Holy Family Hires Melissa Dunne To Lead Women's Hoops

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Holy Family University in Northeast Philadelphia has spent a long time as one of the premier Division II women's basketball programs in the region.

This past season, the Tigers went 22-9 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in the last 13 years. But last month, Holy Family suddenly had a head coaching vacancy after Mark Miller ended a very successful run with the Tigers, leaving to take the top gig at Division II USC-Aiken.

To replace Miller, the Tigers have hired a familiar face in local basketball circles, Melissa Dunne.

Dunne played her college ball at Temple and spent several years as an assistant at Drexel University. She also has spent time on staff at George Washington and Rhode Island. Dunne had recently been named an assistant at Division I Loyola (Maryland) before getting this, her first head coach opportunity.

"I'm super excited about it," Dunne tells KYW Newsradio. "To be able to come back to Philadelphia and take over a program with such a tradition of excellence."

Listen to the entire interview with Holy Family's Melissa Dunne:

Dunne's coaching career began back in 2002.

"Once my playing days were finishing at Temple," Dunne says, "I felt like I was just so passionate about the game that I needed to stay involved in the game. I was lucky enough to become a graduate assistant (at Drexel) and that kind of started my career from there."

Dunne talks about what fans can expect to see out of her Holy Family squad.

"They are going to see a team that is extremely hard-working, disciplined, gritty, hard-nosed," Dunne says. "I think that those things take you a long way in anything, but especially in the game of basketball. But it's going to be an exciting brand of basketball. I have a great team returning, a lot of talent. So we want to get up and down the floor, we want to play some stingy defense. We just want to continue to build on the success that they've had there over the years."

Dunne is the fifth head coach in Holy Family's women's basketball's 30-year program history.