Every athlete dreams of winning a national title. Purdue assistant coach Kathy Jewell actually knows what it is like to be a champion. She was a part of the 1994 Division II national championship volleyball team at Northern Michigan and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame with her team in 2000.
Her coach Mark Rosen was in his first year with the team and Jewell, a freshman, helped him lead the Wildcats to a 32-4 record and the title. The program, with Jewell and Rosen at the forefront, would advance to the Division II Elite Eight three more times, capturing second, third and fourth place to go with the championship. Along the way, Jewell garnered two NCAA Elite Eight All-Tournament team honors and two All-Great Lakes Region accolades and led her team to a 134-16 record. She left Northern ranked second all-time among Wildcats in digs (1,359), third in matches played (145), fourth in aces (159) and ninth in career kills (974). Those marks still rank her among the top 20 in each category: matches (third), digs (fourth), aces (fifth) and kills (18th).
Rosen took over as head coach at Michigan in 1999. Jewell, meanwhile, went on to coach at the club and high school levels before joining the staff at Central Michigan in 2000 until her hiring at Purdue in 2003. Since then, the pair has faced off on the recruiting trail and across the net, where Jewell and the Boilermakers boast a 13-10 series lead, including the current seven-match winning streak.
Kathy Jewell in 1994"Kathy was one of the most intense competitors that we've ever coached," Rosen said of he and wife, Leisa, current Michigan associate head coach who was an assistant at NMU. "She was a four-year starter as an outside hitter at 5-7 and a three-time captain that helped us win a national championship. My memory of her as a player is outstanding - she was really competitive - and it's great to see her coaching in the Big Ten. To see her every year across the net is fun, and she's become a great coach."
The Boilermakers and Wolverines meet just once in 2016, at 7 p.m. ET Friday on Belin Court.