Volleyball
- Title:
- Women's Volleyball Head Coach
- Email:
- eevirtue@umich.edu
Erin Virtue was announced as the seventh head coach in Michigan volleyball history on Jan. 17, 2023. She returns to Ann Arbor after spending five seasons (2011-15) with the Maize and Blue as recruiting and offensive coordinator. She enters her third season with the Wolveirnes.Â
In her first season with the program, Virtue led the team to a 7-22 record and a 5-15 conference record. The Wolverines won four of their last nine matches including a win over Ohio State. In her second season as head coach, Virute coached the team to a 18-13 record and a 8-12 conference record. U-M finished 10th in the Big Ten and two Wolverines earned Big Ten honors including Allison Jacobs earning first team honors.Â
Virtue was a member of the USA Women's National Team program, where she serves as offensive coordinator. Since 2019, she also is the director of the USA National Team Development Program, where she oversees all U15-U23 development programs for indoor and beach programs for both boys and girls. She served as the offensive coordinator and setters coach for the Women's National Team that earned a Gold Medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a Silver Medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics.Â
Virtue served as Michigan's recruiting and offensive coordinator from 2011-15, coinciding with a run of four NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Sweet 16s and one Final Four appearance. The 2012 Wolverines tallied seven victories over top-25 opponents en route to a modern-day school-record 27 wins and a Final Four appearance.
Michigan teams won a combined 100 matches during Virtue's time in Ann Arbor with nine All-America selections, and Virtue coordinated five recruiting classes that ranked among the nation's top 20.
She coached senior setter Lexi Dannemiller in each of her four seasons with the Wolverines. Dannemiller, a six-time Big Ten Setter of the Week and an All-Big Ten Freshman Team selection in 2011, ended her career second in assists in the U-M record book (5,321) while helping the Wolverines to a national semifinal appearance in 2012. In her first season at Michigan, Virtue helped recruit the 12th-best class in the country, according to PrepVolleyball.com. Virtue also is a three-time recipient of the "30 Under 30" award, presented by the American Volleyball Coaches Association to honor up-and-coming coaching talents at all levels. She is one of three to earn the honor on three occasions.
Following her time at Michigan, Virtue spent three years (2016-18) as the associate head coach at Northwestern.
Prior to her first stint with the Wolverines, Virtue spent four seasons (2007-2010) at Cincinnati, where she helped the Bearcats to a 101-36 record. She was responsible for coaching the setters and liberos, mentoring setter Annie Fesl, who ended her career with the second most assists in program history (5,746), and three All-Big East selections. Virtue helped put together top-30 recruiting classes in 2008 and 2009, according to PrepVolleyball.com, while helping the Bearcats earn "Highest Honorable Mention" honors from the website for their 2010 class.
Virtue started her coaching career in 2006, spending that season at Loyola (Chicago) working with the setters while handling recruiting and training organization before joining Cincinnati.
Prior to her coaching career, Virtue was a standout volleyball player at the University of Illinois (2001-05). She helped lead the Fighting Illini to a spot in the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2003, earning All-Big Ten and honorable mention All-America accolades. During her time at Illinois, she also participated with the USA National A2 program during the summer of 2004 and was a coach at the USA A2 camp in 2006.
After graduating from Illinois in 2005 with a degree in kinesiology, Virtue trained with U.S. national team for a year (2005-06) before joining the coaching ranks.
