Women's Volleyball | 2/19/2010 5:25:40 PM

ROCHESTER, NY – Lou Spiotti Jr., RIT Director for the Center for Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation has named Jim Lodes as the eighth head coach of the Rochester Institute of Technology women's volleyball program. Lodes brings a wealth of coaching experience to the RIT program.

“We are thrilled to have Jim Lodes re-join the RIT family,” said Spiotti. “We all look forward to working with him to take the program to the next level”

Lodes comes to RIT after spending the last four years as the head coach at the University at Buffalo. He helped Buffalo to a record 10 wins and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award in 2007 and 2008.

“I want to thank Lou Spiotti for the honor of returning to lead the RIT volleyball program,” said Lodes. “I have been very fortunate to coach at many great universities and some of my most memorable coaching experiences occurred while I was at RIT.”

Lodes returns to RIT after serving as the head coach of the Tigers from 1991-1995. While at RIT he led the Tigers to the national Division III semifinals in 1993, coaching three AVCA All-Americans and three GTE Academic All-Americans. Lodes led the Tigers to three Empire Athletic Association titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and the New York State championship in 1991 and 1993.

Lodes, who takes over for Roger Worsley who resigned in December, is a 1993 graduate of SUNY Brockport. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. He is a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and has his Level 1 USA Volleyball Coaching Accreditation.

“The combination of high academic standards and volleyball tradition are important to me,” stated Lodes. “I enjoy coaching the quality student-athlete that this great university draws and one of my goals is to lead the Tigers back to a championship level program.”