Azusa Pacific University Athletics

Chris Keife will be in his 22nd season at the helm of the Azusa Pacific volleyball program in 2025. 

As the winningest coach in program history (439-217), Keife has tabbed over 100 more wins than any other Azusa Pacific volleyball coach, while compiling a winning percentage of (.669). On September 28, 2022, Keife won his 400th game at Azusa Pacific, as the Cougars beat Hawai’i Pacific in straight-sets. In the 2013 campaign Keife guided the Cougars to a National Christian College Athletics Association runner-up finish, and has taken Azusa Pacific to the national tournament nine times. Keife owns 13 of Azusa Pacific's 22 20-win seasons, reaching the 20-win plateau in each of his first 10 years at the helm of the program.

Azusa Pacific finished fourth in the PacWest standings in the 2021 and 2023 season, posting 35 wins in those two seasons.

The Cougars finished the shortened 2020 season (played in spring '21 due to COVID-19) with a record of 6-4, going undefeated against non-conference opposition. The team was able to extend their home winning streak that began in 2018 to 25 matches before finally falling in five sets to Point Loma in April.

In 2019, Keife guided the Cougars to a 28-5 season, a third straight NCAA Division II West Region Tournament appearance, and the program’s second consecutive PacWest Championship. At the West Regional, Azusa Pacific advanced to the Regional Championship game, where it fell in five sets to the host and eventual National Champions, Cal State San Bernardino. The Cougars’ trip to the regional title marked the furthest the program had advanced in the NCAA tournament, as Azusa Pacific bowed out in the first round in both 2017 and 2018. Due to his leadership and the team’s performance, Keife was named the PacWest Coach of the Year for the second-consecutive season, as he was selected for the honor in 2018 as well.

During the 2018 campaign, the Cougars went 24-7 and captured the program’s first ever conference title. In PacWest play, Azusa Pacific finished 20-2, which was the most conference wins in a single season at that time. Of the Cougars’ 24 victories,16 of them were in a dominating, three-set fashion.

In 2017, he guided the squad to the NCAA postseason for the first time during the program's tenure in the NCAA - which started in the 2014 season. The Cougars reached the tournament by going 22-6 over the regular season, and they were awarded with the fifth-seed.

Prior to the NCAA era, Keife had elevated the program to elite status in the NAIA. No other Azusa Pacific volleyball coach had orchestrated four consecutive 20-win seasons or back-to-back NAIA Tournament appearances, yet Keife accomplished both in his first four campaigns. He is also the only Cougar mentor to post 10 consecutive winning conference records between the Pacific West and Golden State Athletic Conference, which was widely regarded as the NAIA's toughest volleyball conference.

Thus, the fact that Keife was recognized by his conference coaching peers as a two-time GSAC Coach of the Year (2005 and 2009) represents a significant achievement. When he won the award in 2005, his squad registered 26 victories, the highest single-season win total for Azusa Pacific since 1991, and made its fifth NAIA Tournament in program history after notching a third-place GSAC finish with a 14-6 conference mark. Four years later, Keife coached a squad led by 2009 NAIA Player of the Year Jill Baker to the NAIA quarterfinals for just the third time in program history. Even after losing Baker, the program's career and single-season kills record holder, in 2010, Keife guided the Cougars to the program's third-highest win total in a 29-8 campaign that resulted in yet another deep NAIA Tournament run (playoff round).

Keife raised the bar even higher in 2011, setting the program's regular-season wins record (28) en route to a 31-8 campaign which represented the fourth-highest win total in program history and the most wins in a season since 1991. The Cougars won 14 of 16 to close out the regular season, then registered a trio of five-set wins in national tournament play while advancing all the way to the NAIA quarterfinals. Keife notched a pair of 200-win milestones in 2011, collecting his 200th overall coaching win in the most one-sided victory Azusa Pacific had ever posted in the 25-point rally scoring format, a 25-4, 25-17, 25-9 win over Concordia (N.Y.) before notching his 200th win at Azusa Pacific with a five-set win over Grand View (Iowa) during national tournament pool play. All three of the Cougars' national tournament wins came in five sets, helping run the program's record in five-set matches to 23-3 over the past three seasons.

In Azusa Pacific's first season competing in the NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference Keife directed a young Cougar team to the program's ninth consecutive 20-win season. His youthful Cougars helped the coach post his first-ever road win against former GSAC and current PacWest rival California Baptist as they advanced to the NCCAA West Region final despite fielding a starting lineup that included four freshmen.

In 2016, Keife coached Julianne Miller to the PacWest's Freshman of the Year honor. A first for the program. In 2017, Miller was a major cog in the Cougars NCAA postseason run as she recorded the highest hitting percentage in the nation en route to AVCA honorable mention All-American accolades. Miller continued to blossom throughout her career, as she led the nation in hitting percentage in 2018, and was named the PacWest Player of the Year as a senior in 2019.

Consistency has become a signature characteristic of Keife-coached teams. His players have earned 11 NAIA Scholar Athlete awards, and his 2008 squad was awarded the NAIA Tournament Champions of Character team award, reflecting the emphasis Keife places on his players' complete development as student-athletes. For five consecutive years, Azusa Pacific has been recognized as an NAIA Scholar Team (team GPA over 3.0), most recently posting a 3.32 team GPA in 2011.

In 2004, his first season at Azusa Pacific, Keife led the Cougars to a 20-13 overall record and an 11-9 GSAC mark, good enough for the first of three straight top-four conference finishes. In 2005, Azusa Pacific earned the program's first NAIA Tournament berth since 2000 with a 26-11 campaign, which included a pair of victories in national tournament pool play. Keife delivered a fourth-place GSAC finish in 2006, good enough to get the Cougars back to the NAIA Tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history. In 2007, Keife navigated Azusa Pacific to a 21-10 campaign and a No. 5 final national ranking, and he picked up his 100th career coaching victory that year with a five-game come-from-behind road win over the NAIA's No. 7-ranked Point Loma Nazarene on Sept. 29, 2007, his 159th match as a head coach.

In 2008, his Cougars went 25-11 and returned to the NAIA Tournament for the program's third appearance in four seasons, where they cruised through pool play with a trio of three-set sweeps to advance out of pool play at the national tournament for the first time since 1991's appearance in the national quarterfinals.

Keife came to Azusa Pacific after one season at Hope International, where he orchestrated a stunning turnaround in his first collegiate head coaching assignment. Keife guided the Royals to their best season in school history in any sport, the first NAIA playoff appearance for any team in school history, along with the volleyball program's first-ever winning campaign.

Prior to his season at Hope International, Keife was a two-year (2001-02) volunteer assistant for nationally-respected head coach Mick Haley at NCAA Division I power University of Southern California, a stint that culminated in the Trojans' 2002 NCAA National Championship.

Keife was also an assistant for five seasons at his alma mater Whittier Christian High (1996-2000), where he coached former Azusa Pacific players Jenna and Joelle Sagehorn, and he coached for three seasons (2000-02) in the Asics Nova Volleyball Club.

Keife, a 1999 Cal State Fullerton graduate who earned his master's degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific in December 2003, also teaches in the university's department of exercise & sport science. He and his wife, Becky, were married in 2005, and the couple resides in Glendora with their three sons, Noah, Elias, and Jude.