Volleyball | 11/15/2018 3:09:00 PM

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The offseason has only just begun for the Robert Morris volleyball team, but the Colonials have already seen their family grow by one.

North Allegheny High School (Wexford, Pennsylvania) standout Allena Carmody has signed her National Letter of Intent to play for the program in 2019, head coach Dale Starr announced Thursday.

"Allena will help us on defense and with her ball control. She had a very successful high school and club career, and will compete for playing time with us right away as a libero/defensive specialist," Starr said. "We are excited for her to join our program and look for some great things from her in the future."

Carmody has been instrumental in helping North Allegheny's girls' team win 46 consecutive matches. The Tigers earned back-to-back WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) Class AAAA championships in the process, and on Saturday she will try to lead them to a second state title in a row as well.

She made this year's Western PA Big 56 Athletic Conference All-Section First Team as a libero and obtained all-section and All-WPIAL honors in three of her varsity seasons. During its 2017 title run, with Carmody as a regular, N.A. was hailed a MaxPreps Tour of Champions Top 10 team.

Meanwhile, Carmody has spent seven years competing for Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Club. She was selected to the 2018 North Coast Power League All-Tournament Team.

A four-year scholar athlete and National Honor Society Member, Carmody plans to major in Actuarial Science at RMU. The North Allegheny senior is also a Distinguished Achievement Award recipient.

In addition, she is a member of the family that owns Carmody's Grille, a restaurant located near the Robert Morris campus, on Neville Island. (Full disclosure: Carmody's Grille is a sponsor of the Robert Morris men's hockey team.)

With the forthcoming graduation of seniors Liz Campbell, Allie Yurkovich and Taylor Lord, the addition of Carmody gives the Colonials a 13-player roster entering next season. This would leave her as the lone rookie on a team consisting of one redshirt sophomore, four true sophomores and seven juniors.

The 2018 squad featured five WPIAL alumnae: Yurkovich, Maria Alfano, Whitney Brown, Emily Devlin and Lauren Kolenik. The addition of Carmody for 2019 will leave that number at five, which remains the most ex-WPIAL players to play for Starr at RMU in a single year.

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