Former Bulldog standout and All-Northeast-10 Conferencelibero Maureen Atkins joins thevolleyball staff as an assistant coach in 2012-13.
Atkins returns to her alma mater as an assistant coach to helplead the Bulldogs into their first official season of Division Imembership and full postseason eligibility. Atkins starred as alibero for the Bulldogs for four years from 2005-09, earning ThirdTeam All-NE-10 honors as a junior and captaining the Black and Goldin each of her last two seasons. She was named to the BryantVolleyball All-Decade Team in 2010 for her careeraccomplishments.
The 2009 grad established herself as one of the premiereliberos in school history in her time donning the Black and Gold,as Atkins currently ranks sixth all-time in career digs and digsper set, eighth in sets played, ninth in career aces and matchesplayed, 16th in career assists and is the all-time leader inserve percentage at .951.
Atkins comes to Smithfield after serving two seasons as anassistant coach at Division II Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.With the Skyhawks, Atkins handled all administrative duties,developed practice plans, scheduled games and handled all teamtravel. Under her guidance, Stonehill twice advanced to the NE-10semifinals, and the Skyhawks earned the program's first-ever NCAAtournament bid in 2011, going 27-7 overall and finishing 14-1 inconference play.
Atkins earned her bachelor degree in business administrationfrom Bryant in 2009 and will begin work on her MBA this fall.
