Jan. 26, 2010
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Former Georgia Tech Volleyball stand-out Lauren Sauer was named head coach at James Madison University on Monday. A four-year letterwinner from 2001-04, Sauer is the first former Yellow Jacket to become a head coach. At the beginning of the 2009 season, she was one of seven former Jackets who were Division I assistants.
“I am thrilled to be the head coach of the James Madison volleyball program,” said Sauer. “I credit my time at Georgia Tech as the catalyst for my coaching career. I was surrounded by wonderful people, lived in an exciting city and graduated with an excellent degree. I would love nothing more than to provide the great experiences I had as a student-athlete to my players at JMU. Tech truly is a special place.”
Identified in 2009 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association as one of the “30 best coaches in the country under the age of 30,” Sauer spent the last three seasons as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Kentucky.
“The Georgia Tech volleyball family is excited for Lauren as she takes the next step forward in her coaching career,” said Tech head coach Tonya Johnson. She is truly one of the brightest young coaches in the sport and she will do a tremendous job leading the program at James Madison. We are all very proud of her and we wish her the best.”
Sauer enjoyed a stellar four-year career at Georgia Tech and led the Yellow Jackets to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including trips to the quarterfinals in 2003 and the round of 16 in 2004. Georgia Tech won a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships (2003, 04) and also won the tournament championship in 2002.
Sauer was an AVCA honorable mention All-American in 2003, was named All-ACC in 2002 and 2003, and became one of just two players in Yellow Jacket history to earn ACC Rookie of the Year honors in 2001. She was also ACC All-Tournament in 2003 and earned five other all-tournament accolades, including MVP of the 2003 Georgia Tech Invitational.
In the Yellow Jacket career record books, Sauer ranks second in solo blocks with 99, fifth with 1,706 career kills, fifth in kills per set (3.60), eighth in total blocks (368), and ninth in block assists (269). She also ranks fifth (541 in 2003) and eighth (506 in 2004) in season kill totals as well as second (38 in 2004) and fifth (34 in 2002) in season solo blocks. In 2002, she etched her name in the NCAA record books with the second-best hitting percentage in a match all-time, connecting on 17 kills in 18 swings for a .944 attack rate.
Sauer was named to the ACC Honor Roll during each of her four years at Georgia Tech. She was honored as an ESPN The Magazine District III University Division Academic All-District performer in both 2003 and 2004, honoring academic and athletic excellence among all Division I volleyball players from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. She was also named Academic All-ACC in 2005 and was a Dean’s List student at GT.
Following the completion of her volleyball career with the 2004 season, Sauer continued competition as a student-athlete by joining the Yellow Jacket’s women’s basketball squad for the remainder of the 2004-05 season and the 2005-06 campaign.
Sauer completed her bachelor of science in business management in December of 2005. She is a native of Huntsville, Ala.
