Coe Volleyball

Coe aiming for IIAC tourney crown

Coe College has been a member of the Iowa Conference since 1997, and in all that time the Kohawks have never won the conference volleyball tournament despite having some strong teams.

They hope to change all that Saturday night.

The Kohawks marched into the IIAC tournament finals with a convincing 25-17, 25-13, 25-19 victory over Central College in the semifinals Thursday night at Eby Fieldhouse.

Coe (27-8) will host Buena Vista (25-10) for the title Saturday at 7 p.m., with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III postseason tournament.

"It will be fun," said senior Alissa Wittenburg. "We're going to bring everything we have. All four years we've been working for this."

The Kohawks won the Iowa Conference regular-season title this season with a perfect 7-0 league record. They reached the tournament finals last year, but lost to Wartburg on the road.

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Kohawks spiked by Cornell, 3-1

MOUNT VERNON - Diamond Boyd tied the school record with 29 kills Friday as Cornell trimmed Coe, 27-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, in a college volleyball match in Mount Vernon.

Cornell raised its record to 20-6. Coe fell to 26-8.

Mackenzie Harbaugh registered 44 assists for the Kohawks. Rachel Schaefer had 17 kills, Alissa Wittenburg 17 digs and Brianna Smith nine kills.

Woodin went from stocks to blocks

DeAnn Woodin is following her passion for being a leader in her ninth year as Coe’s volleyball coach, but she wasn’t always on the coaching path.

Woodin attended the University of South Dakota and transferred to the University of Northern Iowa for a double major in Finance and Economics. She was a stockbroker for a few years while being a volunteer coach at UNI and then an assistant at Wartburg.

Throughout this process Woodin realized that coaching was her passion. She coached at Kirkwood and went to the University of Iowa as the Director of Volleyball Operations before coming to Coe.

Woodin’s best influences in life were her coaches and teachers, so making the switch from stock broker to coaching was only logical.

“I love helping people and working with young people and coaching is essentially teaching,” she explained. “If you do something you love every day you don’t feel like it’s a job.”

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Coe wins Iowa Conference volleyball title

DECORAH - The Coe volleyball team defeated Luther, 25-11, 23-25, 25-13, 25-18, Tuesday night to capture the Iowa Conference regular-season title with a perfect 7-0 record in league games.

The Kohawks are 26-7 overall.

Rachel Schaefer topped a balanced attack with 14 kills. Rachel Bosworth, Olivia Leisinger and Brianna Smith had nine kills. Mackenzie Harbaugh and Meghan McClimon had eight kills.

Harbaugh collected 49 assists. Alissa Wittenburg contributed 17 digs. Bosworth blocked four shots.