Katie Rueffer
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- Title:
- Head Coach
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- Phone:
- 847-735-5295
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- Email:
- krueffer@lakeforest.edu
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The 2023 season will be Katie Rueffer's fifth as head coach at Lake Forest and 10th coaching at the collegiate level.
Rueffer was named Midwest Conference Coach of the Year in 2022 after leading Lake Forest to a second-place finish in the standings with a 7-1 record in league play. The Foresters qualified for the four-team MWC Tournament for the first time in eight years and reached their first tourney final since 2011.
Under Rueffer's direction, Madison Stevens and Mary Gegen ranked among the top six in the conference in kills per set during league play and earned First Team All-MWC honors. Izzi Visnjevac was fifth in digs per set and was named Second Team All-MWC, giving Lake Forest three players listed among the league's best for the first time in a decade.
Lake Forest players have also excelled in the classroom since Rueffer joined the staff. Ten of 15 players on the team earned Academic All-MWC honors in 2022, giving the team 29 in the last three years the award was presented, and the Foresters earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the first time in program history in 2020.
Rueffer came to Lake Forest from NCAA Division II University of North Carolina Pembroke, where she served as the top assistant coach for three years. The Braves' victory total increased in each of her last two seasons and she assisted the head coach in all aspects of the program, including management of day to day operations, coordinating recruiting, practice and match preparation, scouting, monitoring academic success and facilitating alumni engagement.
Rueffer's coaching career began at Waldorf University, where she spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons assisting the head coach in all aspects of the program. She also served as the head coach of the Warriors' junior varsity team while earning her master's degree in organizational leadership. In addition, Rueffer served as the faculty advisor for Waldorf's Association of Student Athletes, an assembly of representatives from each sport who voice opinions to the athletic department and campus community.
A native of nearby Batavia, Illinois, Rueffer played four seasons at Elmhurst College, where she helped lead the Bluejays to a cumulative 125-32 (.796) record, a pair of conference titles, three NCAA Division III Tournament berths, and an appearance in the national semifinals in 2012. The standout setter played in 147 collegiate matches and tallied 2,061 assists, 372 digs, 178 kills, and 126 blocks. Rueffer earned her bachelor's degree in physical education, health education, and coaching from Elmhurst in 2014.
Rueffer had several connections to Lake Forest College prior to her appointment as head coach. Her bother Mike is a four-year letter winner on the Forester men's basketball team and captained the squad as a senior in 2016-17. She first appeared on the volleyball court in the Lake Forest College Sports and Recreation Center as an Elmhurst freshman in 2010 and served as a coach for the One Step Closer Volleyball Camps at the College from 2014-19.
She resides in Lake Forest.
