Ariel Apolinario enters his third season as an assistant coach at UNLV after joining the staff in March 2018. Apolinario made the move to UNLV and Las Vegas after serving the previous two years in the same role at Rice University in Houston.
In two years with the Rebel volleyball program, Apolinario has helped produce a total of 42 wins and back-to-back trips to the postseason, with semifinal and second-round appearances in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
More impressively, UNLV's 42 victories are the most in the first two years of a new coaching staff's tenure in program history.
Additionally, the 22- and 20-win totals from 2018 and 2019, respectively, have already matched the most 20-win seasons by a Rebel coaching staff, tying two apiece Allison Keeley (2004-10) and Cindy Frederick (2011-17) eras.
In these two seasons, Apolinario has helped Mariena Hayden and Kate Brennan earn All-Mountain West honors twice over with the former being named to the all-conference team, while the latter has earned honorable mention accolades.
In his first season with the Rebel program, Apolinario helped guide the Scarlet & Gray to an overall record of 22-12 and a fifth-place finish (10-8) in the Mountain West. The team earned an at-large berth in the NIVC and advanced to the semifinals after it defeated UC Irvine, Fresno State and Portland, before a season-ending loss to Iowa State.
Delving deeper, those 22 wins in 2018 helped UNLV post a plus-14-win differential from the previous season’s eight-win haul, which marked the largest improvement by an NCAA Division squad that season.
The Rebels concluded the year ranked in the top 100 of eight different NCAA statistical categories, such as: first in aces (251), third in aces per set (1.93), 38th in team kills (1,655), 61st in team assists (1,526), 66th in hitting percentage (.235), 67th in team total attacks (4,369), 80th in winning percentage (.647) and 99th in team digs (1,827).
Individually, Hayden led the NCAA in aces (114) and aces per set (0.90) and finished the year second overall in points (690.0), fifth in points per set (5.43) and 10th in total kills (543). Hayden's 114 aces were not only a UNLV single-season record, but they were the third most recorded by an NCAA student-athlete since the 25-point scoring format was adopted in 2008.
In 2019, UNLV began the season slowly with a 4-9 showing before it turned things around with a nine-match win streak that evolved into a run of 16 wins in 18 contests to finish the campaign. In all, the Rebels went 20-11 overall and finished third in the MW behind a 15-3 mark.
After starting the year with a pair of losses to Wyoming and then-No. 17 Colorado State, UNLV began 16-2 stretch with a 3-1 win at San Diego State, which was the catalyst to rewriting four single-season records: 15 conference wins, eight conference wins, eight-match road win streak and eight-match conference road win streak.
Statistically speaking, UNLV was ranked in the top 100 nine times: second in aces (241), fifth in aces per set (1.88), 21st in team kills (1,688) and team assists (1,568), 52nd in team total attacks (4,358), 71st in hitting percentage (.233), 79th in winning percentage (.645), 83rd in assists per set (12.25) and 85th in kills per set (13.19).
Once again, Hayden excelled under the coaching staff's tutelage, finishing the 2019 campaign first in aces per set (0.69), third in service aces (70), 39th in points per set (4.70), 78th in kills per set (3.76) and 80th in points (479.5) despite missing time due to an injury.
At Rice, Apolinario assisted as offensive coordinator and worked specifically with the outside and right-side hitters. The Owls won 20 matches in 2016 and 21 in 2017 towards a combined 41-21 overall record. This past season, Rice competed in the inaugural National Invitational Volleyball Championship and earned a berth in the C-USA Tournament. In 2016, the Owls advanced to the C-USA Championship's title game.
Additionally, he guided Chelsey Harris and Madison McDaniel to 2016 American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America Team Honorable Mention honors after the duo and teammate Portia Okafor earned AVCA All-Southwest Region Team recognition that same season. Last year, Grace Morgan was also an AVCA All-Southwest Region Team honoree. Both Harris and McDaniel were 2016 C-USA All-Conference First Team performers, while Morgan achieved the same status in 2017. In all, five members from both the 2016 and 2017 squads represented the Owls on the C-USA's First, Second or Freshman Teams, including Nicole Lennon the conference's freshman of the year.
Prior to his tenure in the Lone Star State, the Cuban national was an assistant coach at Ohio University, and served as defensive coordinator with a focus on setters and middle blockers. The Bobcats went 48-14 in his two seasons in Athens, which included a 29-3 mark in Mid-American with a pair of MAC East titles as well as one regular-season and conference tournament championship that resulted in a trip to the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
Ohio had a total of six student-athletes earn all-conference honors, highlighted by Abby Gilleland's selection as an AVCA All-America Honorable Mention and two-time All-Region representative as well as the MAC's Player and Setter of the Year. Both Meredith Ashy and Kelly Lamberti were also tabbed AVCA All-Region Honorable Mention, while the former was the conference's defensive player of the year.
He also spent two years at Austin Peay State University, where the Lady Govs won 30 total matches and 19 in Ohio Valley play.
On the court, Apolinario played two years and then-NAIA member Newman University before the program was dropped. He transferred to NCAA Division II-member King University, and was a founding member of the Tornado volleyball program and was a two-time all-conference team member. He graduated from King University in 2010 with a degree in Spanish and a minor in coaching.
Apolinario has also served as a head coach of the Northeast Tennessee Volleyball Club system for three seasons, Willowbrook Volleyball Club for two and the Memphis Juniors Volleyball Association for one.
