Fort Lewis College announced the resignation of volleyball head coach Tricia Melfy on Monday, effective immediately.
Melfy went 19-31 in two seasons as coach of the Skyhawks and helped lead the program to a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament appearance in 2018, the program’s first since 2013.
“I have accepted coach Melfy’s letter of resignation,” FLC athletic director Brandon Leimbach in a news release. “FLC athletics wishes coach Melfy the best in her future endeavors.”
The highest finish the Skyhawks recorded in the RMAC under Melfy was eighth in 2018, when they grabbed the final spot in the conference tournament bracket. They would go on to lose to Colorado School of Mines in the first round.
In 2019, FLC went 10-17 overall and 6-12 in conference play, and the Skyhawks took 13th out of 16 teams. Before the 2019 season, Melfy brought in 12 new players – seven true freshmen and five transfers. Many played important roles in the latter half of the season.
A national search will begin immediately to find the program’s next head coach, Leimbach said.
“At the end of the day, we’re looking for someone to take this program to the next level,” Leimbach said in a brief interview with The Durango Herald. “We want to be competitive, and we want our student-athletes to have a great experience. We will keep all of that and more in mind in our search.”
In Leimbach’s first year six months as athletic director at FLC, it will be the sixth sport that has had a coaching change. He promoted Brandon Crosby from interim head football coach to head coach in the fall. He’s also replaced the women’s lacrosse and softball coaches, named Orlando Griego the interim women’s basketball head coach, introduced a full time head coach for women’s cross-country and track and field.
Melfy previously had coached at the University of Minnesota-Morris, a Division III regional power, in 2015. She was an assistant at Division II Minot State in North Dakota in 2014, and her most recent coaching position before coming to FLC was at Phoenix College, a community college in Phoenix, from 2016-17.
She was named the head coach at FLC ahead of the 2018 season, replacing Kelley Rifilato.
In Durango, Melfy was also a part-time assistant coach at Four Corners Volleyball Club and helped spearhead the Soles4Souls campaign, an FLC program that donated more than 1,100 pairs of shoes in 2018.
Melfy could not be reached for comment and was not quoted in the news release from FLC.
bploen@durangoherald.com
