HEAD COACH EMILY KOHAN

Emily Kohan (Hiza) was announced as the sixth Head Coach of Colorado State Volleyball in program history in December of 2022. Kohan enters her ninth season with the Colorado State volleyball coaching staff in 2024 while stepping into her second season as Head Coach after serving as an assistant and then associate head coach since 2015.

The head coach was hired by previous Head Coach Tom Hilbert on Jan. 8, 2016 as an assistant before being promoted to associate head coach in August 2019. When Hilbert announced his retirement at the close of the 2022 season, Kohan was announced to be the successor to the 26-year head coach.

"It is truly a dream opportunity to represent Colorado State as the next head volleyball coach for this storied program," Kohan said. "Thank you to Joe Parker, Shalini Shanker and Steve Cottingham for their thoughtfulness throughout this entire process to ensure our team is taken care of. Also, a big thank you to Tom Hilbert for mentoring me over the past seven years to understand what makes this program special and how to be a good steward as he passes the torch. The Fort Collins community loves this team, and my family equally loves the Fort Collins community – Pat, Evie and I are blessed to call this place home. I speak for our whole group, staff & players, when I say we’re ready to work to build on the legacy of Colorado State Volleyball and bring home more championships."

Kohan worked primarily with the team's passing, defense, serving and pin attackers, in addition to handling a large portion of its recruiting while she was an associate head coach.

Within her first year at Colorado State, Kohan led the Rams to a No. 2 regular season finish in both the Mountain West regular season and Mountain West tournament in addition to kicking off her head coaching career with a bang, earning her first career win as a head coach over the Kentucky Wildcats August 25 to open the 2023 season.

In 2023, the Rams led the conference in team hitting percentage (.284) also good for 12th in the nation. Individually, Kohan coached four All-Mountain West selections, a Newcomer of the Year in Emery Herman and a top ten nationally ranked middle blocker in terms of efficiency in Naeemah Weathers.

Her first year at the head of the program also boasted the highest average attendance since 2014, three individual school records including Malaya Jones breaking the single season kills record and three team school records in kills, assists and points.

"Big thanks to everyone who helped make the 2023 season incredible during the transition to Head Coacch. there is nothing like the love of the Ramily, and I'm grateful to the fans, boosters, Fort Collins community and university for all the support each week. I am proud, but not satisfied - we had a lot of great moments and development this yearto build on for the future. The Rams will be back and better in 2024," Kohan said in reflection of her first season at the helm."

During her time with Colorado State as an assistant coach and associate head coach, she has helped the Rams to five postseason berths and four Mountain West titles. She also has helped lead CSU to 32 Mountain West All-Conference Awards, including a program and Mountain West record six honorees in 2017 and 2021, and coached three-time Mountain West Player of the Year and four-time AVCA All-American Honorable Mention, Katie Oleksak. Kohan also guided new libero Amanda Young in 2017, to help the Rams' defense to the top of the conference in holding opponents to a .182 hitting efficiency. Colorado State also led the conference in aces/set and tied the modern-scoring record for aces in a single season. Kohan also represented the conference as an assistant coach for the Mountain West All-Stars in the European Global Challenge 2017.

In 2019, she again led the Rams' defense to lead the Mountain West with an opponent hitting mark of .111, which also led the country and was the first time in program history earning a No. 1 spot in a team category. In the following two seasons, she guided transfer libero Alexa Roumeliotis to pace the Mountain West in digs and earn back-to-back All-Mountain West honors. The 2021 season saw the season-ace record fall under the direction of Kohan, as Ciera Pritchard recorded 47 to set the modern-scoring record and tie for seventh all time.

Kohan is also instrumental in the program’s academic success as CSU has had a Mountain West leading 51 Academic-All-Conference selections and the program’s all-time high cumulative GPA during her tenure. The Rams also received four CoSIDA All-District honors and a pair of CoSIDA Academic All-America awards during her time on staff.

Kohan currently serves on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Board of Directors as the head of the Assistant Coaches Committee, a three-year term where she represents all assistant coaches across the country within the association. Additionally, she was named to the 2015 AVCA Thirty Under 30 list, an award created to honor 30 of the up-and-coming volleyball coaches under 30 years old in the sport at all levels of the game. Of the recipients, 11 came from the DI level. The honor is intended to recognize the sport’s up-and-coming coaches.

Kohan joined the Rams from Oregon State, where she started as a volunteer assistant coach in 2011 before becoming an assistant coach in 2012. In 2015, Kohan helped Oregon State’s freshman libero Kayla Ellis to an All-Freshman Honorable Mention season in the Pac-12, ranking second among the league’s rookies in digs. Libero Darby Reeder set the OSU single-season record for digs in 2014 with 615, placing third in the Pac-12.

Kohan also mentored libero Becky Defoe for three of her four seasons at Oregon State (2011-13), which were perhaps the finest defensive seasons in program history. Defoe, who ended her career in 2013, broke the school’s record for digs in a career and is one of just 10 players in Pac-12 history with 2,000 or more.

Kohan was also the head coach of the Colorado Junior Volleyball Club for two years (2009-11), and also served as the head coach of the Boss Volleyball Club in Albany, Oregon (2011-15).

As a four-year captain at Iowa from 2005-08, Kohan finished second all-time in digs (1,929) and 12th in service aces (97). She also earned Academic All-District honors twice and Big Ten Academic Honors three times. Kohan graduated from Iowa in 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in finance and marketing, while earning a minor in Spanish.

Emily married her husband Patrick Kohan and in 2017 and has a daughter Evie. The family of three recently grew to a family of four as thier second daughter Sullivan was born in May, 2023.