Franklin & Marshall College

Former volleyball standout Mary Kate Salko '01 returned to Franklin & Marshall College in the fall of 2003 and recently concluded her 23rd season leading her alma mater in 2025. The 2025 Diplomats achieved historic milestones, achieving the program's 11th NCAA Tournament appearance and consecutive tournament appearances for the first time since Salko played for the Diplomats, when the Diplomats achieved five-straight appearances from 1996 through 2000. With the team's first-round win over (RV) Williams, it marked the program's first win in the tournament since the 2000 season. The 2025 coaching staff was named the Centennial Conference Coaching Staff of the Year for the third time with Salko at the helm. In addition to her coaching responsibilities, Salko was appointed to the athletic department's senior leadership team prior to the start of the 2021-22 academic year where she serves the department as the senior woman administrator.

In 23 seasons, she has amassed 424 victories, passing Steve Coulson, who had 251 wins over a span of 12 seasons, on the program’s all-time list with a 3-0 shutout of Scranton on Sept. 7, 2016. Salko is the only Centennial Conference (CC) coach to earn all 400 career wins in the CC era, notching her milestone with a 3-0 win over McDaniel on November 6, 2024. 

Salko has guided the Diplomats to 19 winning seasons in her tenure, including three Centennial Conference (CC) regular-season titles (2012, 2013, 2018) as well as the 2010 and 2014 CC Championship - the fifth and sixth in school history. The Diplomats have made the Centennial Conference Tournament in 20 of Salko's 21 competitive seasons on the sidelines. That streak includes a postseason appearance during every year since the 2008 - the longest active streak in the Centennial Conference.

Following another historic campaign in 2018, Salko was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for the first time in her career and earned Centennial Coach of the Year for the second time. The Diplomats earned the program's ninth NCAA Tournament berth, ending the season with a 23-8 overall record and a perfect 10-0 mark in Centennial Conference (CC) action.  

The Diplomats became the first No. 5 seed to ever win the CC Tournament in 2014, taking down Muhlenberg with a 3-2 win. With a 24-6 overall record in 2013, F&M captured the most victories under the direction of Salko and the highest total since 2002. The Diplomats went undefeated in the Centennial Conference at 10-0 on the way to their second straight regular-season crown.

Under Salko, the Diplomats have recorded 20 or more victories nine times and have had seven All-Americans come through the program, in 2006 CC Player of the Year Margot Phelan (2006), Nicole Morano (2009), two-time CC Player of the Year Julie Harvey (2011, 2013) Ellie Ezekiel (2014),  2018 CC Player of the Year Grace Maggiore (2018, 2019), Allison Franke (2018, 2019), and Gianna Mangiamele (2022, 2023, 2024).

Salko was inducted into the F&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. A three-time All-CC setter (1999, 2000-First Team, 1998-Second Team), she completed her career as the all-time leader in assists (4,062) and is the only player ranked in the top 10 in career kills, digs, service aces, blocks, and assists.

A 1998-2000 American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Mid-Atlantic Region Player, she averaged 10.19 assists per game to lead the Diplomats to a school-record 34-6 mark, a perfect 10-0 conference record, the Centennial Conference Tournament title and a "Sweet 16" finish in the NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament as a senior.

During her playing career, she led F&M to the 1999 and 2000 Centennial Conference Championships and four consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearances while recording a 120-32 record from 1997-2000, the best four-year mark in program history.

Co-captain of the Diplomats in 2000, Salko holds school assists records for a game (23, vs. Roberts Wesleyan, 10/27/00), a season (1309 in 1999), a career (4012), a four-game match (63, vs. Pomona-Pitzer, 9/15/00), and a five-game match (75, vs. Grove City, 10/3/98). Her 4,012 career assists rank sixth in Centennial Conference history.

A native of Wayne, Pa., Salko graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in the spring of 2001 with a degree in Business Administration.