Bringing with her 15 years of Division III coaching experience, Ruder enters her first year as Southwestern University's head women's basketball coach. Ruder served most recently as the head women's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She replaces three-year head coach Kerri Brinkoeter.
Prior to coming to Southwestern, Ruder, an UW-Whitewater alumna, spent all 15 seasons of her coaching career at UW-Oshkosh, and was a part of multiple NCAA Division III Tournament Appearances and WIAC (Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) Championship teams. She started with the Titans' women's basketball team as an assistant coach from 1991 to 1996, working her way up the ladder to head coach in May of 1996.
Ruder has not had any trouble finding success on the court. In her nine years at the helm as a head coach for UW-Oshkosh, she has compiled an impressive 203-46 record (.815), making her the sixth winningest active coach in Division III.
She is also the sixth winningest coach in the history of the WIAC.
She guided her first UW-Oshkosh team to a 23-4 overall record, a NCAA Division III tournament berth and a second-place finish in the WIAC. In 1998, she guided the Titans to a 26-2 overall record, a quarterfinal round appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament and the WIAC Championship. The following season, Ruder coached UW-Oshkosh to a 27-2 overall record, another quarterfinal round appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament and a second straight WIAC title. Her efforts during that 1999 season gained her NCAA Division III Coach of the Year honors by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
In 2004-05 Ruder's Titans finished with a 22-6 overall record and advanced to the finals of the conference tournament before being edged by UW-Stout, 68-53.
A standout basketball player and three-year letter winner for UW-Whitewater, Ruder graduated from her alma mater with a bachelors degree in Business Education and a coaching minor in 1984 before receiving her MBA from UW-Oshkosh in 1992. Her accomplishments on the court as a player led her to being inducted in the UW-Whitewater Hall of Fame in 1999.
In addition to her coaching duties, Ruder also serves as UW-Oshkosh's assistant director of athletics and the school's senior women's athletics administrator. Furthermore, she serves as the At-Large Division III Representative on the Executive Board of Directors for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
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