Danielle Marante - Women's Volleyball Coach

Danielle Marante

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
dmarante@unca.edu / volleyball@unca.edu
Phone:
232-5659

Career Record: 96-73 (7 Seasons)
Record at Asheville: 23-30 (2 Seasons)

Danielle Marante begins her third season at the helm of the UNC Asheville volleyball program in 2026. In 2025, Marante led the Bulldogs to their first appearance in the Big South Conference Championship match since 2006. Although Asheville fell in the title match, the Bulldogs capped a resurgent postseason with back-to-back wins, including a statement upset of No. 1 seed Winthrop to advance to the championship.

The Bulldogs closed the regular season with consecutive sweeps, highlighted by a sweep of Ingles I-26 Rival USC Upstate to secure the No. 4 seed in the Big South Tournament—the program’s highest regular-season finish since 2018.

At the conclusion of the regular season, Michelle Thao was named Co-Libero of the Year and earned First Team All-Conference honors. Thao became the first player in program history to receive the Libero of the Year award and earned the program’s first major individual on-court award since 2000. Two additional Bulldogs were honored: Kylie Cackovic (Honorable Mention All-Conference) and Albertine van der Goot (Honorable Mention All-Conference and Academic All-Conference). With three honorees, Asheville recorded its most All-Conference selections since 2018.

In Marante’s first season, the Bulldogs advanced to the Big South Conference Championship for the first time since 2019. After opening the year 0-2, Asheville rattled off seven straight wins, marking the program’s best 7-2 start since the 2009 season.

The Bulldogs also earned their first conference-opening win since 2019 with a 3-1 victory over Radford. That match marked Asheville’s return to competition following a 23-day hiatus and team relocation in the aftermath of Helene. Asheville returned to the Justice Center on Nov. 1—52 days after its previous home match—with a straight-set victory over Charleston Southern, before closing the opening home weekend with a 3-1 win over Presbyterian on Nov. 2.

Individually, Kylie Cackovic was named to the Big South All-Conference First Team for her efforts during the 2024 season, marking the first Bulldog to earn first-team honors since 2019, and Albertine van der Goot earned Academic All-Conference honors.

Danielle Marante was named the Head Volleyball Coach for UNC Asheville on Feb. 12, 2024.

Marante comes to Asheville from Division II Tusculum University, where she led the Pioneers to five straight South Atlantic Conference tournament appearances, capped off by a tournament championship this past fall. Marante compiled a 73-43 record through five seasons, including a 56-25 mark in conference. She leaves Tusculum with the fourth-most wins in program history and the fifth-best winning percentage (.629) in program history. She coached 15 All-Conference selections, five All-Region selections, three All-Americans, and six All-Freshman players, including the 2019 South Atlantic Conference and Southeast Region Freshman of the Year Emiah Burrowes. Marante led the Pioneers to NCAA tournament berths in 2021 and 2023.

Before Tusculum, Marante served as the recruiting coordinator at Marshall University for two seasons.

As a student-athlete, she had one of the most successful careers in the history of the Tampa volleyball program. She became just the fourth player in the history of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) to earn All-America honors four times. She was also an All-Sunshine State Conference selection and an All-Region choice in each of her four seasons with the Spartans. She was also selected as the 1999 Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year and the 1996 SSC Freshman of the Year.

During her playing career, she led the Spartans to four SSC Championships while posting a 52-4 league record (.929) in her four seasons at Tampa. The Spartans also accounted for a 128-17 overall record (.883), which included four trips to the NCAA II Tournament. Tampa finished as national runner-up in 1996 and 1999 and advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1998.
Marante was the first Tampa student-athlete to be voted the Sunshine State Conference Female Athlete of the Year and is the all-time leader in assists at both Tampa and the SSC, having dished out 6,213 for her career. For her efforts, she was inducted into the University of Tampa Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame in 2006. She was also named the top player for the SSC Silver Anniversary Team.

She graduated from the University of Tampa with a bachelor’s degree in 2000 and later earned her master’s degree in education in 2003 from Fayetteville State University.