Under pressure to uphold a winning legacy, Lyndsey Oates rose from interim head coach to Big Sky icon — the architect of a competitive Division I volleyball program grounded in a culture of mentorship and growth.
Lyndsey Oates, M.S. ’04, still gets goose bumps thinking about 2009, the first year she truly believed she could be a successful head coach for UNC’s Women’s Volleyball program.
When she took the position in August 2005, it was, more or less, an offer she couldn’t refuse, even though she’d been an assistant for just a few years. That was the same year UNC transitioned to a Division I (DI) program, and at 25, Oates was one of the youngest head volleyball coaches in DI history. UNC asked her to be interim head coach because, to put it bluntly, they didn’t have anyone else. Former head coach, Ron Alexander, ’88, left three days before the start of the season.
Despite that, this wasn’t a program that UNC expected to just limp along. Alexander left with an 88-13 record, and before him, Linda Delk, M.A. ’78 won 700 matches and 14 NCAA tournaments, including four deep runs that ended at the Elite Eight.
Oates knew the game. She was a star at Eaton High School and played for Louisiana State University (LSU). At LSU, one of her coaches told her she saw the game better than she played it, a remark that insulted her at first and later affirmed her career path.
But she knew nothing about being a head coach.
“It was a bit overwhelming,” Oates said.
She started with two losing seasons, but UNC was patient, and in 2008, there was a breakthrough. The team finished third in the conference. She had an experienced and talented team that had learned alongside her. She had hope.
A year later, in 2009, she and her team won their first Big Sky tournament championship and Oates won Big Sky Coach of the Year.
It was not only an affirmation for her and the seniors who stayed after Alexander left, but also for UNC. Many questioned the Bears’ move to DI. The team’s title was a good answer for the critics. Yes, UNC could compete and win at the highest level.
Goose bumps.
•••
Now in her 21st year as head coach, Oates’ successes are equally as impressive as her predecessors — five-time Big Sky Coach of the Year, 14 Big Sky titles, seven NCAA tournament bids.
Like any good coach, she’ll remind anyone she didn’t do it alone. Terry Pettit, who led the women’s volleyball program at Nebraska for 22 years, stepped in early to
serve as Oates’ mentor, something she considers to be a ‘Godsend.’
Oates kept the blue-collar work ethic that defined UNC volleyball but grew alongside her players and even adjusted her strict demeanor.
“You have to give more grace to some college students,” said Taylor Stuemky, ’10, a former player who is now the senior associate athletic director for Internal Operations at the University of Wyoming. “We went from one strike and you’re done to three strikes.”
Stuemky said despite her youth, Oates was way ahead of her time in psychology and motivation.
The weekend before the 2009 Big Sky tournament, the team lost their last two matches soundly. Oates took her players outside and showed them pieces of wood painted with words like “doubt, denial, frustration.” Then she handed them little axes.
“We just chopped wood and got out all our anger,” Stuemky said. “It was a reset. We went into that tournament refocused and ready.”
And they won.
•••
Following that first title, Oates and her team were on a roll, winning the conference in 2010 and 2011, and conference tournament wins in 2011, 2012 and 2014. During that time, her personal life was also taking off. She married husband Mark in 2012 and had a son, Dylan, in 2013 and a daughter, Rylee, in 2015. Things were going well.
But in 2015, the team went 14-16, and over the next three years, posted a modest 61-57 record. UNC didn’t fall far, she says today, but those years weren’t up to her standards.
“I had to make a lot of hard decisions to get us back,” Oates said. “It wasn’t one thing. The solution had to be a lot of little things.”
After implementing those changes, UNC came roaring back in 2019, winning 26 games, earning regular season and conference tournament championships and advancing to the NCAA tournament. Since then, she’s had arguably her best years, with a .700 winning percentage and three tournament titles.
During the 2024-25 season, the team tallied 28 wins — Oates’ personal best — before losing to Arizona in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship semifinals. They also ‘won the state’ for the first time in program history, beating every other DI program in Colorado.
Oates continues to do it the right way, something that Jenny Glenn, Oates’ former assistant and now head volleyball coach at Metro State, admires about her.
“She would do whatever it takes to win but do it with integrity,” Glenn said.
Oates said she knows the rules but relies on her faith to inform her about the right choices.
“I pray about it and listen to my gut feeling,” she said. “I know my character is what matters.”
She has a bigger purpose, she said, and that’s what keeps her going through the tougher years and the fundraising and the pressure to win.
“If you’re only fueled by passion, you will burn out,” Oates said, “but it’s mentoring and raising girls and helping them through life that is what’s keeping me here.”
—Dan England
Correction — This story was updated on Dec. 3, 2025, to correct the team's 2011 record. That year the team won both the conference and Big Sky tournament, not just the conference as was originally published.
