USF Names Souza Volleyball Coach

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Fabiana Souza has been selected as the Head Women’s Volleyball Coach at the University of Saint Francis. The announcement was made today by Mark Pope, USF Director of Athletics.

“I am thrilled to announce the selection of Fabi as our Head Coach,” said Pope. “I have known Fabi since she came to the U.S. in 2002 and have continually been impressed with her character and maturity. She is going to be a great coach.”

Souza spent two years as an Assistant Coach at IPFW and served as Assistant Coach this past year at USF. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Communications from IPFW. She is a native of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

In addition to coaching at the collegiate level, Souza is an active participant in club volleyball in the Fort Wayne community. She begins her new duties at USF immediately.

“This is an excellent opportunity to take over a program at such a fine university,” Souza said. “Of course, I am excited about the future with a strong foundation of returning student-athletes.”

A starter from her first match at IPFW, Souza earned her team’s Most Valuable Player honors each year. She was also named IPFW’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Souza currently holds the career kill record with 2,305 kills in her four-year career at IPFW. In 2004, she set a new, single-season record for kills with 621. The previous record stood for 20 years. Souza finished her collegiate career nationally ranked in kills per game, averaging 4.94/game good for 16th in the nation.

Souza finished with an average of 4.88 kills/game, 3.04 digs/game, and a .237 hitting percentage for her career.

Souza replaces Hector Kiely, who served as head coach at USF for eight seasons. Kiely, who was 88-41 in four seasons at Bishop Luers High School, led USF to three consecutive 20-win seasons and the school’s first Mid-Central College Conference regular season championship.

in the history of the program in 2003. Kiely resigned after the completion of the 2008 season for personal reasons.

Over the last five seasons Kiely’s program has produced one All-American, seven NAIA-Daktronics Scholar Athletes, six All-NAIA Region VIII honorees, 23 All-MCC selections and two MCC Freshman-of-the-Year.