Katie Rueffer

Katie Rueffer is the Women's Volleyball Head Coach at Lake Forest College.

The 2021 season will be Katie Rueffer's third as head coach at Lake Forest and eighth coaching at the collegiate level.

The Foresters won four of six matches during an abbreviated season in the spring of 2021. Six different players had at least a dozen kills, seven served up five or more aces, and five finished with at least 35 digs.

The 2019 Foresters won five of their last seven matches to finish the season 11-14 overall and 4-5 in Midwest Conference play. Seven different players led the Foresters or tied for the team lead in kills at least twice and Second Team All-MWC selection Isabel Donnelly led the squad with 213 on the year. In addition, Izzi Visnjevac was the only player ranked in the top five of the conference in digs and aces per set during league play.

Lake Forest players also excelled in the classroom in 2019-20 with 10 of 16 members of the squad earning Academic All-MWC honors. In addition, the Foresters earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the first time in program history.

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 College (now 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 2010 and has served as a coach for the One Step Closer Volleyball Camps at the College each summer since 2014.

She resides in Lake Forest.