Kristin Baker was named women’s volleyball head coach at SUNY Cortland in June 2026.
Baker previously served as head coach at Hamilton College from 2017-25. She took over a Hamilton program that had made only one league postseason appearance in the highly competitive New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) over the previous 16 years, and she led the Continentals to four conference tournaments in the next eight seasons. Hamilton finished 7-3 in the NESCAC as the conference fourth seed in her first season in 2017, and in 2023 the Continentals hosted their first-ever conference playoff game.
In 2022, her Hamilton squad earned an NCAA regional ranking for the first time in program history. Baker recruited and coached two of Hamilton's four All-Americans, and the program had 25 percent or higher of its roster qualify for the NESCAC Fall All-Academic Team every season since 2018, including more than half the roster in 2021, 2025 and 2026. Baker registered an overall record of 69-96 at Hamilton, giving her the program's second-highest coaching winning percentage overall and best in 30 years.
Prior to Hamilton, Baker was an assistant volleyball coach at Division I Colgate University from 2009-16. She helped lead the Raiders to a Patriot League record of 86-34 and an overall mark of 129-104. The team enjoyed seven winning seasons, made seven league championship appearances and played in four championship final matches in her eight years at Colgate. In her final season with the program the Raiders went 18-11 overall and 13-3 in the league and advanced to the championship final.
In 2012 the Raiders captured league regular season and tournament titles and earned the Patriot League's automatic bid to the NCAA championship. In 2013 Baker helped guide Colgate to an overall record of 22-9 and a league record of 13-3, and the Raiders advanced to the league final for the second year in a row.
Baker was an assistant at the University of Dayton in 2008 and at SUNY New Paltz in 2007. Dayton posted a 21-13 overall record, went 11-2 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, played in the conference championship final and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division I championship. New Paltz was 27-12 overall and 8-2 in the SUNYAC and reached the semifinals of the conference championship. In addition, Baker was part of the USA Volleyball HP Program in July 2010 when she was head coach of the Iroquois-Empire Volleyball Association Region High Performance Team.
A Corning, N.Y., native, Baker (formerly Kristin Fiorillo) played at the University at Albany from 2003 to 2006 and was a team captain and starting libero her senior year. She helped lead Albany to 98 wins overall and a 43-9 record in America East Conference regular-season play. The team collected America East conference tournament titles and played in the NCAA Division I championship in 2004 and 2006. Albany also earned three America East regular-season championships from 2004-06. In 2004 she was part of a program that went 27-7 and played in the NCAA tournament in just its sixth year in Division I.
Baker played at Albany under legendary head coach Kelly Sheffield, and she coached with him at Dayton. Sheffield has been the head coach at the University of Wisconsin since 2013 and has led the Badgers to an NCAA Division I title (2021), six NCAA Final Fours and five Big Ten titles through the 2025 season. He's coached two Olympians and two AVCA National Players of the Year, and his overall coaching record is 619-185 through 25 seasons at Albany, Dayton and Wisconsin.
Baker graduated from Albany in 2007, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in sociology, and she earned a master's degree in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University Irvine (Calif.) in 2020. She resides in Hamilton, N.Y., with her husband Ryan, their sons Brody and Landon, and daughter Elliot. Ryan is Colgate's women's volleyball head coach.
updated 7/10/2026
