PULLMAN, Wash. - Facing match point, the Washington State women's volleyball team mustered all its strength and mental fight, fending off the would-be winner from a game Utah squad to rally for an impressive 18-16 win in set five and a 3-2 win in its Pac-12 home opener on Sept. 28. Just behind the bench, Chadwick Miller, an assistant professor of Marketing and International Business in the Carson College of Business, celebrated the victory, watching not only his team take home the win but three of his students achieve success. Miller has some experience with victory on the court after spending his college days at Colorado as a middle blocker on the Buffs' men's club volleyball team.

He recently was the faculty-staff guest coach for the Cougar volleyball team, which afforded him an opportunity to spend a day with the team Wednesday before the match. Miller attended the Cougars' practice and weight session before sitting down to dinner with the Cougars at the Gray W Jack Thompson Legends Lounge. On Friday night, Miller, along with his wife and four children, sat behind the Cougars' bench to cheer on WSU in what would be an epic battle with Utah.

Miller, a long time marketing professional in the auto industry before moving to the academic world, teaches the ins and outs of marketing to hundreds of students each year, including athletes from every WSU team. Seeing familiar faces in the classroom and on the court, Miller has had his hands not only in the win on the court but in the education of three of the Cougars' starters in Ashley Brown, Ella Lajos, and Taylor Mims. It was actually the three Miller pupils that led the charge in the final moments of the win over Utah with Mims picking up a pair of kills before Lajos hammered home the match winner off a set from Brown.

Carson College of Business is a nationally acclaimed college that helps students develop marketable skills based on deep understanding and involvement in the world around them. Miller and the professors of Carson College provide valuable academic research to the business world in areas like: advertising effectiveness, branding and brand management, marketing strategy, and many more topics.

The faculty-staff guest coach program, which began with the Cougar Football program, aims to help the faulty of WSU gain a better understanding of the lives of Cougar athletes while also spotlighting the outstanding academic programs that make Washington State the university it is. Participants are nominated by the student-athletes.