Dan Pawlikowski became just the Stars' second head men's volleyball coach in program history, arriving in River Forest in August of 2017 with more than a decade of collegiate coaching experience. In his first season at the helm for Dominican, Pawlikowski guided the Stars to the inaugural Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament title, earning Dominican’s second bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship tournament in program history. Dominican went on to win a pair of national tournament contests, earning a spot in the national semifinal round. Going 26-8, Pawlikowski’s Stars equaled the program mark for wins in a season while setting program records for kills (1,524), kills per set (13.30), assists (1,426), service aces (183), aces per set (1.5), digs (1,257), digs per set (10.3), blocks (285.5) and blocks per set (2.53). Under Pawlikoski, Dominican’s Doug Burchett was named the AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year while Luke Spicer was named to the AVCA All-America First Team and Ethan Klosak garnered honorable mention for the All-America Team.
Prior to Dominican, Pawlikowski served as an assistant coach and later associate head coach at Division I Stony Brook University from 2013-2016 after breaking into college coaching in 2004 at Loyola University where he spent three seasons as an assistant men's volleyball coach. In between, Pawlikowski had stops at North Park University, Northern Illinois University and University of Wisconsin.
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Prior to his coaching career, Pawlikowski enjoyed success as a player at both the high school and club level in college. At Loyola Academy, Pawlikowski was named First Team All-State in 1996 and later inducted into the Loyola Academy Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. At the University of Illinois, Pawlikowski helped the men's club volleyball team to four top ten finishes, two Big Ten and Two MIVA championships.
