NCAA Division III championship tournament.Photo: Karl Rabe

This year, under first-year coach Richard Gary, the Brewers were ranked as high as second in the nation, went undefeated in the highly competitive United Volleyball Conference, and qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships, falling to defending champion and 2017 runner-up SUNY New Paltz in the quarterfinals. Knigge was named a First Team All-American for the second straight year, and Lee was selected to the Second Team. They were joined by Cimorelli and Lizana as All-United Volleyball Conference selections. Vassar finished the season ranked fifth in the country.

Two weeks after the NCAA championships, Cimorelli said the loss still stung, but he’s proud of what the team accomplished during his four years at Vassar. “The pinnacle of the sport at this levelfrom any recruiters at major colleges, he focused largely on academics at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where he majored in playwriting.

Most college coaches don’t earn a master’s degree in Greek mythology, but Gary did. He resumed his volleyball career while he was studying mythology and writing his master’s thesis at the University of Bristol in England. Gary was captain of the Bristol team and split his time as a member of the British Universities National Team.

Gary returned to the U.S. in 2004 to accept adjunct teaching jobs at both Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York. It was at Hartwick that he got his first college coaching “job,” although it paid virtually nothing at first. “I wandered over to the gym to watch