Caitlin Schweihofer was named the Rutgers head women’s volleyball coach on January 15, 2020 and enters her sixth season at Rutgers.
In Schweihofer’s first season “On The Banks” in the spring of 2021, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights established themselves as a program on the rise with numerous program and Big Ten firsts. Among the Scarlet Knights’ spring 2021 accomplishments were the first-ever All-Big Ten honoree, first-ever home-opening Big Ten victory, first-ever Big Ten series sweep, set victories over more than one Top 10 program along with the team’s first-ever wins over Indiana and Michigan State. RU established new team, season and match records for aces and reset program Big Ten game bests in kills, attempts, attack percentage and assists and individual conference superlatives in attack percentage, assists and digs.
The second season of the Schweihofer era saw the Scarlet Knights move a majority of its home games to Jersey Mike’s Arena (formerly known as The RAC) playing members of the nation’s top conference in the 8,000-seat arena. Rutgers captured set wins over #8 Purdue and #15 Penn State and took Illinois to five sets in front of a national audience on BTN.
The fall of 2022 saw RU 3-0 for the first time since 1998 with four Scarlet Knights named to All-Tournament squads. By the season’s end, Rutgers had 11 entries on the rally-era season leaders list including Megan Vernon who wrapped up her career ranked second in the rally era in solo blocks in only two seasons as a Scarlet Knight and freshman Taylor Humphrey tying for the most kills in a rally-era three-set match.
More milestones continued for the Scarlet Knight program in year four in 2023. The team was honored with its first-ever All-Big Ten attacker, captured the most wins and best nonconference record since 2012, improved its set win total by 45% over the previous season and set a school record in attendance. The Scarlet Knights collected the most kills and most digs as a program since 2012, the highest serve percentage since 2016 and the most assists since 2018. Redshirt sophomore Alissa Kinkela, who led the team in kills, was named Second Team All-Big Ten. The Scarlet Knights placed 12 entries into the rally-era individual season top 10 records, 13 entries into the rally-era team top 10 records while collecting the most sets played, kills, assists, assists per set, digs and solo blocks by a team in conference play since joining the Big Ten in 2014. Senior libero Madyson Chitty finished her career fifth all-time in career digs and senior middle blocker Kristina Grkovic concluded her career fifth all-time in hitting percentage while setting the rally-era record for solo blocks in a season and career. Rutgers improved its attendance by 50% while setting a program record of 6,757 in attendance at Jersey Mike's Arena when facing No. 1 Nebraska on Nov. 5. Additionally, Schweihofer registered her 100th career victory.
A youthful Schweihofer-led Scarlet Knight squad in 2024 continued to rewrite the Rutgers record book putting up several notable career and season numbers as the Big Ten expanded to the West Coast. On the attack, Kinkela, the squad's first-ever All-Big Ten attacker, cracked the top 10 all-time in career kills, the second most rally-era career kills and the third most rally-era career kills per set. Additionally, Rutgers put nine entries into the rally-era individual season top 10 records with a new benchmark set for blocks in a rally-era season from Natalie Robinson. Additionally, freshman Natalie Robinson leads RU's career blocks per set category after only one season "On The Banks" while Lexi Visintine was just two aces shy of setting a new season standard in the category.
Prior to arriving at Rutgers, 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.
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 with an emphasis in change management 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.
