In 2009, when Amy Bambenek took over as head coach of the UNC Wilmington volleyball team, the program had been struggling for years. The Seahawks had not earned a Colonial Athletic Association Tournament berth in nearly a decade, and had won only two conference matches in the previous five seasons, accumulating a 2-76 conference record from 2004 through 2008.

For a coach with no prior head coaching experience, the task of turning around the program might have been daunting, but Bambenek saw it as her opportunity after serving as an assistant coach at George Washington University for 11 years.

“It’s was tough, but I wanted the opportunity,” Bambenek said. “This is my first head coaching opportunity … so it was one of those things where all coaches have this chip on their shoulder, and they want to prove themselves. And this was my opportunity to do it. It was not easy in any way. I feel that I’ve had to change my coaching style from team to team, and even this year, I had to change it a little bit from last year. I’ve had to evolve with my team and my players as they evolve.”

Despite guiding the Seahawks to their best record since 1996 in her first season (13-18), the rebuilding didn’t come easy.

“When I first took the position, I felt that we could turn it around a little quicker,” Bambenek said. “We graduated, I think, nine players within the first two years, so I didn’t realize how many growing pains we’d have to go through with such a young team my third and fourth year. Anytime you graduate out some great players, you look to new people to step up, and now we’re very balanced across the board with talent in our senior class, our junior class, our sophomore class and our freshman class. It’s just taken awhile to get our recruiting on track so that we can be consistently good year after year, instead of the ups and downs that you see some programs go through.”

After going 43-77 in her first four seasons, Bambenek’s team turned a corner in 2013 en route to a 20-13 record and a CAA Tournament berth for the first time in 13 years. The Seahawks ended up winning their opening round match against William & Mary in the tournament before losing to Northeastern University in the semifinals.

Bambenek, though, noticed something in her team following the season-ending loss.

“When it was over, the girls were still hungry,” Bambenek said. “They said, ‘We don’t want this to be over. We want to play.’ Usually at the end of the season, most teams across the country are saying, ‘Thank God the season’s over. Let me have a break.’ There was nothing of the sort—even the seniors wanted to keep playing, and the underclassmen did not want their seasons to end. And that fuel has meant so much to our spring training and our summer training, and the fuel really ignited at that last loss of the season. That’s not something that I can tell them—that’s just the type of kids that they are, which is amazing.”

This year’s Seahawks entered the season ready to play, cruising to a 9-1 record early in the season. Senior outside hitter Morgan Kline, whom ranks 10^th in the CAA with 2.53 kills per game, and junior middle hitter Meredith Peacock, whom leads the conference with 1.53 blocks per game, have paced UNCW, which heads into the CAA Tournament as the fourth seed after finishing 20-10 (10-6 in league play).

Kline led the team in kills (317) and digs (284). She also became the seventh player in program history to break the 1,000-kill mark, surpassing Lindsey Strucko for sixth place with her 1,009 career kills.

Peacock, a Second-Team All-CAA selection last year and a Preseason All-CAA selection this year, leads the team in blocks, and her tally of 164 blocks puts her in a tie for second in the NCAA, only three behind the leader.

Recruiting players like Kline, Peacock and sophomore outside hitter Nicole Lott, who earned Second-Team All-CAA honors last season and is second on the team in kills with 249, has helped Bambenek put UNCW on the right trajectory. But it’s also been up to the players to grow and develop once they’re on campus.

“All of our best players have shown to have that self-drive,” Bambenek said. “They’ve wanted to work extra hard and extra long, over and above practices and what their teammates are doing. I usually find that that’s a key element in our best players.”

With back-to-back 20-win seasons, people outside the volleyball program have taken notice of UNCW’s success. Overall attendance has more than doubled from 2,598 in 2013 to 5,794 this year, and attendance per game has nearly doubled from 236 to 446.

Bambenek attributes social media, in part, to the sudden rise in attendance, but the increased attention has made Hanover Hall, where the Seahawks play, a home-court advantage.

“We love Hanover Hall, and the girls love our gym,” Bambenek said. “It’s a great atmosphere, and one of the best to play in of the conference. It’s great knowing that the community supports us, and that they’re seeing the progress that we’ve made in the program over the past couple of years. It always puts an extra pep in your step when your fans are there cheering us on. That was our main focus for these last three home games, making sure that we gave our fans the best performance that we can for all their support this year.”

The Seahawks won their final three home matches, finishing 9-4 at home, but with the CAA Tournament around the corner, Bambenek has her eyes set on capping off their season.

“I want to be playing in the championship match,” she said. “If we can get to that match, I think that would be successful, and I know that once we get there, you leave it all on the court because this is what we’ve been working for and may the best person win that day.”

The CAA Champion receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, which Bambenek played in while she was in college, and it’s an experience that she wants her team to have. 

“For the rest of my life that’s a match and an experience that I’ll remember,” Bambenek said. “And I want each of our girls to experience that success and that feeling once in their career here as a Seahawk. That tournament berth is certainly the ultimate goal for our program, but for this year, getting to that championship match and hopefully playing our best is really I can ask of our players.” 

UNCW will face fifth-seeded Delaware on Friday, Nov. 21, at 4 p.m. in Charleston for the opening round of the CAA Tournament. The winner will play the top-seeded College of Charleston the following day at 1 p.m.