Eyal Zimet enters his fifth season as the head coach of the Tulane women's beach volleyball team after being hired in July of 2019.
In 2023, his fourth season at Tulane, the Green Wave finished with a 24-10 overall record. This was Tulane's inaugural season competing in the highly competitive, Conference USA. Tulane’s top pair, that consisted of Abby Jackson and Ashton Mares, received Conference USA’s only American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top Flight Award. The pair finished the season with a 28-5 overall record and helped the team to the national rankings. The Green Wave ranked as high as no. 17 in the AVCA Coaches Poll.Â
In his third season in Uptown, he led the Green Wave to an improved 24-13 record. 13 of the team’s 24 wins were sweeps and one was a win over ranked opponent, South Carolina. This was the Green Wave’s first win over the Gamecocks since 2016. Zimit led Tulane’s top flight, Maddie Speicher and Kendall Peters, to earn Coastal Collegiate Sports Association All-Tournament team.Â
In an unprecedented 2021 season, the Green Wave finished with a 22-15 overall record — the team's first year with 20 or more wins since 2018. Tulane's leading pair, in Addison Hermstad and Samantha Mehlman, earned the AVCA Top Flight Award after finishing 29-8 (1-0 on court one, 12-4 on court two and 16-4 on court three). The duo defeated six ranked opponents and finished the season ranked 11th in the nation on court two (75.0 winning percentage) and ninth in the nation on court three (80.0 winning percentage).
In his first year in Uptown, Zimet led Tulane to an 8-3 record on the sand. Four of the team’s eight wins were sweeps, while two of its three losses were against the nation's top teams in No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 LSU.
Zimet came to Tulane from Dartmouth College, where he spent four years as an assistant coach with the Big Green women's volleyball team.
Before his time at Dartmouth, Zimet served as both the co-head coach of the beach volleyball team and assistant coach of the indoor volleyball team for four years at the University of San Francisco.
Prior to his eight years spent coaching, the Israel native played volleyball competitively for more than 20 years.
After competing for the Israeli National Team for nine years, Zimet headed to the U.S. to play for the University of Hawaii, where he helped lead the Rainbow Warriors to an NCAA Championship in 2002.
After graduating from Hawaii in 2004, Zimet then participated in the AVP Tour in 2006 and was runner-up for rookie of the year honors. His professional success continued over the next few years, as Zimet was an AVP Brooklyn semifinalist in 2009 and finished in the top 10 in the 2010 team rankings.
During his AVP career, Zimet also developed and implemented conditioning and training programs for many tour professionals while additionally serving as an advisor for several international teams.
His many accomplishments do not stop there, as Zimet also served as the head coach of the Panamanian National Beach Volleyball Team, guiding the program to a silver medal in the FIVB Olympic Qualifier.
