Gabrielle Houston Neville

Gabrielle Houston is the Head Women's Volleyball Coach at UC Santa Cruz.

Gabrielle Houston was named the UC Santa Cruz women's volleyball program's 12th head coach on August 2nd 2018.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Director of Athletics Sue Harriman. “After having a nationwide search, we found a person who rose to the top as a women’s volleyball coach. And to have her be local makes it that much sweeter. To have someone who knows the lay of the land is such a positive move.”

By her second season, Houston led the Banana Slugs to an eight-win improvement, resulting in the 2019 ACAA Conference title. She also won the league's Coach of the Year award while four players made the league's First Team.
Her third season in 2021 was one of the school's best ever. The team finished with 18 wins, including their first-ever season sweep of Cal Lutheran, a first-ever AVCA national ranking and senior Claire Okerlund earning Coast-To-Coast Conference Player of the Year and AVCA All-American honors. These all helped Houston be named Conference Coach of the Year.
Houston won her third consecutive Conference Coach of the Year award in 2022 after the Banana Slugs reached their highest national ranking ever, defeated their highest-ranked opponent ever (#2 Trinity which broke the Tigers' 43-match home win streak) and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.

Houston is no stranger to UC Santa Cruz. Her father James was a longtime Professor of Creative Writing at the University and her sister Cori served as the Banana Slugs' women's soccer coach 1988-95 before becoming the Athletics Director.

Houston came to UCSC after nine years as the head coach at Cabrillo College in nearby Aptos. In her tenure at Cabrillo, she amassed a whopping 239-31 record while leading the Seahawks to 9 straight Coast Conference Championships, a pair of state titles and reaching the Final Four on four occasions. In 2013, her 5th season, Cabrillo won their first-ever CCCAA state championship title and became the first Northern California team in the 36-year history of the CCCAA to win a state championship. She coached 10 All-State players, 8 All-NorCal, 7 Coast Conference MVPs, 18 All-State tournament and 5 All-Americans. Houston is also Director of the Main Beach Volleyball Club, one of the top juniors volleyball clubs in Northern California.

Prior to Cabrillo, Houston took over a struggling high school program at Mount Madonna High School (2006 - 2009) in Watsonville, one of the smallest schools in the state with a coed student population of under 60. In her first year, Mt. Madonna's league standing improved from last place in the SCCAL to 3rd place and a first-ever CCS playoff berth. The following season in 2007, she guided the school to its first league title. With only 9 players, Mt. Madonna took the momentum of a conference championship into the CCS tournament and eventually the CIF State Championship, the first-ever in school history and the first SCCAL team in over 10 years to win a State Title.