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Volleyball

2026 Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame Spotlight: Janet Moylan Ritter

Hall of Fame Tickets

Why is being inducted into the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame meaningful to you?
I am honored and so grateful. There is a plethora of amazing student-athletes at the University of Iowa, and I am so thankful to be included in this stellar group. When I received the phone call from the athletic department, I was speechless. Anyone who knows me will tell you that never happens! It was incredibly emotional for me. I experienced a wave of vivid and profound memories during my time as a student-athlete at the University of Iowa.

Who were your mentors at Iowa, and what did you learn from them?
My coaches, teammates, and professors were my closest mentors. When I think back on my four years as a volleyball player and a College of Pharmacy student, I have immense gratitude for Dean David Carew and Professor Lloyd Matheson at the College of Pharmacy. They were instrumental in helping me adhere to the rigorous pharmacy curriculum with the demands of my volleyball schedule and missed school days. I had a ton of make-up work every week from missing lectures, discussion sections, and labs. Also, special thanks to Sandy Stewart who recruited me to be the starting setter as a freshman. She put a lot of faith in me while other programs said I was too short to be a Big Ten setter.

What achievement from your time as a Hawkeye makes you most proud?
Winning the Big Ten Medal of Honor was my proudest accomplishment. This honor was the culmination of intense hard work both on and off the volleyball court, studying into the wee hours of the night and doing all-nighters prepping for tests.

What was the toughest stretch of your athletic career, and how did you work through it?
The change from high school volleyball to college was enormous, especially as a starting freshman setter. Our Iowa offense was incredibly complicated, which was time consuming to learn and even harder to execute with new teammates. I played every minute of every game and was called on to be the offensive quarterback at the same time as being the defensive leader on the team. I loved the challenge of running a very intricate offense, but it was a struggle and took some time to master. Staying confident, setting goals, learning from my mistakes, and always being positive for my team helped me during that first year.

Is there a particular moment in competition at Iowa that still stands out to you today?
Our volleyball games were long and grueling, and many of our matches went to five sets. We were a scrappy team and did not give up. Some of the tricky plays we ran were awesome, which left the other team quite confused. Kari Hamel and I ran a quick set, with a fake behind me, against the national champions, Long Beach State. We executed the play perfectly and the middle blocker on Long Beach State actually looked over the net and told us that was an awesome play. When I played, we did not have rally scoring, so you could come back even if you were behind 10 or more points. We were down against a very strong University of Minnesota team 14-1. They needed one point to win, but they had to serve to earn that point. We came back and won that game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That was the best comeback I have ever witnessed in volleyball. We went on the win that match.

Beyond your sport, what’s a favorite memory from your time in Iowa City?
I did not have a lot of free time to hang because of my challenging pharmacy curriculum, so I had a very different experience compared to most student-athletes. My favorite memory is when my boyfriend, (now husband!) David, came to visit me on his spring break. In graduate school while I was pursuing my Doctor of Pharmacy degree, my favorite memories were hanging out with my friends from volleyball and other sports (Kari Hamel, Keri Barney, Jenny Rees, Barb Willis, Lisa Sweeney, Kristi Gleason, and Katy Ketoff). 

Where has life taken you since your days at Iowa, and what are you passionate about today?
I am a pharmacist, professor, teacher, and mentor, and I work for Sanofi, a global healthcare company. My responsibilities are diverse but include medical education, teaching, and scientific research. I am passionate about my family and working in a team-focused environment. Dave and I have five children, and we are a very close family.

How did being a Hawkeye student-athlete shape the person you became?
These are the personality traits which helped shape me while at Iowa: team before self, hard work, constant energy, positivity, and having fun while being focused. I am a strong communicator, and that is a special trait of a setter on the volleyball team. You have to communicate constantly with your hitters and passers to execute plays. If you stop communicating, your team will lose. It’s the same today in the workforce.

Do you still have any treasured mementos or keepsakes from your Iowa days?
I have so much! I have my former sweatshirts, coats, hats, my first Iowa T-shirt, all of my recruiting letters and media books, volleyball schedules, some class notes from Professor Jay Holstein’s religion classes, newspaper clippings, Iowa blanket, Iowa volleyball coat, and other cool memorabilia. I even have the itinerary for my recruiting trip in the fall of 1986. When my two oldest children went to Iowa (Jackson played football and graduated with a degree in finance; Samantha graduated from the College of Pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and Master of Science in informatics), they wore my old clothes because it was ‘very cool!’

Who do you share this honor with?
I would not have found success or happiness without my teammates encouraging me to work hard and be accountable. They also helped shape our team mentality of never giving up. There was no ball we couldn’t dig, and no ball I couldn’t force to my hitters to make a play. We were resilient. Also, I would like to share this with my family since they have supported me from the very first day I served a volleyball until today.

Hall of Fame Spotlights

Janet Moylan Ritter, Volleyball (1987-90)
AVCA second-team All-Mideast Region honoree (1990). Big Ten Medal of Honor (1991). Three-time All-Big Ten selection, earning second-team honors in 1989 and honorable mention honors in 1989 and 1990. Two-time Iowa co-MVP Award recipient (1989, 1990). Volleyball Monthly Tournament Sportsmanship Award (1988). Three-time Academic All-Big Ten (1988, 1989, 1990). Named a University of Iowa College of Pharmacy Collegiate Scholar (1992). Finished career ranked first in program history in digs (1,931) for which the record held for 23 years in the pre-libero era. Finished career ranked first in program history in assists (5,471) for which the record still holds in 2026. Broke two NCAA records for most career digs and most career double digit dig matches (1990). Holds a top 15 ranking in attack percentage and service aces. Eleventh setter in NCAA History to break the 5,000 career assists threshold. Holds school single-match record in assists (82) and has four of the top six totals in the record books. Also holds three-set assists record (60).