Skip To Main Content

Duquesne University Athletics

Steve Opperman

Steve Opperman

  • Title
    Head Coach
  • Email
    opperman@duq.edu
  • Alma Mater
    Ohio State '87
  • Experience
    28th season
  • Hometown
    New Breman, Ohio
  • Is Duquesne's all-time winningest coach with 375 career victories
  • Four-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (co-2001, co-2004, co-2010 and 2013)
  • Has coached the first two AVCA All-Americans in program history
  • Has coached 18 First or Second Team A-10 All-Conference players (a total of 23 times)
  • Has coached just the second A-10 Rookie of the Year in Duquesne history
  • Has coached 27 A-10 All-Rookie Team members
With over 300 victories on the Bluff, head coach Steve Opperman has elevated Duquesne volleyball to a top-tier program in the Atlantic 10 Conference. He enters his 28th season at Duquesne and his 35th season overall as a head coach with 494 career wins.   
 
Opperman, whose teams have appeared in nine of the past 14 Atlantic 10 Championships, guided the Dukes to the school's first  A-10 regular season and tournament championship in 2013. The 2013 Dukes went on to make the first NCAA Championship appearance in school history.
 
In his 27 years at Duquesne, Opperman has seen nearly every team and individual record broken highlighted by program records for wins (23 in 2010) and conference wins (12 in 2013). Over the past 12 full seasons, the Dukes have averaged over 15 wins and just under eight A-10 victories per year.

A developer of talent, Opperman has coached a pair of AVCA All-Americans in Liz Homan (2010) and Arielle Love (2014) and seen 17 players earn first or second team All-Atlantic 10 honors a total of 23 times. Adding to his resume, he has coached just the second A-10 Rookie of the Year in DU history, in Chloe Wilmot (2023) while twenty-seven of his recruits have been named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team.
 
Opperman's DU teams have also excelled in the classroom. In addition to consistently ranking as one of the top performing academic teams on campus, Duquesne has been recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) numerous times for academic excellence. Opperman has seen 15 players named A-10 Academic All-Conference. 10 of his student-athletes have earned College Sport Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-District honors, with Sarah Morrow (2002) being named A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year.

Prior to his arrival in Pittsburgh, Opperman served as head coach at Wright State for seven seasons where he led the Raiders to 119 victories and a pair of berths in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. 
 
Opperman started his collegiate coaching career in 1989 as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton. The following season he took the assistant coach position at Wright State before assuming the role of head coach in 1991.
 
Opperman graduated from Ohio State in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. On the court, he was an outside hitter with the Buckeyes for the 1983-84 season leading them to a 28-11 overall record and a second place finish in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
 
The New Bremen, Ohio native holds memberships in the American Volleyball Coaches and United States Volleyball Associations. He was a voting member of the CSTV/AVCA Top 25 poll from 1999 until 2006 and served as the Atlantic 10 representative to the AVCA Head Coaches Committee from 2000-2005. In 1996, he was a panel speaker at the Final Four Volleyball Convention.

OPPERMAN YEAR-BY-YEAR
Season Team Overall Conf. Standing Postseason
1991 Wright State 22-17 4-2 2nd North Star Runner-up, National Invitational Volleyball Championship
1992 Wright State 15-17 8-8 5th
1993 Wright State 23-15 14-4 2nd Mid-Continent Runner-up, National Invitational Volleyball Championship
1994 Wright State 16-13 5-5 6th Midwestern Collegiate Quarterfinals
1995 Wright State 23-10 9-5 4th Midwestern Collegiate Semifinals
1996 Wright State 10-23 6-8 6th Midwestern Collegiate Quarterfinals
1997 Wright State 10-21 2-10 T-6th Midwestern Collegiate Quarterfinals
Total Wright State (7 seasons) 119-116 (.506) 48-42 (.533)
1998 Duquesne 8-20 3-17 10th
1999 Duquesne 10-22 4-14 8th
2000 Duquesne 15-16 4-12 7th
2001 Duquesne 16-10 8-8 T-5th
2002 Duquesne 18-12 7-7 T-4th
2003 Duquesne 13-17 6-8 6th
2004 Duquesne 15-16 7-7 4th Atlantic 10 Semifinals
2005 Duquesne 15-13 5-8 4th West
2006 Duquesne 11-21 4-9 4th West
2007 Duquesne 10-19 2-11 5th West
2008 Duquesne 15-14 3-10 5th West
2009 Duquesne 16-14 6-9 T-6th
2010 Duquesne 23-10 10-5 4th Atlantic 10 Semifinals
2011 Duquesne 19-13 8-7 5th Atlantic 10 Semifinals
2012 Duquesne 22-11 9-5 4th Atlantic 10 First Round
2013     Duquesne 20-10 12-2 1st Atlantic 10 Champions, NCAA First Round
2014     Duquesne 16-12 9-5 T-3rd Atlantic 10 First Round
2015 Duquesne 14-15 8-6 T-5th Atlantic 10 First Round
2016 Duquesne 18-12 8-6 T-4th Atlantic 10 First Round
2017 Duquesne 13-16 8-6 4th Atlantic 10 First Round
2018 Duquesne 12-16 6-8 T-5th Atlantic 10 First Round
2019 Duquesne     10-17     4-10 8th
2020 Duquesne* 1-8 1-8 T-4th West
2021 Duquesne 13-16 7-9 5th Atlantic 10 Second Round
2022 Duquesne 8-22 5-13 8th
2023 Duquesne 11-15 6-12 7th
2024    Duquesne 13-17 4-14 8th
Totals Duquesne (27 seasons) 375-404 (.482) 164-236 (.410)
Total Career (34 seasons) 494-520 (.488)

* - The Atlantic 10 played an abbreviated divisional season and four-team Championship in the spring of 2021 due to a national pandemic (Duquesne competed in the West Division);  DU did not play a non-conference schedule in 2020

 

Sponsors