LSU Volleyball will celebrate reaching the half-century mark with its 50th anniversary season of competition in 2024. The Tigers in their illustrious history boast 10 American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American selections, five SEC Freshmen of the Year, two SEC Defensive Players of the Year and one SEC Player of the Year.
Additionally, LSU has secured five SEC regular-season championships, four SEC tournament championships, 16 NCAA tournament appearances and two NCAA Final Four appearances during their storied time as a program.
The Tigers first took the floor in 1974 under the reins of Jinks Coleman, who led the team for the first three seasons while posting an outstanding 81-26 overall record. Following four years of Tiger volleyball under head coach Gerry Owens and four more under head coach Ruth Nelson, Scott Luster took control of the program and raised it to an unprecedented level.
Across Luster’s superb 13-year tenure, LSU won over 300 games, captured the SEC regular-season and tournament titles four times each and made back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances (1990-1991). Luster also led the squad to the program’s highest-ever AVCA Top 25 ranking, No. 5 in 1991.
Fran Flory, who worked as an LSU assistant under Luster, took over the Tigers’ program in 1998 and is the school’s all-time leader in volleyball coaching wins. She brought the Tigers 405 victories in 24 seasons (1998-2021).
Under Flory’s leadership, the Tigers won seven consecutive SEC Western Division championships (2005-2011) and one SEC regular-season title in 2009. Flory was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2022.
Today, the Tigers led by head coach Tonya Johnson. The Louisiana native was a captain on the Scott Luster-led 1990 squad which was LSU’s first team to appear in the NCAA Final Four. Johnson recalls her playing career and what helped make the 1990 Tigers successful.
“We loved each other, our chemistry was amazing, we held each other accountable and we had fun doing it,” Johnson said. “There was a ton of joy associated with the success that we had.”
Johnson was hired in 1995 as an assistant coach at Kentucky when Flory was the head coach there, and the duo returned to Baton Rouge in 1998 when Flory became LSU’s head coach and designated Johnson as her top assistant.
“It was awesome to be able to come home and get the program turned around,” Johnson said. “I’ll forever be grateful to Fran for bringing me home to my alma mater to help her rebuild a place that’s very near and dear to my heart.”
Johnson left the LSU program at the conclusion of the 2002 season for the University of Texas, accepting an assistant coaching role. After highly successful tenures as an associate head coach at Texas (2003-08 and 2014-21) and as the head coach at Georgia Tech (2009-13), she returned to Louisiana again in 2022 and accepted the role of head coach at her alma mater, LSU. In her first year at the helm LSU program, Johnson guided the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
LSU associate head coach Jill Wilson is also a Tiger volleyball alumna. Wilson was a four-year letterwinner in her playing days from 1997-2000 on teams coached by Flory with Johnson as an assistant.
“It’s a full-circle moment,” Wilson said. “Tonya was sitting in my seat when I played for her. I think the biggest thing I learned from her was how she builds relationships with people.”
Wilson’s coaching career began in 2002 and consists of assistant coaching roles at North Carolina, Wake Forest and most recently an associate head coaching position at Ohio State. When Johnson was named head coach at LSU in 2022, her first hire was her former player.
“I was first happy for my friend that LSU chose her because she was the right person to succeed a legend in Fran Flory,” Wilson said. “I was proud LSU knew she was the right person for that. When she asked me to do it with her, I was very honored because I had been gone for five years, and I missed being home.”
Johnson and Wilson manifested their return to Baton Rouge, and Johnson knows she has a trusted colleague at her right hand.
“We had several conversations about this; that if either one of us got this job, she would be the first call I made, and I would be the first call she made,” Johnson said. “Even though she’s from Texas, she says Baton Rouge is her home, and I don’t think you’ll find a more loyal person to LSU than Jill.”
As the Tigers begin their 50th anniversary schedule of games, they are approaching the season with great optimism. They are a young squad led by a pair of coaches who bleed purple and gold and know what it takes to bring consistent success back to LSU volleyball.
“It’s an exciting time for LSU volleyball, and I’m thrilled about that,” Johnson said.
Fans can catch LSU volleyball in action at the PMAC in the month of September. The Tigers are scheduled to play the following dates: September 19 vs. Boston College and September 20 vs. North Florida and San Diego. SEC play will begin on September 27 vs. Missouri and September 29 vs. Texas.
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