The fourth episode of Hatter Chatter … The Podcast, presented by Insight Credit Union, features Hatters beach volleyball coach Kristina Hernandez, which is only appropriate since one year ago this weekend her team upset No. 1 USC in the opening round of the NCAA Championship.
 
A native of McAllen, Texas, Hernandez was a basketball player in her younger days before the volleyball coach at her school started looking for players. She quickly realized volleyball was her passion and switched to the sport full-time.
 
After high school, wanting to leave south Texas, she attended North Carolina A&T to play volleyball there, earning All-Conference honors three times. After college, she went to St. Mary's in California as a volunteer assistant, just looking to get experience.
 
It was only months later when she was hired to take over the volleyball program at Loyola University in Maryland. She was just 23 years-old at the time. After turning the Greyhounds around in short order, she took over a well-established program at Hofstra in 2008, leading the Pride to 93 wins over six seasons.
 
Her goal was to someday live and work in Florida and, in 2014, that opportunity came along when she took over the Stetson court program while at the same time leading the fledgling beach volleyball program. She led both programs for three years before moving to beach volleyball full time in the spring of 2016.
 
The rest, they say, is history. She is third all-time in beach volleyball victories with 156 and has posted an incredible 49-3 mark in ASUN play over six seasons, winning the regular season title four times and sharing it another. Her program has captured five of the last six ASUN tournament titles and has advanced to the national tournament (either AVCA or NCAA) four times.
 
Last spring the program posted its second straight 30-win season and finished with a No. 6 national ranking. The goals for 2020 were higher, but never had a chance to materialize when the season was cut short.

Spend some time getting to know another one of the people who makes Stetson Athletics great in this edition of Hatter Chatter … The Podcast, presented by Insight Credit Union. In addition to being available at GoHatters.com/podcasts, Hatter Chatter is also available at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and others.

Listeners can provide feedback, ask questions or make suggestions for future guests via email at HatterChatter@Stetson.edu.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.