MARK BIRTWISTLE
Head Coach
Mark Birtwistle has been at the helm of Eastern University Volleyball since 1990 and has established EUVB as one of the premier DIII volleyball programs in the country.
Birtwistle has amassed over 750 career victories and celebrated 21 Conference Championships. Birtwistle led the Eagles to the 2011 NCAA Final Four and two trips to the Elite Eight. His teams have earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament 19 times and have advanced to the Sweet 16 on more than half of those occasions (10x).
Coach Birtwistle has been honored by the AVCA six times as the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year (2002, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016), including the 2016 season where he led his team to an Elite Eight appearance in Oshkosh, WI. Birtwistle has also been selected as the Conference “Coach of the Year” 10 times.
Under the direction of Coach Birtwistle, Eastern has produced 37 Division III All-Americans, 50 Mid-Atlantic All-Region selections and over 100 All-Conference players.
KRISTA RODGERS
Assistant Coach
Originally from Fairfax, Virginia, Rodgers played volleyball at the University of Mary Washington where she earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-America, All-Region, All-State and All-Conference honors her senior season. Krista was also selected as the Coast-to-Coast Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Coast-to-Coast Senior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2022-2023.
Krista, a middle hitter for the UMW Eagles, led her team in hitting percentage and blocks and guided her team to their first C2C Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament Regional Final appearance. Rodgers finished her career with 684 kills and 284 blocks. She hit a career-best .375 in her senior season and ended her career with a .345 average. She became UMW's fifth volleyball All-American since 2016.
Rodgers also served as the Co-President for the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and earned a variety of Academic Honors including Dean's List, Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society and Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honors Society.
For the past 2 years she has coached multiple teams at the 540 Volleyball Club in Fredericksburg, VA. Rodgers will work directly with Eastern University hitters and will play a role in all aspects of program development.
