• Student-Athlete Bio

Former Suffolk volleyball standout Talia Lombardo returned to her roots oon Beacon Hill when she joined Scott Blanchard's staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2022 season. The role is her first collegiate coaching opportunity. Lombardo will begin her third season in that same role in 2024. 

In Lombarod's first year on Blanchard's staff, Suffolk assembled a 19-9 overall record and 6-3 CCC mark to lock up the fourth seed in the CCC Tournament, where the Rams played their way to the CCC Semifinals for the first time in program history. Record settering co-captains Kenzley Bell, 2022 CCC Libero of the Year, and Harmony Johnson, only player in program history to dish out 2,000-plus assists, led the way for the Rams. The duo were half of Suffolk's four All-CCC performers. Bell picked up a spot on the first-time, while Johnson sealed a place on the second squad alongside McKenna Keowen, while Alina Nowakowski rounded out the quartet on the third team. 

In 2022, Suffolk played its way to the CCC Semifinals for the first time in program history after assembling a 19-9 regular-season record and a 6-3 league ledger, good for the fourth seed in the conference tournament. The Rams were anchored by CCC Libero of the Year, Kenzley Bell, and her co-captain Harmony Johnson, who became the first Ram in the record books to dish out over 2,000 assists in her collegiate career. Bell, a first-team all-conference honoree, was one of four blue-and-gold players to pick up all-league distinction alongside second-team selections Johnson and McKenna Keowen and third-teamer Alina Nowakowski. 

Off the court, Blanchard's squad scooped up an USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the fourth time in program history, with all honors under Blanchard's guidance. Individually, Bell, Emily Wheeler, Jayla Martinez and Nowakowski made history as the first Rams in the volleyball annals to receive College Sports Communciators Academic All-District, which put the blue-and-gold foursome on the Academic All-America ballot, the longest-running and most prestigious academic and athletic award a student-athlete may receive. 

Suffolk reached the CCC Semifinals for the second straight season in 2023. The Rams were topped by Wentworth to wrap up the campaign 16-14 overall. The all-conference foursome of McKenna Keowen (first team), Grace Cervenka(second-team), Sami Shore (third-team) and Jessica Weber (third-team) led the blue-and-gold to a 4-4 league ledger, good for the fifth seed in the conference standings. The season featured record-setting performance by a trio of Rams as Keowen became the program's all-time leader in kills, Morgan Kelsey served her 200th career ace and Jayla Martinez dished out her 1,000th career assist. 

Academically the Rams once again picked up the AVCA Team Academic Award for the second striaght season, while Martinez and Kelsey garnered College Sports Communicators Academic All-District.

Lombardo donned the blue-and-gold from 2015-18 and completed her collegiate career during Blanchard's first campaign at Suffolk. That year the head coach relied on the veteran leadership of Lombardo, who left her mark on the program as Rams' all-time leader in aces (231) and a member of the 1,000-assist club. On Oct. 14, 2017, the setter became the first known Suffolk volleyball player to produce a triple-double. 

A Windham, New Hampshire native, Lombardo earned her degree in 2019 in Interior Design.