Florida State University Athletics
Women's Beach Volleyball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- blniles@fsu.edu
Entering her 11th season at Florida State in the 2026 season, head coach Brooke Niles has developed the Florida State beach volleyball program into one of the top teams in the country. The NCAA's all-time wins leader, Niles and the Seminoles have played in all nine NCAA Championships, with three runner-up finishes and seven Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) conference championships.
With six wins over AVCA top-10 teams in 2025, Niles has led the Seminoles to 98 top-10 wins in her tenure.
While building a national powerhouse in Tallahassee, Niles has coached 19 AVCA All-Americans, two CCSA Pairs of the Year, five CCSA Freshmen of the Year, and 24 All-CCSA performers. The 2016 AVCA National Coach of the Year, Niles is a four-time CCSA Coach of the Year, including back-to-back honors in 2024 and 2025.
In the classroom, the Seminoles have flourished under Niles guidance and annually earns one of the top grade point averages across the Florida State athletics department. In 2025, Carra Sassack became Florida State's first beach volleyball player to win the Elite 90 award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships. Niles has coached six CCSA Scholar-Athletes of the Year, 73 ACC Academic Honor Roll recipients and three Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship winners. Paige Kalkhoff was an Academic All-American in 2023.
Niles was hired as the Seminoles’ beach volleyball head coach on June 16, 2015. A native of California, Niles earned All-America honors as a player and has coached at the collegiate, junior college, club and high school levels while working with both indoor and sand volleyball teams.
Niles, who earned her bachelor’s degree in law and society degree from UC Santa Barbara in 2003, earned All-American Third-Team honors, was a three-time All-Big West selection and was named the Big West Freshman of the Year as a Gaucho. Following her playing career at UCSB, Niles spent three years as an assistant indoor coach at her alma mater before beginning a successful professional beach volleyball career in 2007. She won numerous pro tournaments and was named the AVP Beach Defensive Player of the Year in 2009. While climbing to a Top Five ranking in the National Volleyball Beach League and playing as a member of the USA Beach National Team (2010-13), Niles was a first alternate for the USA 2012 London Olympic Beach National team.
While flourishing as a professional player, Niles returned to coaching in 2010 at Oxnard Junior College with the indoor team. In 2012, she began coaching professional beach volleyball teams on the FIVB World Tour from the USA, Costa Rica, and the Netherlands. Niles coached at Mira Costa High School in California, and she was the director, founder and head coach of The Beach Team Club in Hermosa.
Niles is married to Nick Lucena, a Florida State graduate, professional beach volleyball player on the AVP Tour and Olympian in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. They have three children, Gunnar, Cole and Ryder.
| Year | School | Record | Win Pct. | Postseason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Florida State | 32-3 | .914 | CCSA Champions/NCAA Runner-Up |
| 2017 | Florida State | 29-9 | .763 | CCSA Champions/NCAA 4th Place |
| 2018 | Florida State | 33-7 | .825 | CCSA Champions/NCAA Runner-Up |
| 2019 | Florida State | 29-7 | .806 | CCSA Champions/NCAA 6th Place |
| 2020 | Florida State | 12-1 | .923 | -- |
| 2021 | Florida State | 33-6 | .846 | CCSA Champions/NCAA 6th Place |
| 2022 | Florida State | 33-11 | .750 | CCSA Champions/NCAA Runner-Up |
| 2023 | Florida State | 32-9 | .780 | NCAA Semifinalists |
| 2024 | Florida State | 31-8 | .795 | CCSA Champions/NCAA Quarterfinalists |
| 2025 | Florida State | 26-13 | .667 | NCAA Quarterfinalists |
| Totals | 10 Seasons | 289-74 | .796 | 7 CCSA Championships/9 NCAA Tournament Appearances |
