REDLANDS, Calif. – University of Redlands Head Women's Basketball Coach Rich Murphy announced a big addition to his coaching staff Wednesday for the 2023-24 schoolyear bringing on former Bulldog Women's Basketball player Kristen Dowling '06.
"I am excited to welcome Coach Dowling back to the University of Redlands," Murphy explained. "Along with her coaching experience she brings the integrity and character that make her a worthy role model to our student-athletes. Our program will definitely benefit from her expertise at both the Division I and Division III levels. I am also excited to compete with her and not against her for the first time in our careers."
After four seasons as the Head Women's Basketball Coach at Pepperdine University, Dowling has decided to move back into the Division III realm joining the Bulldogs and Coach Murphy and returning to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).
Dowling's first year with the Waves was during the 2019-20 season where she led the team to a 16-15 overall record, including an 8-10 WCC record. The team reached the semifinals of the 2020 WCC Tournament after upsetting higher-seeded BYU. Over her first three seasons with the Waves they produced two All-WCC selections, two WCC All-Freshman team picks and one WCC All-Tournament player.
Prior to Pepperdine, Dowling was the Head Coach at SCIAC rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for seven years where she accumulated a 147-46 (.762), 93-19 (.830) SCIAC record. There she led the Athenas to six straight SCIAC regular-season championships, four SCIAC Tournament championships and four NCAA Division III Tournament Appearances. Along the way, the team had six straight 20-win seasons including five seasons with at least 23 wins. In 2015 she was named the SCIAC Coach of the Year saw a pair of players earn SCIAC Player of the Year honors and another 10 become 1st Team All-SCIAC selections.
Dowling had two prior stints with the Waves, as she was a graduate assistant and academic advisor during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, then returned as an assistant coach for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns, all under former head coach Julie Rousseau. The Waves went 32-27 during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, and placed third in the West Coast Conference in 2011 and advanced to the WNIT.
In between those two stays at Pepperdine, Dowling worked as an assistant coach at CSU Bakersfield for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. The Roadrunners went 35-23 those two years and made their first-ever Division I postseason appearance in the 2010 Women's Basketball Invitational.
Dowling is a 2004 Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Redlands, earning a bachelor's degree in Spanish with a minor in Physical Education. As a student-athlete, she helped the Bulldogs earn their second-ever SCIAC Regular Season Championship Title in 2004 and earned the WBCA Class Act Achievement Award.
Dowling also earned a master's degree from Pepperdine in Educational Technology in 2007.
She is a graduate of Nike's "So You Want to Be a Coach" program, as well as the NCAA Women's Coaches Academy. In 2018, she served as an on-court coach for the USA Basketball U17 World Cup Team Trials.