Rayna Cain is in her ninth season as the head volleyball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University. In her eight seasons, Cain has compiled an overall record of 119-104 (.534). She is one of only three NWU volleyball coaches to surpass 100 career wins. Cain has led the Prairie Wolves to one NCAA III National Tournament.
During her tenure, Cain has had 26 players earn All-Conference recognition in her eight seasons and coached two different players (Mackenzie Hite, 2012; Alyssa Stanek, 2014) to AVCA All-America honorable mention selections. Her teams have garnered the AVCA Academic Team award in all eight years.
Since joining the new league, Cain has guided the Prairie Wolves to the six-team conference postseason tournament in three of the four seasons. Last year, NWU hosted a conference tournament match for the first time since 1986 and advanced to the tournament semifinals. NWU finished 2019 with a 20-8 overall record, including ten straight wins until falling in the A-R-C Tournament semifinal match.
In 2016, Cain led the Prairie Wolves to a 15-14 overall record and a 5-3 mark in the first season competing in the Iowa Conference. NWU earned the No. 4 seed in the IIAC Postseason Tournament, qualifying for their first conference tournament since 1994. She had two players earn 1st-Team All-IIAC as well as the IIAC Freshman of the Year. The previous year Cain guided the Prairie Wolves to a 9-19 overall record, going 6-6 against NCAA III competition despite not having a single senior on the squad.
Her most successful season came in 2014 when Cain took the Prairie Wolves back to national prominence. NWU finished 22-7 overall and qualified for the NCAA III National Tournament for the first time since 2010. She guided NWU to a perfect 12-0 regular season record against NCAA III opponents as the Prairie Wolves got the No. 1 seed at the St. Thomas Regional. NWU finished the season ranked No. 19 in the AVCA/DIII poll, the highest end of year ranking for the program since 2002. Nebraska Wesleyan went 10-6 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference to finish fourth in the league standings.
Cain guided NWU to a 20-8 overall record, going 10-2 against NCAA Division III competition in 2013. She helped the Prairie Wolves finish 10-6 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference to finish fifth in the GPAC standings. Seven of the eight losses on the year were to teams that were at one point ranked in either the NAIA or NCAA III Top 25.
In her first season as head coach of the Prairie Wolves, she led the team to a 13-15 overall record and a 7-9 mark in the GPAC to finish tied for sixth in the league standings. Cain’s squad posted two big victories on the season upsetting #14 Doane College on Oct. 2, 2012 ending a 20-match losing streak to their rivals. NWU then swept Northwestern 3-0 on Oct. 13 for their first win over the Red Raiders since 2000.
She came to Nebraska Wesleyan after spending two seasons as the assistant women’s volleyball coach at Des Moines Area Community College. Prior to that, she served as the head volleyball coach at Dana College for four seasons before the school closed in 2010.
While at Dana College, Cain helped develop a successful program with the Vikings taking the team from six victories in her first season to a 22-14 record in her fourth season. At Dana she coached five All-GPAC players, six NAIA Scholar Athletes and had the program’s best season since 1993.
Before becoming head coach at Dana College, Cain served as head volleyball coach at Neligh-Oakdale High School for three seasons. She led the team to two conference titles, two district titles and consecutive trips to the Nebraska State Volleyball Tournament. Her combined record was 51-19 in three seasons at Neligh-Oakdale H.S.
She now has a 173-187 overall record in eleven years as a collegiate head coach.
Cain is a graduate from Wayne State College where she was a four-time First-Team All-Northern Sun Conference selection in volleyball and finished her career fourth on the all-time kill list. She helped Wayne State to the 2001 NSIC regular season title and became the first Wayne State athlete to be named All-NSIC in all four seasons. In the fall of 2011, she was inducted into the Wayne State Athletic Hall of Fame. She earned her bachelor and master’s of science in Exercise Science/Wellness from Wayne State College.
Cain and her husband Brett have three children, Sydnie, Adley and Emry.
Coach Cain's Record at NWU
| Year |
Overall Record |
Conference Record |
| 2012 |
13-15 |
7-9 (GPAC) |
| 2013 |
20-8 |
10-6 (GPAC) |
| 2014 |
22-7 |
10-6 (GPAC) |
| 2015 |
9-19 |
3-13 (GPAC) |
| 2016 |
15-14 |
5-3 (IIAC) |
| 2017 |
11-7 |
3-5 (IIAC) |
| 2018 |
9-16 |
2-6 (A-R-C) |
| 2019 |
20-8 |
5-3 (A-R-C) |
| Career |
119-104 |
45-51 |
