LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College Director of Athletics & Dean of Wellness Drew Howard has announced the appointment of Lauren Tekavec '15 as the sixth head coach of the Florida Southern Volleyball program. Tekavec is one of the rising stars within the volleyball coaching community. She has posted an impressive 90-9 record over the last three seasons as head coach at Wingate University.
 
"I am excited to welcome Lauren home to Florida Southern," said Howard. "I was impressed with her energy and passion to elevate Florida Southern Volleyball. It is special to have the opportunity to bring an alumna with her experience and success back home to lead our program forward."
 
She has never suffered more than four losses in a season as a head coach and led Wingate to being the only program over the last three seasons to finish among the top-seven in win-loss percentage every year. This past season, she led the Bulldogs to a 31-2 mark, second in all of Division II, and a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in Sioux Falls, S.D. Her team never dropped more than one set in a match all season except for the two losses, a 3-1 setback in the second match of the season and a 3-2 loss to the eventual National Champions MSU Denver in the Elite Eight. Over the 33 total matches last season, the Bulldogs only dropped 14 of the 110 sets played.
 
"I am thrilled to return to my alma mater as the head volleyball coach," said Tekavec. "This program is extremely special, and I have always been grateful for my college experience. It is such a privilege to have the opportunity to be a part of Florida Southern Volleyball again and I want to thank Drew Howard and Jill Stephens '95 for giving me this opportunity. I love the town of Lakeland, and I am excited for the future of this program. Once a Moc, always a Moc."
 
Tekavec is a two-time South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Coach of the Year (2024, 2025) and two-time AVCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year (2024,2025). She led her team to back-to-back NCAA Southeast Region Championships and three-straight SAC Regular Season Championships. Her teams captured back-to-back SAC Tournament Championships in 2024 and 2025 and ranked top-10 nationally in both hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage.
 
She has coached two student-athletes to three SAC Player of the Year awards and three Southeast Region Player of the Year honors. Her players have earned five AVCA All-America honors, 14 All-Region and 16 All-SAC accolades.
 
Off the court, she has been a member of the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) which selects the teams to compete in the NCAA Championship each season. She also has served on the AVCA Southeast All-Region Committee.
 
Prior to taking over as head coach, Tekavec spent four seasons as both an Associate Head Coach and Assistant Coach at Wingate. The Bulldogs went 87-13 over the four seasons including the shortened 2020 season. She helped guide the team to three NCAA Southeast Region Tournaments, four-straight SAC Regular Season Championships and a pair of SAC Tournament Championships. She served as the recruiting coordinator and managed a defense that ranked top-10 nationally in opponent hitting percentage all four years including first in 2019 and second in 2022.
 
Prior to moving to Wingate, Tekavec spent one season on the sidelines of Regis University in Colorado as a graduate assistant coach after coaching and teaching at Doherty High School in Colorado for two years. She has multiple years of experience coaching at the club level as well including a year at Southern Select Volleyball Club located in Lakeland.
 
She was a four-year member of the Florida Southern College volleyball program as a student-athlete and received the FSC Athletic Director's Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest team GPA three times (2012, 2013, 2014). She helped lead the Mocs to success in her four-year career, posting an 87-45 overall record while going 46-18 in Sunshine State Conference play. FSC appeared in the NCAA Tournament every year of her career, advancing to the regional semifinals all four years. The Mocs were ranked as high as 13th in the AVCA top 25 during Tekavec's senior season, finishing the year at 25-6 overall and 14-2 in SSC play.
 
A 2015 graduate of Florida Southern, Tekavec earned her degree in social sciences, secondary education with minors in history and religion.