Leah Best joined the UTRGV volleyball team as an assistant coach on May 1, 2019.
Best came to UTRGV after serving as the head coach of the San Gabriel Elite Volleyball Club in Glendale, Calif. She also has coaching experience at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles and with the A5 Volleyball Club in Atlanta.
Best played collegiately at Cal State Fullerton from 2010-13, helping the team to the 2010 Big West Conference Championship. She earned Academic All-American and Big West All-Academic honors in 2013.
Best ranks eighth in program history with a career average of 0.78 blocks per set, ninth in total blocks with 226, and 10thin block assists with 184. She also ranks fourth in program history for block assists in a season with 103, fifth in total blocks with 123, and ninth in sets played with 125, with all of those records coming in 2012. During her junior season, Best averaged 1.34 kills and a career-high 0.98 blocks per set. As a senior, Best averaged a career-high 2.00 kills and 0.63 blocks per set.
Best went on to play professionally with Lingdesberg Volley in Sweden, Kanti Schaffhausen in Switzerland, Saint Chamond and La Rochette in France, and Northumbria University at Newcastle in Tyne, England. She was also part of the England National Volleyball Team, leading her team to the United Kingdom National Volleyball Championship.
Originally from London, England, Best graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications in 2013. She is currently working toward a Master of Science in Communications Management at Northumbria.
