Noelle Rooke was elevated to associate head coach of the Pepperdine beach volleyball team in August 2024. The 2026 campaign will be her fourth on the staff.
"I’m happy and excited Noelle accepted the position,” said Sicoli. “She has a mix of experience on and off the court which will make our program better every day. I look forward to working with Noelle for years to come.”
Rooke comes to Pepperdine after spending five seasons at CSUN, where she was the assistant coach for the women’s indoor squad for four seasons and at the helm of the beach program for four seasons.
“It is a dream come true for me to work and coach at Pepperdine University,” said Rooke. “I was raised in Agoura Hills, which is just through the canyon, and grew up attending Pepperdine men's volleyball games, Marv Dunphy volleyball camps, and had the pleasure of working at Marv's camps from 2007 to 2017. I have continued to admire all of our Waves teams over the years, and have wholeheartedly supported my husband, Max Rooke, as the associate head coach of our women's soccer program.
“Having already worked with Jeff Stork, a former Wave, Olympic Gold Medalist and Hall of Famer, I am just elated for the opportunity to work alongside and continue to learn from Marcio Sicoli, another Olympian and one of the best trainers in the game. I am most looking forward to sharing my passion for beach volleyball and life with our stellar student-athletes and aiding in the growth and development of each of them as people, students and athletes.”
In her four seasons spent with CSUN beach volleyball, Rooke led the Matadors to 54 wins, including a program-best 17-8 record in 2018. CSUN finished 16-12 in 2019 and reached the final four of the Big West Tournament at Zuma Beach. The Matadors were off to a program-best 4-1 start in 2020 before the remainder of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rooke has recorded 255 victories as an indoor head coach at four different institutions. Prior to her arrival in Northridge, she was the head coach at the University of Illinois Springfield, a NCAA Division II institution where she spent two seasons with the Prairie Starts and collected 28 wins.
In the classroom under her guidance, she had 19 student-athletes earn Great Lakes Valley Conference All-Academic accolades, while two student-athletes earned Division II Athletic Director Association (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Awards for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or higher.
Before her arrival at UIS, Rooke was at the helm at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., for eight seasons. While with the Bears, she became the winningest coach in program history, guiding Mercer to 98 victories and qualifying for the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament seven times. Rooke’s teams set eight school records and she coached the first player in Mercer history to have 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career as well as the school’s all-time leaders in assists and kills. Additionally, she also coached the 2006 Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year and the 2010 Libero of the Year during her eight seasons in Macon.
Highlighting Rooke’s tenure at Mercer was an 18-11 campaign in 2008 that included a 13-7 record in the Atlantic Sun Conference, which earned her the league’s Coach of the Year award. The 13 wins in conference play were the most in school history. Her 2008 squad also ranked 16th in the nation in digs per set and was just as successful off the court, as the squad was honored with Mercer’s Scholastic Award, which is given to the team with the highest GPA. Also, nine members of the team were named to the A-Sun’s Academic Honor Roll.
Prior to her arrival at Mercer, Rooke had a three-season stint as head coach at Rowan University, a NCAA Division III school in Glassboro, N.J., where she went 65-27 and led the Profs to the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in program history. During the 2002 season, her squad went 27-8 and won the New Jersey Athletic Conference championship, earning Rooke the league’s Coach of the Year honor.
Rooke first became a head coach at the University of South Carolina Aiken, a NCAA Division II institution, where she posted a 64-42 record in three seasons. Highlighting her tenure at Aiken was a 29-10 season in 1997 and two players earning Academic All-American accolades.
Rooke was a student-athlete herself at Florida Southern College, where she served as a team captain and was the program’s Most Valuable Player after earning second team All-Conference honors as a senior.
She is an Agoura Hills, Calif. native, and earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology, with a double minor in psychology and criminology, from Florida Southern in 1996. Her husband, Max Rooke, is the associate head soccer coach with the Waves.
