After back-to-back trips to the Summit League Tournament, head coach Kelley Hartley Hutton has the IPFW women's volleyball squad on the cusp of an NCAA tournament berth for the 2009 season. Hartley Hutton took the reigns of the program in July 1999 and has pushed the team to five 20-plus win seasons in the past six years, and seven in her ten years at the helm of the program, with an overall record of 209-109 at IPFW.

Hartley Hutton has put herself in elite company during her time as head coach, as her 346 wins is the most by any NCAA head coach who is under 40 years of age -- five victories ahead of second place on that list. A season ago, the Mastodons fell in the first round of the Summit League Tournament, with a four-set loss at Oral Roberts, after placing third in the league's regular season.

Ten years ago she took the reigns of a volleyball program that had a rich history and led them through a pair of large milestones -- the first coming in the 2001 season as the program had its first year at the NCAA Division I level, and the second coming two seasons ago, as she coached IPFW's first season in the Summit League. Despite those hurdles, Hartley has produced a winning record in eight of her ten years at the helm of the squad and has defended her home court with gusto, winning a remarkable 76 percent (82-26) of her matches inside the Gates Sports Center.

In 2006, she helped lead IPFW to the Independent Championship title, and was named the Independent Coach of the Year for the third time over the prior five years. In addition to their success on the court, the team's accolades from the classroom are equally impressive. The team recently received the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award, and had 11 players on the Summit League Fall Academic All-League team and another nine on the league's Commissioner's List of Academic Excellence. In 2006, Hartley Hutton coached her first-ever Academic All-American in middle blocker Claire Jackson, who graduated from IPFW with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in biology.

Two years ago, the squad took an education and cultural experience of her student-athlete's lifetime, as Hartley Hutton took the squad to Brazil during spring break in 2008 for competitions, tourist excursions, and team bonding. It also meant "going home" for three IPFW players, then-seniors Patty Azevedo and Cynara Martins (both natives of Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and to-be junior Mayara Schlindwein (a native of Nova Petropolis, Brazil).

Off the court, Big Brothers/Big Sisters is Hartley Hutton's favorite non-profit organization, and she has made time to mentor an area "little" since 2002, a relationship she cherishes. IPFW women's volleyball matches are standard fall events for the organization's First Friends program. After those matches, she and her team use this as an opportunity to talk to area youth about the importance of education and setting goals.

Hartley Hutton came to IPFW in 1999 after serving one year at Robert Morris University, taking that program through a rebuilding time. Despite only spending one season on the sideline, the recruiting class that she brought in led the Colonels to a Northeast Conference Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in 1999, redeeming a seventh place league finish the season before. She began her coaching career at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, where she led the team to back-to-back Mid-Ohio Conference titles and into the NAIA Tournament in 1996 and 1996. She compiled a 131-44 record during her four years, earning MOC Coach of the Year honors twice and was the league's chairperson and regional representative. She also served as the assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator at Walsh.

A 1991 graduate from the University of Toledo, Hartley Hutton played four years with the Rockets, serving as team captain during her junior and senior years. She earned an M.S. in sports administration from Bowling Green State University in 1993, while working at the Mid-American Conference office. After completing a one-year NCAA internship with the MAC, she was appointed to a full-time position in 1992.

She and her husband, Craig Hutton, were married in February 2004 after meeting at IPFW. They reside in Fort Wayne with their daughter, Kennedy.