Tufts University Women's Volleyball

Thompson is a four-time New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year who has led the Jumbos to six NCAA Tournament berths. Now in her 14th season, Thompson runs one of the top programs in New England. A 1999 graduate of Tufts who played for the Jumbos, Coach Thompson has guided the team to NCAA berths in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2014. Tufts hosted NCAA Regionals in Cousens Gym in 2008 and 2009. They won the Regional title and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2009. Thompson's first NCAA team in 2005 played into the Regional final. Thompson was named the conference's Coach of the Year for the fourth time in 2014 after winning the honor in back-to-back seasons for 2008 and 2009 and for the first time in 2004. Three times she has directed Tufts to the #1 seed in NESCAC for the regular-season and her teams have played in five conference championship finals. Her teams have an outstanding 100-30 record in conference play (.769 winning percentage), always finishing with a winning mark. The program has qualified for the NESCAC Championship tournament every year since she took over. The Jumbos' NESCAC victory at Hamilton College on October 30 of last season was the 300th of Coach Thompson's career. Her Tufts teams have compiled a 300-109 overall record during her 13-year tenure. The .733 career winning percentage ranks her 20th on the NCAA Division III active coaches list. Among her 300 wins are a 28-6 season in 2004, a 29-7 finish in 2005, a 29-4 record in 2008, a 31-5 mark for 2009 and a 26-6 tally in 2011. In addition to her NESCAC Coach of the Year honors, Thompson has also been recognized as the New England Women's Volleyball Association (NEWVA) Coach of the Year two times (2008 and 2004). Student-athletes recruited to Tufts by Thompson have excelled athletically and academically. Maddie Kuppe, a senior last season, earned American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Second Team All-American honors for 2015. She was one of just three players in New England on the top two All-American teams. Jumbos receive AVCA All-America accolades regularly, with setter Dena Feiger earning second team AVCA All-America in 2009. Feiger was named NESCAC Player of the Year that season, an award for which Kendall Lord was a co-recipient in 2011.  Kuppe was also an Academic All-District selction last fall, one of just two NESCAC players to receive the honor. Feiger and defensive specialist Natalie Goldstein were selected to the AVCA Academic All-America Team during their careers. Dozens of Jumbo volleyball players have been named to the Academic All-NESCAC teams under Coach Thompson, including five last season. Thompson has been associated with the volleyball program for 20 years since enrolling at Tufts from Half Moon Bay, California in 1995.  She was a defensive specialist for the Jumbos, and was a sophomore on the 1996 Tufts team that was the first to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.  She also played in three NCAA Tournaments as a four-year starter at shortstop on the softball team.  Graduating in 1999, Thompson went on to earn her Master's degree in Education from Tufts in 2001. After three seasons as an assistant coach with the Jumbos, she was promoted to head coach of the volleyball program in 2002. Cora and her wife Kendra live in Stow, Massachusetts with their daughter, Taedyn, and their son, Tucker. #