Jeff Meeker, a nine-time Conference Coach of the Year, has compiled an impressive 498-332 collegiate volleyball record, highlighted by an unparalleled run of success through 23 seasons at Cornell College. His 437 wins on the Hilltop are the most by a Cornell coach in any sport.
Meeker was named Cornell's Director of Athletics in January 2023, after leading the athletics department in an interim role since July 2022. He oversees all operations within Cornell Athletics, which includes 20 NCAA Division III intercollegiate sports.
Meeker was recipient of the 2024 Midwest Conference Meritorious Service Award and inducted in the Mount Vernon High School Hall of Fame in 2023.
Meeker's Rams have won 12 consecutive MWC regular-season championships, the first volleyball program in MWC history to win more than three in a row. The Rams have qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament 11 of the past 13 non-COVID seasons (2011-15, 2017-18, 2021-24) and hosted the program's first-ever NCAA Regional in 2023.
Cornell has reeled off 16 consecutive seasons with a .500 record or better. The Rams are 127-4 (regular season and tournament) against MWC foes since rejoining the league in 2012. They have won 283 matches over the past 11 full seasons, while landing all of the program's 11 All-Americans in Ilah Perez-Johnson (Second Team, 2024; Honorable Mention, 2022 and 2023), Clare Green (Honorable Mention, 2023), Rory Light (Second Team, 2022; Honorable Mention, 2021), Sydney Meeker (Honorable Mention, 2019), Nicole Ciari (Second Team, 2018), Jillian Schulte (Honorable Mention, 2017-18), Diamond Boyd (Second Team, 2016), Kylea Weber (Third Team, 2014), Taylor Dicus (Honorable Mention, 2014) and Kathleen O'Connor (First Team, 2013; Honorable Mention, 2011).
A Mount Vernon native, Meeker sports a 437-267 record at Cornell. He has been named Coach of the Year six times in the Midwest Conference (2012-17), twice in the Iowa Conference (2004, 2010) and once in the Midwest Classic Conference (1997, at Iowa Wesleyan College).
Meeker has coached 68 all-conference selections and 25 all-region performers during his time on the Hilltop. Cornell has boasted the conference’s Player of the Year 11 times since 2009.
During the 2020-21 pandemic season, Cornell achieved its highest national ranking at No. 11 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll.
The 2014 Rams won two matches in the NCAA Tournament – the first two in program history – before their fine 26-7 season ended with a five-set loss to UW-Stevens Point in a regional final (Sweet 16). Cornell finished the year ranked 20th in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll.
The 2013 squad compiled a stellar 28-4 record and finished No. 23 in the AVCA Top 25. In 2012, Meeker's senior-less Rams went 20-11 overall and bowed out in a five-set, first-round battle to eventual NCAA champion St. Thomas on the Tommies' home floor.
Meeker steered the 2011 Rams to an outstanding 28-6 campaign with a lineup dominated by freshmen and sophomores. Cornell cracked the regional rankings for the first time, won its first-ever IIAC Tournament title and carried a 14-match winning streak into its first NCAA Tournament. O’Connor became the program’s first volleyball All-American.
Meeker guided the Rams to the IIAC Tournament nine times from 2002-2011. His 2004 Coach of the Year award came in a season which Cornell went 23-13 and took runner-up in the IIAC Tournament.
Meeker, a former instructor in Cornell's kinesiology department, received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Knox College in 1993. He earned a master's degree in sport psychology from the University of Iowa in 1995.
In 1993-94, Meeker was a volunteer volleyball assistant at the University of Iowa. He then enjoyed a successful run as head coach at Iowa Wesleyan, compiling a 61-68 record from 1995-98. Meeker revamped a program that won nine matches in his initial season to 20 wins in 1998.
From 1999-2002, Meeker was an assistant men's volleyball coach at St. Ambrose prior to taking over Cornell’s program.
Meeker and his wife, Monica, have four children: Sydney, Jackson, Jayden and Jensen.
