Women's Volleyball | 8/9/2019 4:40:00 PM

SAVANNAH, Ga.- The Savannah State University volleyball team will return for the 2019 season on August 10 and hold their first practice on August 14th under interim head coach Roselidah Obunaga to prepare for the 2019 season.
 
Obunaga, who comes to SSU from Montana State University-Northern, replaces Edric Poitier who spent three seasons as the Lady Tigers head coach.
 
Freshmen and transfers will report to campus on August 10 while veterans will arrive on August 11. The team will have physicals and compliance meetings on Aug. 12 & 13 and the first practice will be Aug. 14 at 3 p.m.
 
Savannah State welcomes back five members from last year's squad in seniors Liz Ortiz and Jamese Scott, junior Karissa Tatum and sophomores Valeria Aldarondo and De'Antoinette Rodriguez-Hairston.
 
Ortiz finished the 2018 season with 179 digs, 24 assists and 10 serving aces while Scott had 36 kills, 21 blocks and 11 digs. Tatum contributed 48 kills, 21 digs and six blocks while Aldarondo chipped in 41 digs, 15 assists, seven serving aces and six kills. De'Antoinette Rodrigez-Hairston, who played in nine sets a year ago, also returns.
 
Obunaga will welcome eight newcomers into the Lady Tiger family which includes four transfers and four players who recently finished high school.
 
Jedaiah Danials (Auburn at Montgomery), Imani Williamson (Jefferson Community College), Mimya Hall (Tennessee State) and Ella Nellis (Coppin State) are set to join the team as transfers while Destini Williams (Montgomery, AL/Jefferson Davis HS), Jaylyn Roberson (Winterville, GA/Cedar Shores HS), Jeilyn Brown (Cleveland, OH/Shaker Heights HS) and Chukwezi Chibenyerem (Austell, GA/Pebblebrook HS) will be newcomers to the college game.
 
During the regular season, the team will practice at 4 p.m.
The season will also mark the return of the athletics program to Division II and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC).
Savannah State will have the annual Orange and Blue scrimmage on September 6. The first regular season game is at Middle Georgia State on Sept. 10 while the home opener is Sept. 17 against College of Coastal Georgia. 
 
Obunaga was the Skylight's head volleyball coach for two seasons. Before coaching at  Montana State-Northern, the 45-year old Kenya native had been the head coach at Stephens College in Missouri for five years. Prior to her time at Stephens, Obunaga was a student assistant volleyball coach at Columbia College, where she earned a degree in Business Administration. In 2011, Obunaga completed a master's degree in Public Service Administration from the University of Evansville, where she served as a graduate assistant coach.
 
As a junior college player, she was a two-time First Team NJCAA All-American at Missouri State University-West Plains.  In 2009, she was inducted into the Missouri State-West Plains Hall of Fame.  She was also a First-Team NAIA All-American at both Central Methodist University and Columbia College.
 
Obunaga was a two-time Olympian, participating in both the Sidney (2000) and Athens (2004) Summer Olympic Games as a member of Kenya's National Volleyball team, and also competed in the 1998 World Championships in Japan.