DURANGO, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College Department of Athletics is excited to announce the hiring of Giedre Tarnauskaite as the next Head Volleyball Coach, with her start date scheduled for Monday, February 24.

Tarnauskaite becomes the ninth head coach in the program's history and comes to Durango following successful collegiate playing and coaching careers at the NCAA Division I level. Her last two stops included the 2019 season at Seattle University as an Assistant Coach/Co-Recruiting Coordinator, and three seasons (2016-18) as an Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Montana.

"I am extremely excited to lead the Skyhawks volleyball program. Throughout the hiring process, it became clear to me that Brandon Leimbach is committed to the holistic student-athlete experience, which is very much in line with my beliefs as a coach," Tarnauskaite said.  "I want to thank Brandon for believing in my vision of building a program that is competitive, recruiting athletes who are good students, and student-athletes who will be great role models in the community. I also want to thank Jason Flores and the search committee for the time that they took to get to know me and highlight the unique aspects of Fort Lewis College."

During Tarnauskaite's time in Missoula, the Grizzlies improved their win total each season, including in 2018 when they qualified for the Big Sky tournament for the first time since 2014. The 2018 season marked the highest win total Montana had since 2013, in addition to its most conference wins, home wins and road wins in five years.

From 2016 to 2018, Montana improved its Big Sky and national ranks in every statistical category, including assists (11th to seventh and an increase of 91 spots nationally) and digs (11th to seventh and an increase of 109 spots nationally), two positions Tarnauskaite worked closely with.

"Giedre really impressed me with her knowledge of the game on both sides of the net and her knack for connecting with student-athletes as a recruiting coordinator at her past two collegiate coaching positions," said FLC Director of Athletics, Brandon Leimbach. "For the past fourteen years, she has been pouring her passion for volleyball into coaching and I'm confident that her integrity and ability to create trust and mentor our student-athletes will allow her to create a positive and competitive environment for Skyhawks Volleyball for many years to come."

A native of Kaunas, Lithuania, Tarnauskaite moved to the United States in 2001 to play at Jefferson College, a two-year institution competing at the NJCAA level based in Missouri.

She transferred to the NCAA Division I level to play for Arkansas State as a junior, where she'd go on to help ASU to 46 wins in her two years. She earned second-team All-Sun Belt honors in 2003 and Sun Belt Player of the Year accolades as a senior in 2004 after leading ASU to a share of the Sun Belt's East Division championship. Tarnauskaite was also named AVCA honorable mention all-region and academic all-district as a senior.

Tarnauskaite earned her degree in International Business from Arkansas State in 2005. She'd spend the next six years working as a legal assistant for a prosecutor in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in addition to coaching for the Ozark Volleyball Club, prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest to pursue the coaching profession.

In addition to her college coaching experiences, she also worked for the Athena Volleyball Academy in Portland. In July 2018, she served as an assistant coach at USA Volleyball's High Performance Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Tarnauskaite added another significant benchmark in her career in 2019, when she served as an assistant coach for the USA Youth Continental High Performance team, an invite-only coaching position, and worked alongside some of the top college coaches in the country.

In her native country, Tarnauskaite won multiple Lithuanian national championships with her junior club team and played for two years on the country's junior national team. She was chosen at the age of 16 to play for Kaunas's women's club team, giving her the opportunity to play at tournaments throughout Europe. And in 2000, she and teammate Raimonda Strielkauskaite finished seventh at the European Junior Beach Volleyball Championships in Germany.

Tarnauskaite will now take over a Skyhawks program that finished 10-17 overall in 2019 and is eager to make a return trip back to the RMAC Tournament.

"I know that the team has been working tirelessly through this transition and I cannot wait to get in the gym with them," Tarnauskaite said. "I believe that the game teaches the game. We will spend a lot of time playing and competing in game-like drills. I want to elevate all aspects of our game, especially offense. In my previous roles, I have been responsible for designing team offenses, so I am excited to unlock our team's potential."