Andrea Hudson begins her 30th season and final year as Lee's head volleyball coach. She is the longest tenured coach in the Athletic Department and is only one of three volleyball coaches to serve in that role. 

Success is certainly the name of the game when talking about the Lady Flames coach. The record speaks for itself, 839 wins against just 343 defeats over the past 29 seasons. In 16 of those 27 years, the volleyball team claimed 30 or more wins, including an outstanding 39-1 mark in 2010. The 839 victories place Hudson among many of the greats in the sport of women's volleyball at any level.

Coach Hudson saw last season ended because of COVID-19. The 2019 team suffered only one of three losing seasons (10-21). However, the 2018 club was 13-3 against Gulf South competition. Silvia Sartori was named First Team All-American and GSC Player of the Year. Sartori and McKayla Beebe were All-Region and All-GSC in 2018 while Hanna Matthews was second team All-GSC. 

Hannah Matthews Adams, Micaela McMichen and Bailey Kress are key players lost from last year's team. The Lady Flames will return three top players, sophomore Abby Stroh, junior Calina Croy and senior Rachel Junen. Also returning are Hannah Longley, Hannah Upton, and Emma Flowers.  

Coach Hudson welcomes key new recruits; Allie Whittinghill a 6-foot freshman and middle blocker from Beech High School (Hendersonville, Tennessee); Abigail Luke a 6-foot freshman and outside hitter from Belmont, North Carolina (Lake Point Academy); and Reagan Bratton a 5-foot-9 freshman setter from Station Camp High School (Hendersonville, Tennessee). 

With 10 freshmen on the squad, Coach Hudson said she had already seen a lot of fundamental improvement. "Last year many of them experienced the collegiate game for the first time. Our hope is that having the entire fall working together will have helped give our current freshman the opportunity to be ready for playing this spring," said Coach Hudson. "We have spent a lot of time on passing and blocking this spring. We are hoping to see mark improvement in these areas." 

Coach Hudson added, "Because we will not have a true Gulf South Conference championship, member schools were given the option to opt out of playing. Only one school opted out and that was West Florida. Ironically, this is the team that has traditionally won the conference tournament. However, we will be playing a limited season which will run only on weekends throughout the month of March. The conference is divided into two groups and we will all advance to the conference tournament. It will be finished by the first weekend of April. Many of the schools are playing past the championship tournament to have more games.  We are still looking to see if we might possibly be able to do that as well." 

Coach Hudson noted that her staff was working hard to get the team ready. "I am pleased with our staff this year. As always, I was able to twist Kevin's (Hudson) arm to help with the team and setters. Returning to help is two of my favorite players. Last year's assistant Silvia Sartori returns, and she is a former player of the year in the conference. Last year's Libero Micaela McMichen is our graduate assistant. The young ladies work so hard to make our team strong and complete. I am so excited to work them every day." 

The spring season begins on Sunday (Feb. 28) with exhibitions matches against Young Harris College inside Walker Arena.  The regular season begins on March 6 when Lady Flames host Shorter (11 A.M) and Union University (4 P.M.)