Women's Volleyball
- Title:
- Volleyball Head Coach
- Email:
- kari.thompson@siu.edu
- Phone:
- 618-453-5473
- Alma Mater:
- Green Bay, 2003
- MVC Championships:
- 102-98, 7 seasons
- Awards:
- 0-0, 1st season
Pronunciation: Carry
Kari Thompson enters her second season at the helm of the Saluki volleyball program in 2018.
Thompson was named the ninth head coach in the program’s 58-year history on May 17, 2017. The 2017-18 squad faced five teams that went to the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and nine teams that finished with top-100 RPIs. Senior Andrea Estrada and junior transfer Patience Brown were both selected to the MVC Second-Team while teammates Ashley Edelen and Abby Barrow landed on the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team. Academically, the team earned an in-season fall GPA of 3.32 with six student-athletes (over a third of the team) achieving perfect 4.0 GPAs during the semester.
Prior to her arrival in Carbondale, Thompson coached 11 seasons overall at NDSU, where she served as the program’s assistant coach from 2006-10, before taking the head coaching reigns mid-season in 2010. She led the Bison to two NCAA Tournament appearances during her seven seasons as head coach and compiled a 102-98 career record, including a 66-38 mark in the Summit League.
As an assistant at North Dakota State, Thompson was instrumental in recruiting the program’s 2009 class that was ranked No. 30 in the nation. The Bison proceeded to post a 20-11 record in 2010, captured their third-straight Summit League championship, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
In 2011, Thompson won Summit League Coach of the Year honors by guiding the program to a 26-9 mark and a fourth-straight Summit League title with a 16-2 record. The Bison climbed to a program-high No. 42 ranking in the NCAA’s RPI index and again advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Thompson is highly regarded in the collegiate volleyball community. She was a 2010 recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s “Thirty Under 30” award recognizing the top young coaches in the country. She also served as head coach of a USA Athletes International team that competed in the 2011 European Smash Tour in Italy and Austria.
A native of Amherst, Wisconsin, Thompson began her collegiate volleyball career at Division II Concordia-St. Paul, where she was named the team’s Most Improved Player in 2000. She transferred to Division I Green Bay, where she lettered three seasons an earned a scholarship as a senior. She graduated from UWGB in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and the Arts. After graduation, she served as a graduate assistant on the volleyball staff at Alabama, where the Southeastern Conference powerhouse posted a 44-20 record during her two seasons.
