Caltech Names 1st Female Coach

Caltech has named its first female athletic coach. She is Karen Nilsen, who will teach physical education and coach the women’s varsity tennis team and the women’s undergraduate volleyball team, which may begin intercollegiate competition in 1991.

Last spring Nilsen coached the Pomona-Pitzer Colleges women’s team to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and a third-place finish in NCAA Division III competition. As a senior at Pitzer, she reached the semifinals of the Division III singles championships and also received the NCAA Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award for Division III tennis.

Nilsen has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Pitzer and has studied at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.