Shelly Roiger was named the head coach of the St. Lawrence University volleyball team in the spring of 2010 after serving as a volunteer assistant coach in 2009. She guided the team to the 2010 Liberty League championship, the first in program history and then another championship appearance in 2021. As she enters her fifteenth season with the Saints, Roiger has a record of 220-193 at SLU and holds the University’s all-time record for volleyball coaching victories.
Roiger, who had 45 wins in her tenure at Northland College prior to joining the Saints, earned her 200th career win as the Saints topped Alfred University, 3-0, in 2018.
In July of 2023, Saints Volleyball player Abby Hart Rose ’11 was inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame at St. Lawrence University. Abby became the program’s first All American in 2010, Roiger’s first year at the helm.
Roiger's teams have earned AVCA Team Academic honors for thirteen consecutive seasons while five members on the 2023 roster earned Liberty League All-Academic honors.
In 2022, the Saints upset the number-one seed RIT in the semifinals of the Liberty League tournament and played in the championship game. Natalie Piper became the first Saint to earn All-American honors twice.
In 2019, the Saints returned to the Liberty League tournament for the first time since 2015, went 10-2 at home in Burkman Gymnasium and posted the best winning percentage (0.688) since 2010. The Saints capped the season with an impressive 22-10 record, finished 4-3 in conference play and closed the season against Clarkson in the Liberty League semifinals. Roiger coached Natalie Piper, who capped the season by becoming the youngest and fourth student-athlete in program history to earn All-America Honors.
In 2018, the Scarlet and Brown finished 19-9 on the season, posting a 0.679 win percentage, which at the time was the best winning percentage since 2010, Roiger's first season with the Saints.
The Saints kicked off the 2017 season with a perfect 7-0 start and 11-0 record at home, both firsts in program history, and finished with an overall 18-11 record, going 4-3 in Liberty League play. The Saints had one of the most successful seasons in recent school history and were able to record career milestones and add multiple names to the Saints' record book.
In 2016, the Saints welcomed one of the largest first year classes. Eight members of the squad played their first year with the team last season and the Saints' youth has now had a full season under their belts.
In 2015, the Saints overcame an abundance of injuries to finish third in the final Liberty League standings earning a spot in the Liberty League Tournament for the third consecutive year and fifth time since Roiger took over as head coach. Five players earned All-Liberty League honors.
The 2014 season was a solid campaign as the Saints won 24 matches, fifth-most in the program's 34-year history. They earned the highest seed in the conference tournament in University history (No. 2) and had a pair of AVCA All-America Honorable Mention selections in Lexi Brown '16 and Cristina Deschaine ’16, who joined Abby Rose '11 as the only three All-Americas in program history at the time, all during Coach Roiger's tenure.
The Saints have garnered 34 All-Liberty League honorees including seven First-Team selections. Roiger has also mentored 74 Liberty League All-Academic Team selections.
Off the court, Roiger spearheaded the Power of Pink fund raising effort for ten years and raised over $45,000 for cancer research. That effort still continues today within the Saints Athletics program, spearheaded by the efforts of the Student Athlete Advisory Council.
From 2005-2008, Roiger served as the Head Volleyball Coach at Northland College in northern Wisconsin where she took a volleyball program that had won a total of 10 matches in the three seasons prior to her arrival and turned them into conference tournament champions in just her third season there.
Roiger's previous coaching experience was centered in the Midwest where she started her collegiate coaching career at St. Olaf College (2001, 2002) and Carleton College (2003), both located in Northfield, Minnesota. During these three seasons she served as an assistant coach on coaching staffs that went 64-27 (.703) overall and 26-7 (.787) in the Midwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Roiger is a 1994 graduate of the College of St. Benedict in central Minnesota. At St. Lawrence, she also serves as a Compliance Assistant for the Division I and III programs and she is a former University Deputy Title IX Officer and Investigator.
In addition to her Compliance responsibilities throughout the year, Roiger also provides winter clinics for students in grades 7-12 in the North Country and runs several summer camps with 118 participants in the summer of 2024. Private lessons for high school level athletes are also offered. Those interested can contact her via email.
Shelly resides in Canton with her husband Dan, the women's basketball coach at St. Lawrence, and their three sons Joey, Sam, and Zadok.
