Morgan introduced as first-ever volleyball coach

Morgan introduced as first-ever volleyball coach

FULTON, Miss. - ICC Athletic Director Carrie Ball-Williamson announced that Priscilla Morgan has been named the college's first-ever women's volleyball head coach.

"This is a special moment," Morgan said. "It's one that I'm going to remember for a really long time. It's not every day that it's your first time to get to create a program from scratch. I wish I could go put my whistle on and head to the court right now."

Morgan joins the ICC family after most recently serving as head coach at Texas Wesleyan University in 2017. The Lady Rams finished runner-up in the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Tournament and advanced to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Women's Volleyball National Tournament for the first time since 2005. Five of her players were named to the NAIA Scholar-Athlete and All-SAC teams. Texas Wesleyan finished 27-7 overall and 13-3 inside conference play under Morgan's guidance.

"I'm looking forward to volleyball bringing exciting things to ICC," said Ball-Williamson. "Coach Morgan is motivated, has the experience of running successful programs and knows what it takes to build a program from the ground up."

Before taking over in Fort Worth, Morgan served as head coach for two seasons at the University of the Southwest. In her first season with the Mustangs, she took the program from a 10-win season to the best record in program history at 24-9 in 2016. That season, USW advanced to the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) championship match, and eight players were selected to the all-conference team.

Morgan's other collegiate coaching experience includes Missouri Southern State University, the University of Tulsa and Southeastern Louisiana University. In her lone season at Missouri Southern, the Lions doubled their win total from the previous season and matched the program's total wins from the previous three seasons. At Tulsa, she served as director of volleyball operations, supervising team travel and game-day operations and running the Golden Hurricanes annual tournament. Morgan spent three and a half years at SELA where she served as the program's recruiting coordinator and assisted with day-to-day operations. She also was a graduate assistant at Middle Tennessee State University.

She has an overall record of 61-36 as a collegiate head coach and has experience coaching at the club level in Atlanta, Ga.; Mandeville, La. and Joplin, Mo.

The Wilmer, Ala. native played four seasons at Belhaven University, where she was a two-year captain and an NAIA Scholar-Athlete. She helped the Blazers to the 2006 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championship. During her junior season, she served as interim head coach for four months. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in sports administration with a minor in sports ministry.

"This really is a tremendous day for ICC," said ICC president Dr. Jay Allen. "It's so exciting when we can add a new sport to give future students a chance to grow and develop through volleyball. I know we are going to bring in a larger number of great students to be part of this sport."

Women's volleyball is the eleventh intercollegiate athletic program at ICC. The program will start competitive play in the 2020-21 school year. The National Junior College Athletic Association's (NJCAA) volleyball regular season runs from August to October with postseason play beginning in November.

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