UW-Milwaukee's Litzau Named Tachikara/AVCA Division I Midwest Region Coach of the Year

Dec. 6, 2006

Milwaukee, Wis. - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball coach Kathy Litzau has been named the Tachikara/AVCA Division I Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

This season, Litzau led the Panthers to both the Horizon League regular season and tournament titles and their sixth NCAA Tournament berth. UWM won 24 matches, including a school-record 15-match winning streak.

She also helped coach her players to a long list of individual accolades, with Cheryl Hegemann earning Horizon League Player of the Year honors while teammates Sarah Moore, Melissa David and Leanne Felsing joined her on the all-league team. Hegemann was also named an academic All-American, the first in program history.

The numbers in the 14-year tenure of Litzau in Milwaukee are astounding. This year's regular season title was the fourth-straight for the Panthers, while UWM also won 20 matches for the ninth time in the last 10 years. Litzau's teams have even found a way to increase their level of success in recent seasons. Over the last 10 campaigns, Litzau has directed her team to a remarkable 118-14 record in league matches, which adds up to an astounding .894 winning percentage. UWM has lost just five league regular season matches over the last four seasons.

And, the Panthers have won 115 of their last 128 home matches and have seen only two league teams (Loyola and UW-Green Bay) beat them at the Klotsche Center since 1996.

Litzau has been named the Horizon League Coach of the Year seven times, including this season, while leading the Panthers to eight Horizon League regular season titles. Her 131 Horizon League victories are by far the most of any active league coach. In 14 seasons in Milwaukee, Litzau has led the Panthers to 271 wins after taking over a program that won just three matches the year prior to her arrival.

By being named the regional coach of the year, Litzau will now be one of eight coaches on the ballot for Tachikara/AVCA Division I National Coach of the Year honors.

This is the second regional honor for Litzau, who was named the district coach of the year by the AVCA in 1999.

Story provided by UW-Milwaukee Sports Information