March 3, 2006

DAYTON, Ohio - University of Dayton head volleyball coach Tim Horsmon announced the hiring of Darcy Thompson as a volunteer assistant coach on Friday. Thompson, a former player under Horsmon at Robert Morris, was an assistant coach for the Colonials last season.

"We are really excited to have Darcy joining our volleyball staff at UD," Horsmon said. "Darcy is one of my favorite people and one of the toughest and hardest working players that I have coached. We preach character and our team will see this quality every day in Darcy."

Before leading Robert Morris to a 16-13 record last season and a berth in the Northeast Conference Championship game, Thompson was a four-year star at RMU as a libero. She was a two-time First Team All-NEC pick and was selected to play on the Bringit Promotion USA Select volleyball team during the summer of 2005 following her collegiate career. Thompson owns the top two Robert Morris single-season dig records with 718 digs in 2004 and 576 in 2003, while ranking second in career digs with 1,583. She was nationally ranked in digs per game during each of her final two years with the Colonials. Thompson graduated from Robert Morris with a BSBA in Marketing and a MS in Communications Information Systems.

"We have been fortunate to have players such as Carrie Snider and Christy Utnage to be involved in our program and I think Darcy will be the next in line of successes to help our current players and coaches," Horsmon said. "Darcy is a winner and we look forward to coaching career really taking off as a Flyer."

In 2005, UD earned its fifth consecutive 20-win season with a 24-11 overall record and became the just the fourth school ever to win three-straight Atlantic 10 Championships. The program also boasted the A-10 Player of the Year for the third straight season and its fourth AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honor in the last three years. The Flyers also won 19 consecutive matches at one point, which was the 11th longest winning streak in the nation this season and paved the way for UD's fourth-ever Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championship.

"I decided to come to University of Dayton because I think I will learn a lot from this coaching staff," Thompson said. "Coach Horsmon was my coach at Robert Morris University for two years, so I know his style and know what to expect from him. The way I look at it is if he can teach a stubborn country girl how to play volleyball, then he must know what he is doing."