Elaina Kakatolis is in her second season at Northwestern State, serving as a graduate assistant.
Kakatolis comes to NSU after lettering four years in volleyball at Ball State where she earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting this past May.
As a player at Ball State, Kakatolis ended her career ranked 14th in the program history with 2,203 attempts; finished as one of the top blockers in program history, ranking 16th in block assists (227) and 18th in career total blocks (249); and her 127 sets played in 2008 tie as the 17th-best single-season total in the program.
“Having Elaina as a member of our staff is huge for our program,” commented Hugh Hernesman. “For all three years that we were together at Ball State, Elaina was a leader and captain for the team. Her teammates gravitated to her and she has a nice, easy calm about her. As a three-year starter, Elaina’s experience of playing within our unique systems of play makes her a great resource for our players. The bottom line is that we have another coach that knows what we do as well as we do, that will step right in without any sort of learning curve. On top of that, Elaina is a very organized and responsible individual, which will be invaluable to the day-to-day operations of the program.”
As a high school player at Franklin Monroe in Ohio, Kakatolis helped guide her team to a 16-7 record her senior year and a 63-26 mark over her career. She led her team to three sectional runner-up finishes and a pair of conference championships and was the conference player of the year as a senior. She tallied a school-record 298 kills as a senior to go along with a .443 attack percentage while recording 100 blocks and 125 digs.
She was named all-area first team her final two seasons as well as first team all-district. She was also a three-time first team all-cross country selection.
Born on Sept. 1, 1986 in Greenville, Ohio, Kakatolis is the daughter of Peter and Susan Kakatolis and has one sister, Kaitlyn.
