Volleyball's Virtue Earns Third Straight Award for Young Coaches
Erin Virtue completed her second season as an assistant coach at the University of Michigan. She joined the Wolverines after spending the past four seasons at the University of Cincinnati (2007-10).
Virtue coached sophomore setter Lexi Dannemiller, who was a two-time Big Ten Setter of the Week and ended the season with the third-most assists in U-M history (1,622) 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. She coached Dannemiller, then a freshman, who was a four-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week honoree and an All-Big Ten Freshman team selection. Virtue 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.
During her time at Cincinnati, she helped the Bearcats to a 101-36 in four seasons. Virtue was responsible for coaching the setters and liberos at Cincinnati, mentoring setter Annie Fesl, who ended her career with the second-most assists in program history (5,746), to three All-Big East selections. She 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 spent the 2006 season at Loyola (Chicago), working the setters while handling recruiting and training organization before joining the Cincinnati sidelines in 2007.
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 Sixteen 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 the national team for a year (2005-06) before joining the coaching ranks.
