Women's Beach Volleyball

Emily Kalmink was named the fourth head coach of the Tusculum University women's beach volleyball program in June 2024.

In her first season, the Pioneers won the Bronze Bracket at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships. TU went 15-15 (6-4) in the first year of South Atlantic Conference sponsorship of the sport. Kalmink's squad was picked as the preseason runner-up in the poll, making a late-season rally to narrowly claim silver in the SAC/Conference Carolinas Championship. Kyla Oppenhuis and Landry Tea earned the first SACC WePlayed Pair of the Week honor for the Pioneers on April 8 after not dropping a set in a 4-0 conference weekend as the No. 4 flight. Brynn Smith and Hannah Marsh claimed the first all-conference honors with a first team nod for Tusculum with a 9-7 (7-3 SACC) record. In the classroom, the women's beach program had 14 named to both the TU Athletic Director's Fall and Spring Honor Rolls.

Kalmink has four years of collegiate coaching experience in the sport including the last three seasons where she was on the coaching staff at NCAA Division II Saint Leo University in Florida. She helped the Lions to a 53-33 overall record while at Saint Leo including last spring’s 16-8 campaign which included a fourth place finish in the championship bracket of the AVCA Small College National Tournament.

In her first season with the Lions, Saint Leo posted a 22-13 record which was capped off by winning the Silver Bracket at the 2022 AVCA Small College Championship. The 2023 club repeated as Silver Bracket winners at the AVCA National Tournament as the Lions posted a 15-12 worksheet.

The Byron Center, Michigan native began her coaching career at the State College of Florida in 2021 where she was an assistant coach with the beach volleyball team.

She played collegiately at NCAA Division III Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island where she was a two-year starting middle blocker and team captain. Kalmink led the Wildcats to a pair of NCAA III Tournament appearances including 2016 where JWU went 33-1 and swept the Great Northeast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles.

Kalmink was a two-time AVCA All-Region and All-GNAC selection at JWU and was named to the GNAC All-Tournament team on two occasions including 2015 where she was the Tournament Most Valuable Player.

She also played two seasons at Southeastern University where her teams posted a combined record of 44-14 including 25-7 in conference play. In 2018, she led the Fire to a 23-4 record and a Sun Conference Championship while earning a spot on the All-Sun Conference squad. In 2019, Southeastern went 21-10 as Kalmink garnered All-Sun Conference first team honors.

Kalmink graduated from Southeastern University in 2019 where she majored in communications. She earned her Master’s degree in 2021 from the University of Florida in sports management focusing on student-athlete development and coaching.