Ryan Mather was promoted to head coach of the Long Island University men's volleyball team in June 2026. Prior to being promoted, Mather was the assistant coach at LIU during the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Over the past two seasons, Mather helped guide the Sharks to back-to-back NEC Tournament appearances, including a second-place finish in the final standings in 2025. Five players earned first-team all-conference recognition over the past seasons, including two NEC major award winners, Isaac Benka (Defensive Player of the Year, 2025) and Kale Spencer (Player of the Year, 2026).
Prior to LIU, Mather served as an assistant coach with the Rutgers University women's volleyball program during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Mather's first season with the Scarlet Knights was highlighted by the program's first-ever All-Big 10 attacker, the most wins, best non-conference record since 2012 and a school record in attendance. With Mather on the sideline, the Scarlet Knights placed 12 entries into the rally-era individual season top 10 records and 13 entries into the rally-era team top 10 records while collecting the most sets played, kills, assists, assists per set, digs and solo blocks by a Rutgers team in conference play since joining the Big 10 in 2014. Mather started his career coaching as an assistant at Lafayette College in August 2022. In January 2023, he served as the interim head coach for 4 months at Lafayette.
Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Mather played professionally around the globe. He earned MVP, best scorer, best server and best opposite honors in the Volleyligaen of Denmark. While there he registered 45 points in one match, the most in Danish league history. Additionally, he played in the CEV Challenge Cup with Chev-Diekirch in Luxembourg and was a member of Akaa-Volley in Finland.
Domestically, he has played in the National Volleyball Association and Volleyball League of America. Mather brought home a gold medal in 2022, a silver medal in 2021 and a bronze medal in 2020 with the Las Vegas Ramblers of the NVA. After switching to the Texas Tyrants in 2023, where he earned a bronze medal, and while in the NVA he acquired the best opposite award in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. After moving to the VLA with team LVC in 2024, he earned another best opposite award at the VLA Cup tournament.
Mather graduated from Grand Canyon University with a degree in exercise science in 2015. He was a three-time all-conference honoree and three-time all-academic team member with the Lopes, having also been selected to the United States Junior National Training U21 Team.
