start.”
Sydney Ferguson: Outside Hitter
Ferguson transferred to the Wolfpack in the spring of 2020 from Penn State. Highly recruited out of high school, she was ranked the No. 44 senior ace by PrepVolleyball in 2019 and was a four time all-conference honoree. Ferguson will join the team with four years of eligibility left as she redshirted her freshman year in Pennsylvania.
Hartley Myers: Outside Hitter
Myers will join the Pack as a freshman this season. She comes from Greer High School in Greer, South Carolina, where she was ranked in the top 15 in her 2020 graduating class. Myers is a two-time All-Region honoree and was a 2019 Under Armour Girls All-American Honorable Mention.
Riley Shaak: Middle Blocker
Shaak will also be a freshman at NC State this upcoming season. She previously attended the Academy of Notre Dame in Pennsylvania, where she was a four-year starter and the first player in her high school history to reach 1,000 career kills. A 2019 Under Armour All-American Honorable Mention as well, Shaak was a two-time first-team member for Delaware County and was a four-time All-Intreac and All-Main Line conference member.
With the many new additions to the roster and coaching staff, the 2020 season is sure to be exciting.
