University of North Dakota alumna Maria Bruggeman returns for her eighth season as the head coach for the UND Fighting Sioux volleyball program.
Bruggeman graduated from North Dakota with Bachelor of Science degrees in elementary education and physical education in 1993. She received her master's degree in physical education and exercise science in 2004 from UND.
Hired prior to the 1998 season, Bruggeman has led the Fighting Sioux on a continous improvement and march up the North Central Conference standings. In 2002 Bruggeman led the Fighting Sioux to a record of 24-11, the program's best finish since the 1990 season, and a fourth-place NCC finish with an 8-8 mark. Bruggeman was named the NCC co-Coach of the Year, after North Dakota was picked for a seventh-placed finish in the preseason coaches poll.
The season was also filled with numerous highlights: opening the season winning the Hawaiian Style Classic at the University of Hawaii-Hilo, knocking off two nationall ranked opponents in the process; beating North Dakota State University in three games before a record crowd of 1,212, snapping a 64-match losign streak to the Bison that dated back to 1976; opening the season 22-2, the best start in program history; and making the first trip to the NCAA Division II national tournament.
On the individual side, middle hitter Laura Birk and right side hitter Kate Cahill were named to the Academic All-NCC team. Cahill would go on to become UND's second-ever Academic All-American. Cahill and setter Holly Welter were named All-NCC.
A 1988 graduate of Fertile-Beltrami (Minn.) High School, where she was a two-sport standout, Breggeman attended UND on a basketball scholarship. She was a member of four Fighting Sioux team (1989-92) that produced a combined 98-22 (.817) record.
Bruggeman was also a three-year member of the Fighting Sioux volleyball program (1991-93). She continues to hold a prominent spot on the UND career lists for solo blocks (fifth, 88), block assists (seventh, 229), total blocks (seventh, 317) and hitting percentage (eighth, .236). The .081 block assists she averaged per game in 1992 ranks as the fifth-best total in UND history, and the five solo blocks she recorded on two seperate four-game matches in 1993 is still a UND record.
After graduating from UND in 1993, Bruggeman worked for three years in Dubuque, Iowa, where she taught junior high physical education and was the head volleyball and freshmen girls' basketball coach at Dubuque Senior High School.
Following the 1996-97 school year, Breggeman and her husband, former Fighting Sioux track All-American, Jared Bruggeman, returned to Grand Forks, where she took a position as graduate assistant with the Fighting Sioux women's basketball team and began work on a master's defree in kinesiolody. The 1998 women's basketball team would go on to win the second of UND's three sonsecutive national championships. Since taking voer the Fighting Sioux volleyball program in 1998, Bruggeman and her coaching staffs have recruited three All-North Central Region selections: Welter (2002 HM); Jill Effhauser (2002, HM); Emily Tuve (2003 HM) and seven All-North Central Conference players: Cahill (2x-2001-02), Welter (2002), Effhauser (2002 HM), Heather Hanson (2003), Tuve (2003), Jamie Skadeland (2x-2003-04), and current Fighting Sioux player Tara Holmen (2004 HM).
Bruggeman has lead two squads to the NCAA Division II Regional Championships in 2002 and 2003. After earning the sixth seed in the 2003 Regional tournament at Concordia-St. Paul, the Fighting Sioux upset the third-ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in a hard fought 3-2 win for their first NCAA tournament victory in UND history.
Her rosters have all been outstanding in the classroom, as well. For 14 straight semesters, her teams have continually produced over a 3.0 team grand point average. Her 2003-04 squad received the All-Academic Team Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) for their team 3.49 GPA. Her players have also received many individual academic honors, including one CoSIDA Academic All-American in Kate Cahill in 2002, a third team selection, and fourteen Academic All-NCC selections: Kristi Rasmussen (1999), Angie Gilberston (199 HM), Birk (3x-2000-02), Cahill (2x HM 2000-01, 2002 First Team), Josie Fink (2001 HM), Effhauser (2002 HM), Jennifer Winters (2003), Tuve (2003 HM), Skadeland (2004), and current Fighting Sioux player Aileen Cahill (2004).
Coach Bruggeman has been a guest speaker at several area high schools, as well as multiple state high school coaches association conventions in both the states of North Dakota and Minnesota.
Sh also has been a volunteer for the Special Olympics of North Dakota, helping organize their yearly volleyball tournament in Fargo.
In addition to her duties as the head volleyball coach for the Fighting Sioux, bruggeman also teaches some courses in physical education and excerise science.
She and her husband Jared have two children: son Micah (3) and daughter Logan (1). They reside in Thompson, N.D.
