The 2017 campaign will be Jay Petty’s second as an assistant coach at Loyola University Chicago, following one year at Northwestern University, where he spent the 2015 season as a volunteer assistant coach for the women's program.
Petty was instrumental in helping Loyola to nine wins in Missouri Valley Conference play, its most since joining the league, and a berth in the MVC Tournament, in 2016. Last fall, the Ramblers knocked off a pair of Power 5 conference foes, defeating Wake Forest to win the Demon Deacon Classic, and Mississippi State.
He helped cultivate four All-MVC honorees, including Morgan Reardon, who became the first player in program history to earn First Team All-MVC recognition. Gabi Maciagowski was lauded as a Second Team All-MVC pick, while Quinn Spieker and Delilah Wolf earned MVC All-Freshman Team recognition.
Off the court, the Ramblers experienced abundant success, with Reardon and Maddy Moser earning spots on the MVC Women’s Volleyball Scholar-Athlete Team, while Reardon was hailed as the State Farm MVC Good Neighbor Award recipient. As a team, Loyola also was saluted by the NCAA with a Public Recognition Award for having an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score in the top 10 percent of its sport.
Before transitioning to coaching, Petty had a standout career as a player, capped by two years playing professionally overseas as a member of both Greece's G.C. Lamia and Finland's Kokkola Tiikerit. As a member of the Lewis men's volleyball team, Petty helped lead the Flyers to the 2012 MIVA Tournament title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. That year, Petty was named an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Second-Team All-America after ranking eighth in the nation in kills per set.
A five-time MIVA All-Academic honoree, Petty received a bachelor's degree in Criminal and Social Justice from Lewis in 2011 before going on to earn his master's degree in 2013.
