Women's Volleyball

Danielle Marante was named the head women’s volleyball coach at Tusculum University in January 2019, and begins her fifth season in the fall of 2023.

Marante has guided the Pioneers to the South Atlantic Confernece postseason in each of her four years as head coach, and begins the 2023 season with a career record of 51-36 which includes a 41-22 mark in conference play.

In 2022, Marante guided the Pioneers to a 14-12 overall record (12-6 SAC) and a trip to the SAC semifinals for the second consecutive year. Tusculum rebounded from an 0-5 start against quality competition, using a pair of four-match winning streaks to claim third place in the SAC Mountain Division. The Pioneers then went on the road and beat Lenoir-Rhyne 3-0 in the conference quarterfinals before being eliminated from the tournament in the semifinal round. Tusculum went 6-3 on its home court, with two of the three setbacks coming in five sets. For the first time in a decade, Tusculum had two first-team All-SAC players as senior outside hitter Emiah Burrowes and graduate libero Carly Sosnowski claimed the honors. Also receiving All-SAC recognition were senior setter Elise Carmichael and graduate rightside hitter Carli Pigza on the third team, along with freshman middle blocker Martina Foster on the All-Freshman team. Burrowes, who was named to the SAC All-Tournament team, joined Sosnowski as honorable mention AVCA All-Southeast Region selections. Academically, the Pioneers had four student-athletes named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District 3 team, as Carmichael, Pigza, Sosnowski and junior rightside hitter Peyton Gash received the accolades.

The 2021 season was a banner year for the Marante-led squad, defying the expectations of the SAC preseason ranking to finish sixth in the league. The Pioneers went 20-6 (15-3 SAC), winning the program's first SAC regular season title. TU reached the NCAA DII Tournament for the first time since 2013, the sixth berth overall. The Pioneers posted the program's 23rd season with 20 victories and first since the 2013 campaign. In 2021, Tusculum finished 11-0 inside Pioneer Arena, riding a 14-match home winning streak dating back to 2019. TU began the historic season by winning the IUP Invitational in the opening weekend (Sept. 3-4). Since the Pioneers joined the NCAA in 1998-99, the 10-1 start was the best in that span, tying two teams from the mid-1990s. The 10-match winning streak had been done just twice before and only once in the NCAA-era (2010). TU began 6-0 in SAC play for the first time since entering the league ahead of the 1999-00 season. For the first time in program history, Tusculum swept the regular season meetings against Wingate, including beating the Bulldogs in Greeneville for the first time since 2006. TU racked up four SAC AstroTurf Player of the Week honors, the first time in nearly a decade that multiple Pioneers collected the laurel. Elise Carmichael reset the program's single-season service ace per set record (0.65), good for second in NCAA II at season's end. Tusculum was seeded first in all three NCAA regional polls during the last few weeks of the regular season. Emiah Burrowes became the first player in program history to win both SAC Freshman and Player of the Year during her career after earning the latter honor in 2021. Additional postseason honors for the Pioneers included: AVCA All-America honorable mentions (two), NCAA II Southeast Region All-Tournament Team, AVCA All-Region (two), D2CCA Region Player of the Year, All-Conference (five), and SAC All-Tournament Team. In the classroom, the Pioneers collected the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the third consecutive year. In addition, 14 women's volleyball student-athletes were named to the SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll and 18 to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll. For all of her and her team's success, Marante earned SAC Coach of the Year (the first since 2012), AVCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year (the first in program history, and Tusculum's Art Argauer Coach of the Year.

Marante's second go-round was postponed to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pioneers went 2-4 (2-3 SAC) in the shortened season, tying them for ninth in the conference standings. TU garnered the final spot in the SAC Tournament due to holding the tie-breaker. This earned Tusculum a postseason berth in back-to-back seasons, the first time since the 2016 and 2017 campaigns. Marante's squad was picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, while two of her players were named to the first team. The Pioneers also claimed Zaxby's Female Athlete of the Week, All-Conference honorable mention, and All-Freshman Team laurels. In the classroom, women's volleyball saw 19 student-athletes named to the fall Athletic Director's Honor Roll, 15 to the spring edition, 10 on the SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll, six to the Division II Athletic Directors Association (D2 ADA) Academic Achievement Award, and a second-straight USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award.

In her first season as the TU leader, the Pioneers went 15-14 (12-10 SAC), the winningest season since 2014, and reached the conference tournament for the first time in two years. The Greeneville team finished in a tied for fifth in the South Atlantic Conference standings, landing them the No. 6 seed in the tournament. Tusculum defeated Division I USC Upstate in the Spartans' home gym as her second collegiate coaching victory. The team also swept season-series against UVa-Wise, Lenoir-Rhyne, Catawba, Newberry, and Coker in SAC play. Academically, 15 of her players were named to the Tusculum Athletic Director's Fall Honor Roll and was increased to 19 for the spring semester. In the 2019-20 season, the Pioneers racked up numerous honors: SAC Minority Postgraduate Scholarship recipient, AVCA Region Freshman of the Year, AVCA First Team All-Region honoree, SAC Freshman of the Year, three All-Conference selections, two SAC All-Freshman Team members, four Zaxby's Athletes of the Week, two Applebee's Student-Athletes of the Month, and one SAC Player of the Week.

Marante also took over the 2020 beach volleyball coaching role on an interim basis before COVID-19 shortened the season. The Pioneers went 2-8 in her temporary stint, facing Division I UNC Wilmington and four Florida powerhouses to end the year. In the classroom, 19 were named to the Athletic Director's Spring Honor Roll.

A four-time NCAA Division II All-American at the University of Tampa, Marante came to Greeneville after two seasons on the women’s volleyball staff at Marshall University. While at the Huntington, West Virginia school, she served as the program’s recruiting coordinator and mentored two All-Conference USA standouts in Madison Hill and Ciara Debell, along with All-Freshman selection Addisyn Rowe.

Prior to Marshall, Marante served as the head volleyball coach for the Tampa Preparatory School during the 2016-2017 academic year, while also working with the Tampa Bay One/Rogue Volleyball Club for three years. She also has five years of experience in the education sector and three more in the fitness industry, serving as a personal trainer.

As a student-athlete, she had one of the most successful careers in the history of the Tampa volleyball program, becoming 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 and was 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 to 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.