One of the most dominant middles ever to play at Bryant University, Jessica Cegarra Tuttle enters her second season as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs.
In her first season, she helped lead the bulldogs to 18 victories, which marks the highest win total for the program since entering the DI ranks in 2008.
Cegarra previously coached at nearby Rhode Island College, where she served as an assistant volleyball coach for the 2008-09 season. Prior to joining RIC, she was also an assistant at Holy Cross.
A native of Danville, N.H., Cegarra holds the Bryant school
record for most career blocks with 536 from 2003-06 and also stands
atop the record books with 418 career block assists. She
also ranks in a number of league top lists. Among all players
in the history of the Northeast-10 Conference, Cegarra
currently sits fourth all-time in both career kills (1,802) and
career blocks (536). Her 1,802 kills are also good for third
all-time at Bryant.
A four-time all-conference selection, Cegarra was named a First Teamer as a senior and would ultimately lead her team to 120 career victories in her time donning the Black and Gold. She was part of three NE-10 Conference titles while also leading her squad to four-straight NCAA tournament appearances, including the regional final as a freshman in 2003. She would later be named 2003 Northeast-10 Freshman of the Year and AVCA Northeast Region Rookie of the Year and was an integral part in the team's school-record 37 victories on the season.
Cegarra's distinguished and decorated career saw her earn second team all-conference nods in 2003 and 2005, and she was also a two-time All-Region selection of both the AVCA and Daktronics. Cegarra was named of the RIAIAW Distinguished Student-Athlete of the Year as a senior in 2007 and was also the recipient of the prestigious Bryant Intercultural Center Jim Thorpe Athletic Award.
In her time as a Bulldog, Cegarra was a four-year member of both the volleyball team and the track & field team and was a two-year member of the Bryant women's basketball squad. She captained in the volleyball side as a senior in 2006 and remains the school record holder in both the indoor and outdoor shot put (2004) as well as the heptathlon (2007).
An active member of the U.S. National Guard, Cegarra received a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology from Bryant University in 2007. She and her husband currently reside in Lebanon, Conn.
