BEREA, Ohio – Baldwin Wallace University Director of Athletics Kris A. Diaz '78 has announced the hiring of Kacie Ehinger as the new volleyball head coach.
Ehinger comes to BW after four years as the top assistant coach at NCAA Division I University of Akron. Her primary responsibilities included the training of defensive players and primary passers, equipment purchases and budgeting and working with NCAA compliance.
"I would like to thank Athletic Director Kris Diaz and the rest of the hiring committee for the opportunity to lead the Baldwin Wallace volleyball program," Ehinger said. "When I first stepped on campus, it became clear that BW is a special place with a strong family atmosphere. The student-athletes that I met during my interview impressed me with their drive and dedication and I look forward to working with them to build off their recent success and push toward an Ohio Athletic Conference title. Go Jackets!"
"We're excited to have Kacie join our staff," Diaz said. "Her background as a player at the Division III level along with her Division I assistant coaching experience will guide her well in leading our program to take the next steps to competing nationally. She will be a great asset to the Baldwin Wallace community and obviously the volleyball program."
During her tenure at Akron, Ehinger helped to lead the Zips to their most match wins in 2018 since the 2012 campaign. Some of her other coaching highlights included mentoring the libero to the eighth-best digs-per-set ratio for a single season in school history and helping the team increase its own overall ratio by over one dig per set from 2017 to 2018. Academically, Ehinger's teams twice landed on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Academic Honor Roll for having a Top-25 GPA in NCAA Division I while the 2016-17 team won the Schoonover Award for having the highest GPA in the department. She also coached a two-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)/Google Cloud Academic All-District student-athlete.
Her other responsibilities at Akron included budgeting, national recruiting, coordinating travel, managing social media content across multiple platforms and handling video exchange.
Prior to her time at Akron, Ehinger was the top assistant coach at NCAA Division I Lamar (Texas) University for one year and NCAA Division I Marist (N.Y.) College for three years. While she was at Marist, the Red Foxes claimed the 2013 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season championship and were the runners-up in the MAAC Tournament. Ehinger coached both the 2013 MAAC Libero of the Year and Player of the Year and the Red Foxes' libero broke both the single-season and career digs record while under her leadership.
Other coaching experience includes Defiance College graduate assistant from 2007-09, Adrian (Mich.) College assistant coach in 2009 and NAIA Siena Heights (Mich.) University assistant coach from 2010-11.
Her volleyball experience isn't just limited to being a coach, however, as Ehinger was a student-athlete at Adrian. She was a four-time All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) selection, a team captain and the 2003 MIAA Defensive Player of the Year.
Ehinger received her Bachelor's degree in health, physical education and recreation from Adrian in 2006 and her Master of Arts in education from Defiance in 2009.
