Missouri State

Ashley Emery was named Missouri State's head beach volleyball coach on July 15, 2022.

In her third season at Missouri State, the Bears continued their strong showing from 2024 with another winning season. MoState went 18-10, including winning every flight at home. The Bears opened the year one a nine-match winning streak and went 8-0 across their two season-opening tournaments at Volleyball Beach Ozark. Emery guided many longtime Bears to the top of the record books. By the end of the year, seven of the top 10 student-athletes in career wins were active players. Leading the way was Olivia Rattler, who became the first of four players to reach 50 career wins over the course of the season and led the Bears with 61 career victories to end the year. Emery also continued to grow the pairing of MacKenzie Steele and Amanda Cleary, who became the program's all-time leaders in wins by a pair with 37, all of which were in the past two years. In their second year as Conference USA affiliates, Missouri State advanced to the second day of the CUSA Tournament for the second year in a row by sweeping Tarleton State to advance out of Day 1. Emery helped senior Becca Bach become the first MoState student-athlete to make a CUSA all-conference team with her second team nod. Emery recruited Rylie Cepicky and guided her and Manuela Niemeyer to 20 wins at Flight No. 4, leading Cepicky to be the first Missouri State student-athlete to make a CUSA All-Freshman Team. The Bears had four pairs earn the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top Flight Award, doubling the team's output from 2024. 

Her second season at Missouri State was the program's most successful year in its seven-year history, bringing in team records in wins (26) and match sweeps (16). The Bears opened the year on a program-best 10-match winning streak, including seven 5-0 victories. Emery helped lead to many record performances on multiple flights, particularly at No. 5 where Brooke Plessner and Maddie Schrandt won a single-season record 27 matches. Plessner and Schrandt, as well as Olivia Muriel and Erin Eschleman, earned the Top Flight Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. In total, the Bears won 247 out of 358 sets played (.690) and finished the season 26-7, including winning 11 of their last 13 matches. In its first year in Conference USA, Missouri State won two CUSA Tournament matches, including a pivotol elimination match against UTEP, to advance to Day 2 of the tournament.

In her first season with the Bears, Emery posted the third-best record since the program's inception in 2018 going 9-13 on the year. Emery saw her young team open up its 2023 campaign on a seven-match winning streak including two wins over a 2022 NCAA Tournament team, UT Martin. Emery saw her team sweep four duals out of 22 during her first season at the helm of the young program. Under Emery's leadership, the Bears saw freshman Riley Drew onto the CSAA Academic team after going 12-8 on the year while sporting a 4.0 GPA. At the conclusion of the 2023 campaign, the Bears had captured 120 set victories.

A fixture in the Springfield volleyball community for several years, Emery spent the 2021 season as a volunteer assistant for the MSU indoor volleyball team after three seasons as an assistant at Drury University, where she helped the Panthers to the program’s first regular season Great Lakes Valley Conference championship and their first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in 2018.

She coached a pair of All-GLVC players while at Drury and helped the Panthers improve from 12th to second in the GLVC in blocking.

Emery served as interim head coach at Missouri S&T for the 2017 season following a five-year stretch as a high school coach in Oklahoma, leading the Broken Arrow varsity to three state tournament appearances from 2014-16. Prior to that, Emery guided Edison Prep in Tulsa to the school’s first-ever state tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013 and was the Green Country Coach of the Year in 2013.

A native of Osceola, Mo., the former Ashley Jurgensmeyer played collegiately at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., graduating in three years but still leaving as the program’s all-time leader in kills, attack percentage, and points. She was an all-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association selection in the during each of her three seasons playing for the Bearcats.

As a beach player, Emery competed on the Association of Volleyball Professionals semi pro tour AVPNext from 2014-16 and earned an A level ranking.

She and her husband, former MSU football player Dr. Jared Emery, have three sons, Jameson, Everett and Lincoln.
 

3 seasons | 53-30 Overall (.639), 0-2 CUSA (.000)

Head coaching record
Year	Record (Overall, Conf.)	Home Record	Away Record	Neutral Record	Tournament Finish
2023	9-13, 0-0 CCSA	8-1	1-1	0-11	Contender's Bracket - First Round
2024	26-7, 0-1 CUSA	14-0	4-1	8-6	Contender's Bracket - Third Round
2025	18-10, 0-1 CUSA	11-0	1-3	6-7	Contender's Bracket - Third Round
Total	53-30, 0-2 Conf.	33-1	6-5	14-24	--

Updated: 5/14/2025