Updated: February 19, 2025
First Day at Johns Hopkins: February 10, 2025
Bayleigh Braswell was named the 11th head coach in Johns Hopkins volleyball history on February 6, 2025. Braswell came to Homewood from nearby Loyola Maryland, where she spent the last three seasons as an assistant with the Division I Greyhounds. She took over for Matt Troy, who departed to become the head coach at Elon University.
Braswell inherits a team that posted a 33-3 record in 2024, won the Centennial Conference and NCAA Baltimore Regional titles and advanced to the NCAA Semifinals. Johns Hopkins has currently won eight consecutive Centennial Conference titles, made eight straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament and won the 2019 NCAA Championship. Since 2019, the Blue Jays have posted a record 151-17.
Braswell had served as an assistant at Loyola since 2022 and had a hand in all facets of the program's operation, including practice and game-planning, scouting and recruiting. She served as the program's recruiting coordinator, the de facto director of operations and also managed the team's social media accounts.
She helped the Greyhounds to three consecutive appearances in the Patriot League Tournament. The Greyhounds hosted a Patriot League Quarterfinal match in 2022 for the first time in program history and scored the program's first-ever win against at Big 12 opponent in 2023.
During her tenure with the Greyhounds, she helped coach three All-Patriot League selections, three players who were named to the Patriot League All-Academic Team and one Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year. The team also earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association's (AVCA) prestigious Team Academic Award in each of her three years there.
Prior to her time at Loyola, Braswell spent three years as a member of the staff at Elizabethtown College. After joining the program as an assistant coach, she was elevated to associate head coach and served as the interim head coach for a four-month span in 2022.
Braswell helped the Blue Jays reach the Landmark Conference semifinals in each of her seasons there after the program had not reached the league playoffs in the five previous seasons. She was a part of Elizabethtown's considerable success in 2021, when it went 21-9 overall and 6-1 in the Landmark.
At Etown, she coached eight players who earned All-Landmark Conference honors, nine all-tournament representatives and an NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. The Blue Jays were also recipients of the AVCA's Academic Honor Roll Award during each of her seasons at Elizabethtown.
In addition to her collegiate coaching experience, Braswell coached at Spooky Nook Sports as the 17 National Team head coach from 2019-22 and was the beach volleyball coordinator at Spooky Nook as well. With the club program, she coached 18 players who went on to compete collegiately.
As a student-athlete, Braswell began her collegiate career at Louisiana Monroe in 2014 as an indoor player, appearing in all 118 sets for the Warhawks. She led the team and topped all Sun Belt Conference freshmen with 989 assists, an average of 8.38 per set, while finishing fourth in the league with 0.31 service aces per set.
She then took her skills to the beach where she went 11-8 in her first collegiate season, including posting a key win in an upset win over then-No. 19 Tulane. Braswell again led the indoor team in assists during the 2015 season, posting 912 (8.5 per set) before returning to beach that spring.
Braswell then went to Penn State, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in labor employment relations in 2019. During the 2018 season, she played in 19 matches as a defensive specialist as the Nittany Lions went 26-8 overall and reached the second round of the NCAA Championships.
Braswell and her husband, Luke, reside in nearby Parkville, Maryland.
