University of Regina women's volleyball head coach Melanie Sanford was named the Canada West Coach of the Year on Tuesday morning.

Sanford guided the Cougars to a .500 record in the tough Canada West conference, a remarkable achievement with the team coming off a three-win season in 2016-17 when she took a coaching hiatus to work on other initiatives within the Athletics department.

With a lineup featuring no fifth-year players and only three fourth-year veterans, Regina finished with a 12-12 record and returned to the postseason for the first time since 2014.

"It's been incredible to see the growth of Melanie's team over the course of the season and exciting to see her young squad win Canada West matches over three of the five teams that finished over .500 this year. With half of the team's starters only in their first or second season at the U SPORTS level and the entire roster coming back next season, Melanie has set the table for this team to take an even bigger step forward in 2018-19," said Lisa Robertson, the U of R's Director of Sport, Community Engagement, and Athlete Development.

Sanford just completed her 15th season as the head coach of the Cougars.

NOTES: Sanford's selection as Canada West Coach of the Year marks the first time in program history that the honour has gone to a Regina coach, though Cougar coaches were named GPAC Coach of the Year on five separate occasions.