Emily Ahlquist, the 2004 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year, returns for her 12th season as the head coach of the Rider volleyball program. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ahlquist was named the head coach at Rider in August of 1999, and led Rider to a best-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference record in just her first season.
For the last 23 semesters (since the Spring of 1999), Rider volleyball has achieved a team grade point average over a 3.00.
In 2009, Rider gave Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season champion Fairfield one of its two conference losses for the season.
For the Spring 2008 semester, 11 student-athletes from the volleyball team achieved over a 3.00 semester grade point average and in the spring of 2006, the volleyball team compiled the highest semester g.p.a. ever recorded at Rider (3.62) to earn the Game Plan/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award. “In the past several years, the team’s grades reflect that the student-athletes are students first,” said Ahlquist. “We strive to do our best in the classroom and in the gym, and we surpassed our classroom goals through hard work. I am very proud of what the student-athletes have done, in and out of the classroom.”
Ahlquist has led Rider to double-digit wins in three of the past seven seasons and in 2004, led Rider to a best-ever third place finish in the MAAC regular season, qualifying for the four-team MAAC Championship playoffs.
Ahlquist came to Rider from Marist College, where she was the head volleyball coach and assistant academic athletic advisor from 1995 to 1998. Ahlquist led Marist to a best-ever fourth place postseason finish in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the Fall of 1998.
