Eastern Connecticut State University

Megan Silver-Droesch embarks upon her 15th season with the women's volleyball coaching staff -- 12th as head coach -- as the program moves into its 51st season on the intercollegiate level.

Silver-Droesch was selected as permanent head coach in February of 2015 after three seasons as an assistant under former head coach Peter Maneggia Jr., and one as interim head coach. In July of 2017, she became the program's first fulltime head coach in ten years.

Silver-Droesch is the eighth permanent head coach in program history. Among Eastern volleyball coaches who have coached at least 100 matches, her winning percentage of .581 is third all-time. She also ranks second all-time behind Alumni Hall of Fame coach Floretta Crabtree in wins (165) and matches coached (284) and is also the program's all-time leading coach in Little East Conference overall (60) and regular-season (51) victories.

Silver-Droesch enters the 2025 season tied for  second in seniority (in terms of years as a head coach at their present institutions) among nine Little East Conference head volleyball coaches.

In 2024, Silver-Droesch posted a winning record for the eighth time in the last nine years and won at least half of her LEC regular-season games for the ninth time in her 11-year Eastern tenure.

After sharing second place in the 2021 Little East Conference regular-season standings and reaching the LEC tournament championship game for the third time in eight  non-Covid seasons under Droesch, the Warriors repeated a five-set road win over No. 4 seed Western Connecticut in 2022 in reaching the LEC semifinals for the seventh time in eight years.Under Droesch, Eastern  shared back-to-back LEC regular-season titles in 2018 and 2019. 

In 2019, Silver-Droesch led the team to its fourth straight winning season overall and a share of the Little East regular-season title for the second straight year -- marking the second time in program history and first time since 2004-05 that the Warriors won or shared back-to-back LEC regular-season championships. With the team's 11th win that year, Silver-Droesch became the third coach in the program's 46-year history to win as many as 100 matches in charge of the program, following Crabtree (1975-96) and Jolie Ward (2003-07).

In addition to recording her 100th overall win on Oct. 18, 2019, Silver-Droesch became the program's winningest coach in both regular-season and overall LEC victories in 2019. Her first conference win of the year Sept. 20 gave her the most regular-season LEC wins (24) and her fourth LEC triumph Oct. 12 gave her the most overall LEC wins (33).

For leading a team rated third in the Little East Conference pre-season poll in 2018 to its first conference regular-season title (fifth overall)  in 12 years and first LEC tournament championship (eighth overall) in 11, Silver-Droesch was voted conference Coach-of-the-Year for the second time in her tenure.

With 13 returning letterwinners and three impact freshmen in 2018, Eastern ran the table in Little East play after an opening road loss, with a road sweep of perenniel LEC champion UMass Boston in late September ultimately providing the Warriors with a share of the regular-season title, and ultimately, the No. 1 seed and home court advantage in the LEC Final Four. Eastern swept Rhode Island College in the semifinals, then avenged its only LEC loss with a four-set victory over third-seeded Keene, which had upended No. 2 UMass Boston in the semifinals the previous evening.

In 2017, Silver-Droesch directed the program to an 18-9 record and a winning percentage of 66.7 -- a percentage which had not been exceeded  since the 2006 squad won 30 of 40 matches for a 75.0 winning mark. Tha 2017 team posted its third winning season (4-3) in the LEC  in four years under the current head coach. That young squad was fast out of the gate by winning its first six matches, and after struggling in mid-September, righted itself by winning nine of its last 11 in the regular season and following with a first-round LEC tournament victory -- the third time in four years under Silver-Droesch that the club advanced at least into the LEC semifinals.

In 2016, Silver-Droesch led the Warriors to her first winning season (19-12) and a 4-3 Little East Conference record, No. 4 LEC playoff seed and first-round shutout of Keene State College. The Warriors earned the first-round playoff home game by erasing a two-set deficit for a five-set decision at Keene State College on the final Saturday of the regular season. Eastern got out quickly with eight wins in its first ten matches which included significant wins over U.S. Coast Guard at home and Trinity College on the road.  

In her first season as a collegiate head coach in the fall of 2014, Silver-Droesch led Eastern to an overall record of 17-17. Eastern was picked to finish fifth in the eight-team Little East Conference in the coaches’ pre-season poll, but instead placed third in the regular season with a 5-2 LEC record and advanced to the tournament championship match for the first time since 2007 with wins over No. 6 Plymouth State University and No. 2 Keene State College. For her success, she was selected the program’s first LEC Coach-of-the-Year in nine years.

In ten years under Silver-Droesch -- a two-time LEC Coach-of-the-Year -- there have been two AVCA All-Americas, three players named AVCA All-Region, five All-NEWVA picks, eight NEWVA Senior Classic selections, three LEC Offensive Players-of-the-Year, two LEC Rookies-of-the-Year, 18 All-LEC picks, 75 LEC All-Academics (17 total in 2022 and '23) and 53 Eastern Scholar-Athlete recipients (six in 2023/24). Each of the last five years has also produced an AVCA Team Academic Award (3.30+ team GPA for the academic year).

Silver-Droesch is a certified volleyball official and has coached the Husky Juniors out of Windsor since 2005. In the summer of 2013, Silver-Droesch helped coach the junior team to second place at the Happy Valley Tournament at Penn State. Silver-Droesch also attended the high performance clinic at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Facility in the summer of 2013.

In 2015, Silver-Droesch competed with the Midnight Riders of the Premier Volleyball League for the second year, serving as a team captain -- a team which included former Eastern four-year letterwinner Samantha Slonski.

As a four-year Big East Academic All-Star, Silver-Droesch appeared in 269 sets for the Huskies between 2003 and 2006, accumulating 235 blocks (10th all-time at the time), 448 kills and a .241 attack percentage. As a senior, the 6-foot-1 inch middle hitter set personal career highs in most every category, led the squad in block assists (118) and total blocks (126) and helped the team to the Big East Tournament after a three-year hiatus. In Silver-Droesch's four years, UConn won 71 and lost 47 (27-23 in the Big East), including a 20-win season in 2003 and 19-win campaign in 2006.

The Snohomish, Wash. native spent two years as a graduate assistant at Springfield College (2007-08) before joining the Eastern staff in the fall of 2011.

Silver-Droesch holds a B.A. in English from Connecticut and M.Ed from Springfield in Educational Studies and resides in Canterbury.


EASTERN VOLLEYBALL UNDER HEAD COACH MEGAN SILVER-DROESCH
 

*COVID-19