Sasha Karelov was hired on July 1, 2019 as the Islanders assistant volleyball coach. She played collegiately at Duke and Long Beach State.

Karelov has made an immediate impact at A&M-Corpus Christi. In just her second season, she helped the Islanders win the SLC Championship in 2020-21 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament on a seven-match winning-streak.

Karelov coached both the SLC Setter of the Year and SLC Libero of the Year in Faith Panhans and Carissa Barnes, respectively, in addition to four All-Conference selections, four SLC All-Academic honorees, three SLC All-Tournament selections and a pair of AVCA All-Region Honorable Mentions.

A&M-Corpus Christi's offense shined all season and ranked top-five nationally in kills per set. The Islanders also led the conference in kills (14.41 k/s), hitting percentage (.280) and assists (13.03 a/s).

While at Duke, Karelov earned AVCA All-America honors and was a three-time AVCA All-East Coast Region selection. She earned All-ACC honors three times and was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. In four seasons for the Blue Devils, Karelov tallied 2,023 digs, 373 assists and 76 service aces in 123 career matches. She became just the third Duke player to ever surpass 2,000 digs and holds the program-record with 44 digs in a single match.

After graduating from Duke in December of 2016 with her Bachelors' in Public Policy Studies, Karelov transferred to Long Beach State where she was a two-time First Team All-Big West performer in beach volleyball. She graduated from Long Beach State in 2018 with her Master's in Kinesiology.

Karelov has worked for the past year at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences as the Girls Indoor/Beach Volleyball Program Director in Santa Monica, Calif. During the 2017-18 year, she was an assistant coach at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif., while she finished her Master's Degree. Karelov has also coached for the Triangle Volleyball Club, the Orange County Volleyball Club, and the Actyve Volleyball Club.