By Brandon Walker

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STARKVILLE – For the first time in more than five years, Mississippi State finds itself searching for a volleyball coach.

On Monday, longtime Bulldogs’ coach Jenny Hazelwood, who coached MSU for six seasons, was relieved of her duties and reassigned within the school’s athletic department, the school announced late Monday afternoon. It was not specified what Hazelwood’s new role will be, only that it will be administrative, and the search for her replacement begins immediately.

“I want to thank Jenny for her hard work and commitment to our volleyball program for the last six years,” said MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin. “She has always been a great representative of Mississippi State and has led our volleyball program with class and dignity.”

The Bulldogs, under Hazelwood’s leadership, struggled to a 7-26 record this season, which ended Saturday with a loss at Auburn. In six seasons, Hazelwood compiled a 55-129 record and won 20 of her 116 conference games. She also coached one CoSIDA Academic All-American and 36 All-SEC and All-Freshman SEC Academic performers.

Just one year removed from her most successful seasons, Hazelwood led MSU to 12 wins in 2013, representing the highest mark for the program since 2006. The Bulldogs’ eight home wins in 2013 were the second-most in single-season school history.

This season, MSU freshman Payton Harris earned All-SEC freshman honors while ranking second nationally in digs and digs per set. Harris set the school record for digs in a season, while finishing second on the SEC single-season list.

Hazelwood starred as a setter on the volleyball courts at MSU’s Humphrey Coliseum and the Newell-Grissom Building from 1996 to 1999 and returned to the school in 2009 as the 10th volleyball head coach in the 39-year history of the Bulldog program. Seasoned with nine years as a head volleyball coach on the collegiate level, the Pearland, Texas, native returned to her alma mater following a successful two-year stint as head coach at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

Hazelwood set the stage for her career in coaching with a remarkable four-year playing career at MSU.

She stepped in as a freshman and claimed the role as State’s starting setter, establishing the school single-season mark as a rookie in 1996 with 1,541 assists. It was a tough act to follow, but she managed to register three of MSU’s top four best assist totals, concluding her career with a school-record 5,505 career assists, then the fourth-most in SEC history. She claimed the single-match assist mark in the opening competition of her senior campaign in 1999 when she dished out a school-best 83 assists in a five-set win at UNC-Charlotte.

In addition to quarterbacking the Volleyball Bulldog offense, Hazelwood also starred on defense during her MSU career with 1,107 digs and at the net with 211 total blocks. At Mississippi State Hazelwood played for head coaches Samye Johnson (1996) and Brenda Bowlin (1997-99). And during her career, MSU volleyball moved into its current home, the Newell-Grissom Building (1997) and set a school record for conference wins (1998).

“I appreciate the opportunity to have coached at my alma mater and I wish the players and the program nothing but the best moving forward,” said Hazelwood.

Hazelwood’s last team at MSU, the 2014 edition, wasn’t her best statistically. But the Bulldogs were among the league’s youngest teams, as nine of MSU’s 16 players were sophomores or younger.

Follow Dispatch Sports Writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat