Concord University head volleyball coach Kate Dillon will enter her 16th season in charge of the Mountain Lions in 2024.

After back-to-back single-digit win seasons, Dillon engineered a 16-15 season in 2023 that included a berth in the Mountain East Conference Tournament for the first time in six years. Perhaps more surprising in the turnaround was a roster compromised of 10 freshmen and a total of 12 newcomers. 

On her watch five players have earned 12 all-conference honors in Sarah Jones (2012, 2013, 2014), Helen Theisen (2010) and Brytni Willis (2013, 2014) and Brooke Heck (2015, 2016, 2017), Erin Shannon (2016), Hannah Steele (2021, 2022) and Meg Williams (2023).

Dillon guided Concord to five consecutive postseason appearances after qualifying for the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament from 2010-12. With the creation of the Mountain East Conference prior to the 2013 season, the Mountain Lions made four of the first six MEC Tournaments (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017). 

Dillon has led the turnaround of a program that won just 33 matches in the five years prior to her arrival by winning 148 contests during her tenure; including a 18-win year in 2014, the most wins by a Concord team since 2002.

The 2014 team’s success was built off of back-to-back 15-win seasons in 2011 and 2012.  

Dillon coached Brooke Heck and Erin Shannon to spots on the All-MEC Teams in 2016, just the second time in nine years Concord had multiple players on the all-conference squad.

She has also coached the only two players in program history to record both 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs, Willis and Alexi Pranckus (2015-18). Of the six players in program history to have 1,000 career kills, four have been coached by Dillon

Dillon took over the squad in the summer of 2009 and proceeded to win 20 matches over her first two seasons, a feat that had not been accomplished in back-to-back years since 2003-04.

Prior to coming to Concord, Dillon spent eight years as the head coach at Osbourn Park High School (Virginia) concurrent with 14 years as the head coach for the Clash Volleyball Club (Manassas, Va.).

Following Dillon’s blueprint which emphasizes defense and passing, Osbourn Park reached the Virginia AAA final eight four times and won seven Cedar Run District championships. The Yellow Jackets went 65-12 (.844) between 2005 and 2007.

For her success, Dillon was named the Virginia High School Coach of the Year six times in addition to earning Northwest Region Coach of the Year honors in 2004.

Dillon played collegiately for Ithaca College for four seasons. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ithaca in 1990 and her master’s degree from George Mason University in 2000.

Kate has three adult children, Austin, Ian and Hannah and resides in nearby Hinton. Hannah plays at the Division III level for SUNY Cortland. In the summer of 2017, Kate married Keith Dillon.