Penny Lucas-White, a former United States of America national player, enters her 16th season as the head women's volleyball coach at Alabama State University, compiling over 250 victories and seven national postseason appearances while leading the Hornets since the 2011 campaign.
Lucas-White boasts a 261-239 record during her time at Alabama State, while her 33 seasons as an NCAA Division I head coach have amounted to a 453-621 overall mark.
During her tenure, the Lady Hornets have won six Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) tournament championships, including 2017 when the team finished off a perfect 18-0 run through the conference and a trip to the NCAA Regionals. At one point, the Lady Hornets reeled off 42 consecutive conference victories. In 2022, the Lady Hornets captured the SWAC regular season crown with a 15-1 mark (2022) before participating in the NIV Postseason Tournament for the first time.
The 2025 edition of the Hornets achieved a 12-4 mark in SWAC play and reached the SWAC Semifinals to close out the season. Sophomore Kamrynn Clay was named the Setter of the Year by the conference, while she was joined by middle hitter Kaylen Hines and outside hitter Jyriah Morgan on the All-SWAC First Team. The Hornets added more individual accolades in the postseason, as Morgan and senior Brooke Adams were named to the All-Tournament Team.
In 2023, White led Alabama State to the first undefeated season in conference play since the Lady Hornets went back-to-back years of 18-0 in 2016 and 2017. The regular season championship is the second consecutive for the Lady Hornets, earning the top seed for the tournament for the second consecutive year, while the undefeated run is the first since the 2021 COVID-shortened season for any conference school, a season in which Alabama State did not participate.
Many student-athletes achieved individual honors in the historic 2023 campaigns, including Madison Beasley (2,000-plus assists), Jylen Whitten (1,000 kills), Temperance Chatman (850 digs), A’Nylah Cobb (500 kills), and Taila Gaines (500 kills). She also coached the Player of the Year - Rhodes - and the Setter of the Year - Beasley.
The 2018 season saw Lucas-White coach the Lady Hornets to its third consecutive SWAC Conference Championship while landing three athletes on the All-SWAC First Team (Candace Martin, Bayle' Bennett and Kori Kutsch) including guiding Candace Martin to earn Co-SWAC Player of the Year.
The Lady Hornets won 20-plus matches in five of the six seasons prior to 2020, including a high of 28 en route to the conference championship in 2017.
Lucas-White and the Lady Hornets placed six players on the All-SWAC teams in 2016, while finishing undefeated for the first time in conference play under Lucas-White. The team saw six student-athletes earn spots on the All-SWAC teams, while major conference honors went to Jamie Coleman (Libero of the Year), Justus Tuiolosega (Setter of the Year), Ni’yesha Brown (Newcomer of the Year) and Bayle Bennett (Freshman of the Year).
The 2016 season saw Alabama State go 24-9 overall, and the squad's 3-1 win in the SWAC Championship gave ASU its third conference crown under Lucas-White; the other two coming in 2013 and 2014.
Prior to winning the conference title in 2013, Lucas-White led the Lady Hornets to consecutive third-place finishes in the SWAC Eastern Division. In 2012, the Lady Hornets finished third at the SWAC Tournament.
Lucas-White took over an Alabama State volleyball program that was in disarray for quite some time. Under her leadership, she made quick improvements and elevated the program instantly, winning 15 games in her first campaign. Although the team struggled in 2012, the Lady Hornets made a 16-match improvement to finish 25-16 in 2013 and capture the program's first conference championship under Lucas-White.
A slice of Lucas-White's blueprint towards success can almost certainly be attributed to the challenging competition the team faces in non-conference or tournament action. In 2014, ASU traveled to Arizona to face Arizona, Cal-State Northridge and Loyola-Chicago as well as to Fort Myers (Fla.), to compete in the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament against host Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Atlantic University and Missouri-Kansas City. A year later, the Lady Hornets played a pair of highly ranked regional opponents (Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the University of Central Arkansas Tournament on Sept. 18 and at Alabama on Sept. 29). The 2016 campaign saw Alabama State travel out west to face strong teams in Arizona, Pepperdine, and SMU. It has also hosted ISTAP Collegiate Cups on the campus of Alabama State University, welcoming in top-tier competition such as Murray State, Southern Mississippi, and Alabama.
The Lady Hornets’ mentor draws her coaching expertise from an impressive playing career at the collegiate, national and international levels, as well as coaching some of the top scholar-athletes in the nation.
Lucas-White has always emphasized work in the classroom and that has not changed since she arrived on the ASU campus. Following the 2012-13 season, the volleyball team received the Large Team Academic Award at the ASU Athletic Banquet based on the overall team grade point average.
One of her crowning achievements happened when she and her assistants were chosen by the State Department to be special envoys to China’s Sichuan Province. The coaching staff was part of a sports delegation that went into Chengdu, China - an area that had been recently devastated by an earthquake - to hold volleyball clinics for the local children.
Prior to Alabama State, Lucas-White has left her mark in several other programs.
As head coach at Memphis, Lucas-White led the program to back-to-back Great Midwest Conference titles in 1993 and 1994, earning Coach of the Year honors both seasons. Her Lady Tiger squads maintained a 3.0 team GPA during her tenure at Memphis.
Lucas-White took the reins at Air Force Academy in 1996, the school’s first season competing in Division I in the highly competitive Western Athletic Conference (now known as the Mountain West Conference). A total of 18 cadet-athletes earned academic All-Mountain West Conference honors, including one Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Among her community involvement, Lucas-White has been an active member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. In 2003, she helped the AVCA receive an NCAA minority coaches grant for a program entitled “Volleyball: Live it! Love it! Coach It!”
Lucas-White completed her collegiate career at LSU where she earned first-team All-SEC honors, as well as the MVP award, in her first season playing. After a three-year career, she left college to begin her professional playing career domestically in the United States Volleyball League and internationally in Italy and Germany.
Lucas-White earned the honor of playing on the United States National Volleyball Team in the 1985 NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) Games, competing against the best players in the world.
While competing professionally in the United States and Europe, Lucas-White began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Auburn from 1987-89.
CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Has spent 32 seasons as a coach (Memphis 1991-96, Air Force Academy 1996-2010, Alabama State 2011-present)
- Four-time conference Coach of the Year (1993-94 at Memphis; 2014, 2016 at Alabama State)
- Eight-time conference champion (SWAC 2013-14 & 2016-19, Great Midwest Conference 1993-94)
- Has won at least 20 games a season since the 2013 campaign, up until the 2019 campaign
- Led Alabama State to its first SWAC Championship title in program history by defeating Alabama A&M in five sets on Nov. 24, 2013; Qualified for its first NCAA Tournament appearance
- Her 2014 Lady Hornets earned the most selections of any conference member on the All-SWAC team
- Played collegiate volleyball at LSU (1980-83), and as a professional both domestically and internationally (1984-91, 1997)
- Played as a member of the USA National Volleyball Team (1985-86)
- Has coached athletes that earned MIT, Rhodes and Alberta Bart Holaday Scholarships
CAREER RECORD (according to NCAA)
| Year |
School |
Record |
Post |
Conference |
Finish |
| 1991 |
Memphis |
20-15 |
- |
3-1 |
- |
| 1992 |
Memphis |
10-26 |
- |
2-8 |
- |
| 1993 |
Memphis |
25-11 |
- |
10-1 |
- |
| 1994 |
Memphis |
27-8 |
NCAA 1st |
12-0 |
1st |
| 1995 |
Memphis |
13-20 |
- |
6-6 |
- |
| 1996 |
Air Force |
4-23 |
- |
- |
- |
| 1997 |
Air Force |
5-28 |
- |
- |
- |
| 1998 |
Air Force |
9-17 |
- |
- |
- |
| 1999 |
Air Force |
17-12 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2000 |
Air Force |
6-21 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2001 |
Air Force |
2-21 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2002 |
Air Force |
8-22 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2003 |
Air Force |
14-15 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2004 |
Air Force |
4-21 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2005 |
Air Force |
5-28 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2006 |
Air Force |
3-25 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2007 |
Air Force |
7-24 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2008 |
AIr Force |
5-24 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2009 |
Air Force |
8-21 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2011 |
Alabama State |
15-22 |
- |
4-4 |
- |
| 2012 |
Alabama State |
9-27 |
- |
3-5 |
- |
| 2013 |
Alabama State |
25-16 |
NCAA 1st |
8-0 |
1st |
| 2014 |
Alabama State |
20-19 |
NCAA 1st |
8-0 |
1st |
| 2015 |
Alabama State |
21-15 |
- |
6-2 |
2nd |
| 2016 |
Alabama State |
24-9 |
NCAA 1st |
18-0 |
1st |
| 2017 |
Alabama State |
28-11 |
NCAA 1st |
18-0 |
1st |
| 2018 |
Alabama State |
23-18 |
NCAA 1st |
16-2 |
1st |
| 2019 |
Alabama State |
17-22 |
NCAA 1st |
11-7 |
1st |
| 2020 |
Alabama State |
COVID |
- |
- |
- |
| 2021 |
Alabama State |
16-17 |
- |
12-4 |
t-3rd |
| 2022 |
Alabama State |
20-15 |
NIV 1st |
15-1 |
2nd |
| 2023 |
Alabama State |
18-13 |
- |
16-0 |
t-3rd |
| 2024 |
Alabama State |
11-19 |
- |
8-8 |
t-6th |
| 2025 |
Alabama State |
14-16 |
- |
12-4 |
t-2nd |
| Totals |
34 seasons |
453-621 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
at Memphis |
95-80 |
|
33-15 |
|
|
at Air Force |
97-302 |
|
- |
|
|
at Alabama State |
261-239 |
|
155-37 |
|
