Chris Phillips begins her fifth season as head coach of the Saints. In her first year, she inherited a program that finished 4-28 the prior season, and Phillips saw Maryville double its win total. In 2014, the Saints posted 15 wins, their most since the 1999 season, and Maryville posted six GLVC wins, the highest total since joining the league.
During the 2014 campaign, Phillips coached the team to a five-match winning streak, the longest at the school since the 2008 season. The Saints also defeated cross-town rival University of Missouri-St. Louis for the first time in program history.
In her inaugural 2011 season with the Saints, she helped Ashlee Brockenbrough earn third-team All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honors. In addition, the team garnered AVCA Team Academic Honors. Ali Lampen was an All-Conference Honorable Mention selection after she set the career record for digs at Maryville in 2014.
Phillips arrived at Maryville from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Spring, N.C., an NCAA Division I institution, where she served in the same position for six years. Prior to Gardner-Webb, she served as the head volleyball coach at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., another DI institution, for 11 seasons. During that time span, her teams made three appearances in the NCAA tournament (1997, 1999 and 2001) and won the Big South Conference titles those same seasons. She was named the Big South Coach of the Year in 1997 and 2003. Phillips is still the all-time wins leader at Liberty.
Her teams from 1997-2003 also received the Academic Team Award from the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) and were the No. 2 ranked team in the nation in 2001 with a team GPA of 3.69.
Phillips has registered 294 wins in her 21-year career. She earned her bachelor's degree in physical education from Greenville College in Greenville, Ill.
