NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Caitlin Schweihofer has been named the head coach of the Rutgers women's volleyball program, it was announced on Thursday by director of athletics Pat Hobbs.
Most recently, Schweihofer was at the helm of the Northeastern women's volleyball team taking over the reins of the Huskies program after five seasons at La Salle, where she earned 2018 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honors.
"We welcome Caitlin to the Rutgers Athletics family," said Hobbs. "Caitlin has elevated programs and orchestrated turnarounds at each stop throughout her career, and as much as her teams have succeeded on the court, she has always placed a high priority on academics and overall student-athlete development. We are excited to bring her aboard as we compete in the best volleyball league in the nation."
"From the minute I came to campus to meet with the search committee, I could feel the overwhelming enthusiasm and sense of family in the Rutgers athletic community," said Schweihofer. "There was also an obvious passion for the work being done within the athletic department to create a strong student-athlete experience. A heartfelt thanks to Pat Hobbs, Sarah Baumgartner, Kate Hickey and the rest of the search committee for the opportunity to be Rutgers volleyball new leader. I greatly appreciate their trust and support, as we look to usher Rutgers volleyball into a new era of success. Over the next few weeks, my husband Scott and I are excited to move our family back closer to my hometown, meet the current team, and hit the ground running."
Under Schweihofer's tutelage in 2019, Northeastern captured its best hitting percentage since 2008, earned a trio of all-conference honors and finished the season ranked among the top three in the Colonial Athletic Association in hitting percentage, kills, digs and assists.
During her tenure at La Salle, Schweihofer recruited and coached the Atlantic 10 Setter of the Year, as well as multiple all-conference and all-rookie selections and saw the team earn the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award each season. She led the Explorers to its first-ever Atlantic 10 tournament appearance in 2018 as the squad concluded the regular season at 17-11 overall, the most wins for the program since the 1998 season. Additionally, six members of the team earned conference accolades including Setter of the Year as Schweihofer was honored as the league's coach of the year.
Schweihofer oversaw an eight-win improvement over the span of the 2015-17 seasons, which included beginning the 2015 season with five-straight wins for the best start in program history. The 2015 season also saw her named to the AVCA Thirty Under Thirty list as she implemented the third largest turnaround in program history.
Schweihofer was also actively engaged in fundraising efforts for the program at LaSalle, helping to oversee a 650% increase in funding, including $40,000 for locker room renovations.
Before joining the collegiate head coaching ranks, Schweihofer spent a season as the top assistant at Lehigh as the Mountain Hawks captured a 20-9 overall record and 11-5 mark in the Patriot League. The 11 conference wins tied a school record, while the 20 victories on the season were the most by the program since 2002 and the sixth most in Lehigh history.
Prior to Lehigh, Schweihofer spent one season as an assistant at Bucknell and served as the head coach of Pope John Paul II School in Royersford, Pennsylvania, where as the program's first-ever coach, she led the team to two top 10 Pennsylvania state rankings and a pair of PIAA District I runner-up finishes.
A 2007 graduate of St. John's (NY), with a major in communication science, Schweihofer was the 2006 Big East Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, captaining the Red Storm to a Big East Championship behind a 31-5 overall record and undefeated 14-0 mark in conference play. The Red Storm ranked as high as No. 24 in the national polls and advanced to the NCAA Second Round. In the classroom, Schweihofer completed her degree in three years with a 3.9 cumulative grade point average earning a trio of Academic All-Big East distinctions, while her play on the court earned her Second Team All-Big East and First Team Academic All-District honors in 2006. She was also a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection as a senior, inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society for student-athletes and co-founded STAR (Students Teaching Athletes Responsibility) at St. John's.
The Trooper, Pennsylvania native also earned Master's in educational leadership and higher education administration from Lehigh in 2014.
Schweihofer is a member of the NCAA National Post-Graduate Scholarship and AVCA East Region All-America Selection Committees and is a former member of the AVCA Head Coaches and Top 25 Poll Committees.
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