West Lauderdale senior Hailey Duque (Jones College) and Northeast Lauderdale senior Audrianna Green (Mississippi College) are college volleyball commits who starred at outside hitter for their rival high schools. Their growth from inexperienced freshmen to college volleyball commits demonstrates that there are now paths out of Lauderdale County for volleyball players who want to play in college.
Duque played on a volleyball team in Texas for a couple of months before moving to Lauderdale County when she was in middle school, and Green had never played before she moved from Indiana in 2018. They both took up the sport once they got to high school, and the two met in 2020 while playing at Bulldog Beach in Bailey.
“We found out that we were going to have a team for my freshman year of high school, so that was really when volleyball kind of started becoming a thing (in Lauderdale County),” Duque said. “My sophomore year is when it really exploded. That’s when you started seeing a lot more girls doing travel volleyball, and there were just more girls trying out, and it was just a whole eruption of the sport in Mississippi.”
As the two athletes developed a friendship, they also began developing their skills on the court. Both devoted themselves to volleyball by joining Southern Select Volleyball Club and by putting in extra hours on the court outside of scheduled high school and club practices, and they currently play on the same club team at Infinity Volleyball Academy in Jackson.
“Me and Hailey just kind of clicked and got along, and from that we played doubles together on the sand,” Green said. “Then we went on to our school ball and had a little friendly competition across the net each year, because it’s really a coin toss between us and West Lauderdale.”
Green is the first volleyball player from Debrah Everett’s Northeast Lauderdale program to commit to a college, and Autumn Gilland has since committed to Meridian Community College. Nadia Stout signed to Millsaps College last year after playing with Duque on coach Doug Everett’s West Lauderdale team. Both coaches said they have more players currently on their teams they believe will play in college.
Duque will play for Jones College’s inaugural volleyball team next fall, while Green will join the Mississippi College Choctaws next year. Their coaches believe both Duque and Green were recruited to play outside hitter in college, but Green said she may play opposite hitter instead.
Both players attribute their growth in the sport to the hard work and long hours they have put into improving their abilities on the court, and Duque also said she has had good coaching. Green said Duque is always in the gym trying to get stronger, and it shows on the court.
“I think that’s something we have in common is we both want to get better, we have to get better, and we both put in the work and the hours and the effort, and we both love the sport,” Duque said. “If you compare freshman year to now, for both of us, obviously it’s a huge difference in skill level.”
This time spent on the court has allowed the two outside hitters to develop into well-rounded volleyball players. Doug Everett, who has coached both players, said they are really good at hitting, defending, serve-receive and passing. The West Lauderdale coach said outside hitters need to be able to pass and play defense because they typically play all six rotations during matches.
They need to have strong swings and be effective attackers too, though, as Debrah Everett said outside hitters will get a lot of sets and need to be able to attack from multiple areas of the court. She said she looks for players with above-average athleticism that can jump high and play physically when she is evaluating athletes to play at outside hitter.
“The girls that are going to play at the next level are going to match that skill level with athleticism, and they’re going to continue to work out and improve parts of their game that they haven’t been working on, like athleticism, agility, vertical, stuff like that,” Doug Everett said. “Once we match those things up with their skill level, we’re going to start popping some (NCAA Division I) kids out of here really soon.”
Those athletes that do develop their athleticism could have a chance to play in college, especially now that more college volleyball programs like Meridian Community College’s and Jones College’s are popping up in Mississippi. Doug Everett said players that participate in travel volleyball and start for their high school teams have a good chance to get recruited.
“If you’re a starter at one of these good programs in the area, you’re going to have the ability to play college volleyball,” Doug Everett said. “Right now, these girls have a great opportunity to play at the next level. I don’t know what that looks like four years from now, I don’t think any of us can say, but, obviously, the more programs that come on, the more opportunities there will be.”
Green’s advice to college prospects is to work hard and find opportunities to grow while also finding joy in other areas of life apart from sport, while Duque said prospects who want to play in college need to put in extra time and extra effort.
“That’s something that really makes the difference in who you are as a player is how much effort you put in,” Duque said. “You can coach the skill, and you can coach the talent and the volleyball IQ, but you can’t coach the effort. … It’s easy to put in the work, and it’s easy to put in the time, and it’s easy to want to do those things. So, ultimately, if you love the sport, stick with it.”