Kansas Wesleyan Women’s Volleyball has added Maliah Blakemore to the coaching staff as a full-time assistant coach as announced by head coach Jessica Biegert.

Blakemore comes to Kansas Wesleyan after spending the previous two seasons as the head coach at Hannibal-LaGrange University in Hannibal, Mo., where she led the Trojans to 25 wins. She was named as the American Midwest Conference (AMC) Coach of the Year in 2021, leading HLGU to a nine-win improvement from the prior season. She also helped HLGU to its best record in the last 15 years.

“I’m honored to get the opportunity to be the assistant coach for women’s volleyball at KWU,” Blakemore said. “I’m excited to learn from Coach Biegert and help this already successful program. I am excited to get things going here.”

“Maliah has an impressive resume with the fast rebuild she did as a head coach at Hannibal,” Wesleyan head coach Jessica Biegert said. “We are honored to add a AMC Coach of the Year to help us reach new strides in our program. She will push our team to reach our full potential with high standards while refusing to accept shortcomings.”

Prior to becoming the head coach at Hannibal-LaGrange, Blakemore was a graduate assistant for the Trojans for one season in 2020.

Prior to arriving at HLGU, Blakemore played four seasons at Lincoln Christian University where she was selected to the AII (Association of Independent Institutions, now Continental Athletic Conference) Second Team All-Conference in 2016 and 2017, followed by First Team All-Conference selections in 2018 and 2019. She was named as the 2019 AII Setter of the Year.

She was selected to the AII All-Tournament all four years at Lincoln Christian. She finished her career ranked third all-time in assists at LCU. While at LCU, the women’s volleyball team qualified for the NAIA National Volleyball Tournament twice.

Blakemore played at Quincy High School in Quincy, Ill., and was a three-year starter. As a senior she led Illinois High School Class 4A in assists.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in communications from Lincoln Christian, and a Masters degree in organizational leadership in business from HLGU.