Bio

Entering her 29th season as the program's head coach in 2023-24, Theresa Garlacy has engineered the rise of the Bryant University volleyball program into a consistent and potent threat.

Garlacy has been a staple in the Bryant community as she enters her 31st at the University. She served two seasons as an assistant coach prior to being named the head coach and also held several administrative duties within the department during the beginning of her career. Garlacy's teams have not excelled on the court but off the court as well. Her program has received AVCA All-Academic honors and has also spent the last 26 years volunteering with Special Olympics Rhode Island. 

Under the tutelage of Garlacy, the Bulldogs have earned seven-straight conference tournament berths, Bryant's first Division I conference championship in 2018, and a regular season title in 2021.

Garlacy enters the 2024 season boasting a career coaching record of 596-391(.604), with a final Division II mark of 344-140 (.711). She left Division II ranked No. 24 in winning percentage and left as the 17th winningest coach in DII history. Garlacy ranked second all-time in the NE-10 in career wins following the team’s final game in the league in 2007. Garlacy is 252-251 at the Division I level.

Bryant would follow up their first year in the America East with another promising season in 2023. The Bulldogs would once again go 19-12 overall and finish 6-4 in conference. The Black and Gold would earn the No. 4 seed but would fall in the semifinals to UMBC. The Bulldogs would see multiple milestones in 2023. Carolina Camacho would become only the 6th player in Bryant's Division I history to surpass 1000 career assists. Josie Deluga would reach 600 career digs and Aubrey LaPour would surpass 600 career kills. Three Bulldogs would earn all-conference honors. Aubrey Lapour would be named to the America East first team while Brookelyn Talmadge made all-rookie. Garlacy's coaching staff would also be named Co-Coaching Staff of the Year by the America East.

The Bulldogs had a strong debut in their first year of America East play in 2022, going 19-12 overall and 6-4 in league play. Bryant qualified for the America East Tournament, falling in the semifinals. Mia Cergol capped off a historic career with America East Setter of the Year honors, while Alyssa Wright and Riley James also picked up all-conference honors. Abigail Rae and Emma McGovern were named to the CSC Academic All-District Team. 

Bryant hosted the NEC Championships for the first time ever in 2021, going 12-2 in conference to clinch the regular season title. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 21-11 record, their third 20-win season in four years. Three Bulldogs earned All-NEC honors: Riley James was named to the first team while Mia Cergol and Caroline Kennedy were named to the second team. Kennedy reached a personal milestone, becoming the fourth Bulldog in the team's Division I era with 1000 career kills.

Bryant finished a COVID-impacted 2020-21 season with a 6-5 record overall and a 6-4 mark in conference play. The Black and Gold finished the year atop the NEC in kills and blocks per set. The Bulldogs had numerous players on the conference's individual leaderboards as well, including Alysa Wright, who led the NEC with 1.24 blocks per set. Wright was named All-NEC second team while Emma McGovern was named to the conference's first team.

The 2019 Bryant squad welcomed one of the program's most-heralded signing classes, including the first first-team Under Armour All-American to sign with an NEC program (Riley James.) The Bulldogs' freshman and sophomore classes combined for over 90% of the team's kills and libero Erika Ward broke the program's Division I career digs record as a junior.

Bryant won a Division I program-record 22 matches in 2018, with the 22nd victory coming in the form of the Bulldogs' first Northeast Conference Championship in November. The Black & Gold swept Sacred Heart in Brooklyn for their first trip to the NCAA tournament at the D1 level.

The Bulldogs led the nation in total kills and total assists entering the NCAA tournament in a year in which Bryant placed a program-best four players on All-NEC teams. Sophomore Erika Ward became the first player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs as a sophomore, while senior Kristin Kingi broke Bryant's Division I career record for digs with 1,365. Both players surpassed the marks in the NEC tournament.

In 2017, Bryant enjoyed what was at the time its best season at the Division I level, as the Black and Gold earned its first NEC regular season championship. Bryant won 21 matches and posted an 11-3 mark in the NEC. Julia Flynn and Kirstyn Sperry both earned first-team all-NEC distinction with Sperry garnering NEC Setter of the Year honors.

The 2017 Bulldogs won five matches after trailing 2-0, including a victory over ACC member Syracuse and a pair of wins over Sacred Heart. Bryant continued its dominance at the Chace Athletic Center, recording a 12-1 mark in Smithfield and moving the Bulldogs’ record on their home floor to 36-4 (.900) over the last three seasons. The Bulldogs also tallied a pair of wins over eventual NCAA tournament teams (LIU Brooklyn, Stony Brook).

The 2015 NEC Coach of the Year, Garlacy has seen 13 all-conference selections over the last five seasons, including six first-team nods and six major award recipients. Her teams have also excelled in the classroom and include CoSIDA Academic All-District selections in each of the last three campaigns, with Bryant senior Ally Lunsford earning the program’s first CoSIDA Academic All-America honor in 2017.

After missing the NEC Tournament by way of a tiebreaker back in 2014, the Bulldogs have rocketed into the regular-season and tournament title conversation over the last three years behind dominant talents such as two-time NEC Setter of the Year and 2016 ECAC All-Star Vika Katzen and a pair of NEC Rookie of the Year winners.

The success of the 2017 season continues an upward trajectory from 2015 and 2016, a pair of campaigns in which Bryant set – and then tied – new single-season marks for wins (19) and conference victories (10). The 2016 edition also set DI team records in kills per set (13.44), attack percentage (.197), assists (1537), assists per set (12.60), serve percentage (.936) and points per set (16.45).

In 2016, the Bulldogs finished in the nation’s top-50 in total attacks (40th, 1st in NEC), total team digs (43rd, 2nd) and total team assists (47th, 1st), also notching the highest kill total in the league with 1,640 (53rd nationally).

The 2015 campaign marked the first undefeated home slate in Bryant volleyball history, as the Bulldogs went a perfect 14-0 inside the Chace Athletic Center.

Since joining the Division I ranks in 2008, the Bulldogs have enjoyed marquee victories in every season, including the program’s first-ever win over a BCS opponent with a 3-2 topping of Boston College in 2010. Other signature wins over the years have included the likes of Providence College, Denver, George Mason, LIU Brooklyn, Princeton, Navy, Air Force, Colgate, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State and Syracuse, among others.

Bryant earned the most victories of any DI program in Rhode Island in 2010 (18) and saw Maria Scocca set a pair of NEC single-game marks in 2009 (29 kills vs. Providence; 15 blocks vs. Brown).

Historically one of the most successful programs in the Northeast, the Garlacy-led Bulldogs appeared in 10 NCAA Division II tournaments during the 12 seasons prior to Bryant’s move to Division I. That run included NCAA berths in each of the final nine seasons of DII play, an ECAC Championship, five Northeast-10 Conference regular-season titles and five NE-10 Tournament crowns.

In 2007, Bryant's final season in Division II, the Bulldogs went out with a bang, winning not just the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season title with a perfect 14-0 conference record (32-13 overall), but also turning their fifth NE-10 tournament title into a trip all the way to the NCAA Sweet 16.

Garlacy has accrued a myriad of accomplishments and milestones during her storied career, including recording the program's 700th victory during the 2007 season and its 800th during the 2014 campaign. Garlacy notched her 100th career victory in 1999, just four years into her head coaching career. Four years later, she earned win No. 200, following that up with victory No. 300 on September 15, 2006 and No. 400 on Oct. 23, 2011.

Over the years, Garlacy has served as a member of the NCAA regional volleyball committee and the ECAC championships committee, and is currently a member of the NCAA volleyball rules committee. Honored by the Rhode Island Special Olympics with the Distinguished Service Award in 2003, Garlacy is a 1988 graduate of Providence College and earned a master's degree in teaching from Rhode Island College in 1992.

OTHER CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Garlacy has been to 11 NCAA tournaments in her time in Smithfield - 10 at the Division II level and Bryant's first Division I tournament appearance in 2018.
- Garlacy has been named the league's Coach of the Year three times: twice in the DII Northeast-10 Conference (1997, 2003) and once in the DI Northeast Conference (2015).
- In 2003, the Bulldogs enjoyed their most successful seasons in school history, winning a school-record 37 matches and posting an undefeated Northeast-10 Conference record en route to the league regular-season and tournament titles.