Montclair State University Athletics

Anna Chesnakova was a driving force in helping the Montclair State volleyball team make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history during the 2007 season, leading the Red Hawks to their second NJAC Championship. A three-time Second Team All-NJAC performer, she made her mark early in her career as she posted 350 kills from her middle position, then the fourth most in single-season lore. She also tallied a school-record 135 total blocks, which is still number one today. During the 2007 NJAC Championship year, Chesnakova was 11th in the NJAC with 351 kills (then the third-best in school history) and in the conference in hitting efficiency.
 
During her final season at MSU in 2009, her 192 kills and 103 rejections helped Montclair go unblemished during the NJAC regular season at 8-0 and closed out her career as the program leader with 469 blocks and was just the third person at the time to record 1,000 career kills. Presently, Chesnakova holds the No. 1 spot on the career leaderboard for total blocks (469) and attack percentage (.293) and is sixth in kills 1,080.
 
The East Brunswick, NJ native hit a school-record .923 against Stockton in 2009 and holds three of the top four spots in blocks in a game, including the second-place with 15 against Buffalo State in 2006. Additionally, her 25 kills against in-state rival FDU-Florham are the fourth-most in a match, while her eight solo rejections in that game are third. Chesnakova is listed four times, including the first and second, on the single-season block list, and is third all-time with a .356 attack percentage in 2008.
 
Anna resides in Bridgewater, NJ, with her husband (and college sweetheart) Owen Amster, a Montclair alum, with their two children. She works for the School District of Chatham as a High School Physical Education and Health Educator. While at Chatham, she served as head volleyball coach of the girls' volleyball program from 2010-2021 and created the first NJSIAA boys' volleyball program in 2017. In 2022, utilizing many of the skills and experiences obtained from her Montclair education and her graduate degree in 2022, she created a Leadership Education Adventure Discovery elective in the Chatham curriculum to foster students' leadership, life skills, and teamwork abilities. Outside of Chatham employment, she created her own LLC in 2013, intending to introduce and make youth players interested in volleyball.