Rayna Cain is in her fifth season as the head volleyball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University. In her first four seasons, Cain has compiled an overall record of 64-49 (.566). She is 34-15 (.694) against NCAA III competition and has led the Prairie Wolves to one NCAA III National Tournament.
Last season, 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.
In 2014, 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 To 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.
During her tenure, Cain has had 16 players earn All-GPAC recognition in her four 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 four years.
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.
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.
