Kayani Turner is in her fourth season as assistant coach at Southeast Missouri. She serves as the primary coach for the outside hitters and is the Redhawks’ recruiting coordinator. Turner also assists in the scouting of opponents, film breakdown and practice planning.
Turner helped lead the Redhawks to their first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament appearance since 2008 in her first season as assistant coach in 2011. Southeast also won their first OVC Tournament contest since 2006.
She helped the Redhawks improve their hitting percentage by over fifty points from 2010. Southeast also averaged 12.6 kills per set in 2012, an improvement of over a kill per set from the 2010 season. Southeast’s hitting percentage was just shy of .200 in 2012 when the Redhawks captured the OVC West Division crown.
Turner came to Southeast after serving as the graduate assistant coach at Western Illinois University from 2009-10. Turner was in charge of pregame and postgame administrative duties for the Leathernecks. Turner also served as the scout for Western Illinois’ serve receptions and opponents’ serving tendencies.
Turner also has a coaching background in the club volleyball ranks, serving as head coach of the Prime Time Volleyball Club in Champaign, Ill. She also served as a camp coach at the University of Illinois Volleyball Camps from 2005-12. Turner also worked as a camp coach at Precision Volleyball Camp during the summer of 2009.
Prior to her time at Western Illinois, Turner was a standout volleyball player at the University of Illinois. During her sophomore season in 2006, she led the Illini in kills with 391, which ranked fifth in the Big Ten Conference.
After sitting out her junior season due to injury, Turner returned to the court and played in 21 matches, helping lead the Illini to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. During her three years at Illinois, she appeared in 72 matches and recorded 642 kills.
Turner was a standout high school player at John Carroll High School in Bel Air, Maryland. Turner led John Carroll to a 38-1 record in her junior and senior seasons. She led the Baltimore metro area in kills during her junior and senior campaigns. In 2004, Turner earned Gatorade Player of Year for the state of Maryland. Turner was also the first volleyball player to be inducted into the John Carroll High School Hall of Fame when she was inducted in 2008.
Turner is a graduate of the University of Illinois majoring in Communication. She earned her master’s degree in Sports Management from Western Illinois.
