Dawn Sullivan
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Missouri |
| Conference | SEC |
| Record | 40–22 (.645) |
| Biographical details | |
| Alma mater | Kansas State |
| Playing career | |
| 1996–1999 | Kansas State |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 2002–2004 | Illinois State (assistant) |
| 2005–2017 | Iowa State (assistant) |
| 2018–2022 | UNLV |
| 2023–present | Missouri |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| |
| Awards | |
| |
Dawn Sullivan (née Cady; born c. 1978/79) is an American volleyball coach, and former player. She was named the eighth head coach of Missouri women's volleyball team in December 2022.
Personal life
[edit]Sullivan graduated from Marshall High School in Marshall, Minnesota in 1996, where she was a two-sport athlete in volleyball and basketball and received the 1996 Kaiser Award recognizing the female athlete of the year.[1]
Career
[edit]Playing career
[edit]Sullivan played as an outside hitter at Kansas State. She was an AVCA All-American and All-Big 12 as a senior as she helped the team make the school's fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. She earned Kansas College Female-Athlete-of-the-Year honors in 2000.[2]
In her career, she notched 1,611 kills and 1,258 digs, which rank as the third and fourth-most, respectively, in program history. She is one of only five players at Kansas State to eclipse 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.[2]
Following college, Sullivan played professionally for the Grand Rapids Force of the United States Professional Volleyball League.[2]
Coaching career
[edit]Sullivan began her collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at Illinois State University in 2002. She joined Iowa State University as an assistant coach in 2005, where she remained until being named the head coach at UNLV in 2018. At UNLV, she led the program to two Mountain West Conference championships, two NCAA Tournament berths, and won the 2021 National Invitational Volleyball Championship.[3]
On December 18, 2022, Sullivan was named the eighth head coach for Missouri.[4] In her inaugural season as head coach, the program doubled its wins from the previous two seasons combined under the prior head coach. Missouri finished 7th in conference and earned an at-large bid into the 2023 NCAA Tournament, its first postseason appearance since 2020. Missouri defeated Delaware in the first round before falling to top-seeded Nebraska in the second round.[5] She was named the 2023 SEC co-coach of the year for her efforts.[6]
In 2024, Sullivan led Missouri to continued improvements, finishing 3rd in conference play and earning a trip to the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2017. She was named AVCA Central Coach of the Year for her performance.
Head coaching record
[edit]| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNLV Rebels (Mountain West) (2018–2022) | |||||||||
| 2018 | UNLV | 22–12 | 10–8 | 5th | NIVC semifinals | ||||
| 2019 | UNLV | 20–11 | 15–3 | 3rd | NIVC second round | ||||
| 2020 | UNLV | 13–1 | 12–0 | 1st | NCAA second round | ||||
| 2021 | UNLV | 28–9 | 12–6 | 4th | NIVC Champions | ||||
| 2022 | UNLV | 26–5 | 17–1 | 1st | NCAA first round | ||||
| UNLV: | 109–38 (.741) | 66–18 (.786) | |||||||
| Missouri Tigers (SEC) (2023–present) | |||||||||
| 2023 | Missouri | 18–13 | 9–9 | 7th | NCAA second round | ||||
| 2024 | Missouri | 22–9 | 11–5 | T–3rd | NCAA regional semifinal | ||||
| Missouri: | 40–22 (.645) | 20–14 (.588) | |||||||
| Total: | 149–60 (.713) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Area Athletics: Four more into the hall". Marshall Independent. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ a b c "UNLV Bio". Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ "Mountain West Volleyball 2022 All-Conference Awards Announced" (PDF). Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ "Dawn Sullivan Named Volleyball Head Coach". Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ "Volleyball Falls in 2023 NCAA Tournament Second Round to #1 Nebraska". Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- ^ "Mizzou's Dawn Sullivan 'Blessed' to Win SEC Coaching Honor". Retrieved December 8, 2022.
- 1970s births
- Living people
- Missouri Tigers women's volleyball coaches
- UNLV Rebels women's volleyball coaches
- Iowa State Cyclones women's volleyball coaches
- Illinois State Redbirds women's volleyball coaches
- American volleyball coaches
- Kansas State Wildcats women's volleyball players
- American women's volleyball players
- Outside hitters