Feb. 15, 2007

FAIRFAX, Va. - George Mason women's volleyball head coach Pat Kendrick announced today the hiring of Dottie Porch as an assistant coach. Porch joins the program from Indiana University, where she spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach.

"We're happy to have Dottie join the program as an assistant coach," Kendrick said. "We look for her to bring in her experience as a former student-athlete, professional athlete and coach in the Big Ten Conference to help raise the level of play of the team."

The middle blockers experienced a banner year under Porch during her first season with the Hoosiers. Mandy Eberle broke both the single-season block assists and total blocks school standards in 2005. The Sussex, Wis., product posted 140 block assists to surpass former IU standouts Cydryce Carter's 1997 tally and Katie Pollom's 2002 total of 139. Additionally, Eberle's 155 total blocks eclipsed Pollom's previous program standard of 153 set in 2002. Meanwhile, current Hoosier Annie Moddrell notched 106 block assists in 2005 to tie for ninth all-time in school history.

Furthermore, the Hoosiers accumulated 560 block assists on the year to tie the school record set in 2002 with a matching total of 560. Additionally, Indiana recorded the most total blocks in school history with 328, breaking the previous program best of 319 in 2002.

During her three-year tenure as a co-coach of the Indy Juniors Volleyball Club from 2003-05, Porch's 18-1 squad not only qualified for the 2004 USA Nationals, but also advanced every senior into the collegiate volleyball ranks. Indiana State, Marshall and Fordham are a few of the schools which signed student-athletes from her club team. Previously, her 17-1 team moved on to the 2003 AAU Nationals. Additionally, she evaluated players and helped develop their skill base with specific attention to training the middle blocker corps with practice plans and drills.

Before jumping into coaching, Porch played professionally in four separate European professional leagues. From 2000-01, Porch served as the primary outside hitter of her squad in the Ankara, Turkey league. The season before, she performed as an outside hitter in the Lisbon, Portugal league. In 1999-2000, Porch was a utility player and outside hitter in the Vigevano, Italy league and in her rookie season, she was the primary outside hitter for her 1998-99 team in the Orividen Ponnistus league in Orivesi, Finland. During her maiden season, she helped her team to the Suomen Cup and garnered Suomen Cup Player of the Game and European Cup Player of the Game honors.

Prior to her time overseas, Porch began her career as a two-sport student-athlete for the IPFW Mastodons. After beginning her collegiate career as a basketball player for the Dons, the volleyball coaching staff at IPFW quickly discovered her talents and asked her to join the team. While at IPFW, the AVCA All-American was a two-time IPFW player of the year, three-time all-Great Lakes Valley Conference and two-time all-region honoree.

Porch earned her bachelor's degree in communications radio and TV at IPFW in 1998. She previously worked as a member of the production crew of the WTHR-TV NBC Channel 13 team in Indianapolis, Ind.