June 8, 2012

RUSTON - Louisiana Tech head coach Adriano de Souza announced Tuesday that he has hired Marcela Cunha to serve as an assistant coach on the Lady Techster volleyball staff this season.

Cunha comes to Ruston after spending the past four seasons as a member of the University of West Florida volleyball staff where the program has won more than 100 matches and four straight Gulf States Conference championships.

"Marcela comes from a winning program and has experienced what it takes to build success at the University of West Florida," said de Souza. "Her mind for the game, her work ethic and her values fit what we need for our program development, and she will have a positive impact on our student-athletes."

This past season, Cunha was instrumental in UWF's undefeated conference season and appearance in the NCAA Regional Tournament.

After starting her collegiate playing career at Northern Kentucky, Cunha earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from West Florida where she was a standout player for the Argonauts for two years, helping lead the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2006.

During her career as a setter at UWF, Cunha recorded 1,286 assists which is the third highest career total in Argos history. In 2004, she registered 59 assists against Northwest Missouri which was the fourth highest single match total in school history.

Her senior season she led the team in assists with 7.73 assists per game and was named to the All-Gulf South Conference second team and the GSC All-Academic team. Cunha, who was a three-time all-state selection in high school, has coached volleyball camps since 2003, working at camps hosted by UWF, Northern Kentucky, Auburn, Florida, Tampa, and Florida Southern.

Cunha's hiring is pending the approval of the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System.