Katie Austin (Valeria) joined the Dayton volleyball staff in February 2024 and will be in her second season with the Flyers for 2025.
She comes to Dayton after two seasons at Houston Christian serving as a graduate assistant for the Huskies where she assisted in all positions/aspects of the game but was the primary trainer for middle blockers. Austin helped lead HCU to a 2022 Southland Conference regular season title and a runner-up finish at the league championship. In 2023, the Huskies were semifinalists at the Southland Conference Tournament and finished the season ranked sixth nationally in digs per set. She served as the director of social media operations and content creation for Houston Christian Volleyball in addition to coaching responsibilities.
A 2022 AVCA Coaches for Coaches Scholarship recipient, Austin has worked summer camps with numerous clubs and academic institutions across the Midwest and Texas regions. During her tenure at HCU she also assisted at indoor and beach clubs including Houston Skyline and Third Coast Juniors.
The Dodgeville, Wisconsin, native was a four-time team captain, who led Judson University to two NCCAA National Championship appearances, both times making the All-Tournament Team as a middle blocker. The Eagles made it to the national semifinals twice, finishing as the national runner-up in 2019. Austin was a five-time CCAC All-Conference selection, including four first team honors, a five-time NCCAA Division I North Central All-Regional First Team selection, three-time AVCA & NAIA Mideast All-Region honorable mention and two-time NCCAA Division I All-American. Austin finished her career with 1,587 kills, which ranks second all-time in school history, 484 total blocks (3rd all-time), 181 service aces (3rd all-time) and set the school record with 658 consecutive sets played.
In addition to her accolades on the court, she made the CCAC and NCCAA All-Academic/Scholar Athlete Team and was twice nominated for Judson’s Female Athlete of the Year.
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Austin earned a bachelor of arts in art and graphic design from Judson in 2021 and finished her master of business administration at Houston Christian in December of 2023. Her husband, Morris Austin, is a professional baseball player in the Chicago White Sox organization.
