In Lindsay Wilber’s ninth season leading the Tiger volleyball program, there were more firsts, and new heights in the program during the 2022 season. Over five months, 33 matches, and 122 sets on the sidelines; Wilber and her team posted a trio of top-10 wins against No. 7 Northwestern, No. 3 Midland, and No. 6 Concordia all at home, before securing wins against four more top-25 teams. She led her team back to the NAIA National Tournament for the second consecutive season while also hosting their second consecutive opening round match when they hosted Kansas Wesleyan in the Corn Palace, lasting only an hour and 10-minutes long. Wilber and company continued to make history within the program, reaching their highest national ranking ever, sitting at sixth in the final NAIA Coaches’ Poll. Wilber as team went on a run in at the national tournament final site, securing the needed two win in pool play against Southern Oregon (3-0) and MidAmerica Nazarene (3-1) to be one of the final eight teams remaining. The team received numerous accolades for their accomplishments during the season, including, six GPAC All-Conference Players, 13 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes, two AVCA West Central All-Region Players, an AVCA West Central Attacker of the Year in Ady Dwight, a pair of NAIA All-Americans in senior Madeline Else and junior Dwight, two College Sport Communicator Academic All-America Players in Else and Dwight, and a 2022 South Dakota Sportwriters’ Women’s College Coach of the Year in head coach Wilber.

Head coach Lindsay Wilber’s eighth season at the helm of Tiger volleyball was special with many “firsts.”  Playing 35 matches from mid-August to early December, 25 of those matches were tallied in the win column.  Wilber is the first coach since the 1993 season to have over 20 wins in a season.  Wilber and company also defeated Dordt and Northwestern for the first time since the beginning of women’s volleyball in 1974.  She led her team to host a conference quarterfinals match against the Red Raiders, grabbing the five-set win, then hosted an NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Opening Round game at the Corn Palace for the first time ever.  DWU volleyball defeated Saint Xavier (Ill.) from the Chicagoland Conference, punching its ticket to the final site of the NAIA Women’s Volleyball Championships in Sioux City, Iowa.  Wilber picked up her first-ever national tournament win with a three-set sweep over Grand View (Iowa).  The Tigers were ranked as high as No. 13 in the nation over the course of the 2021 season for the first time in program history.  Wilber added five GPAC All-Conference selections to her coaching career, a CoSIDA Academic All-American, an AVCA All-Region selection and an NAIA All-American First-Team honoree.  Wilber is now the winningest coach in DWU volleyball history with 127 wins.

In her eight seasons as the head volleyball coach, Wilber has continued to build the Dakota Wesleyan volleyball team each year.  She has coached 26 All-GPAC athletes, including five first-team players.  Wilber also coached her first NAIA All-American in 2019 as Rebecca Frick was tabbed to the honorable mention team.  Then in 2021, Ady Dwight earned NAIA All-American First-Team status.

Wilber has accumulated a record of 127-118 through her first eight years as head coach.  Off the court, there have been 27 NAIA All-American Scholar-Athletes and two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, including Frick and Dwight who were also named as the only two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans-of-the-Year in the NAIA for volleyball.

Wilber has coached multiple players who have moved up the program’s all-time career charts.  Frick (2016-19) amassed 1,750 career kills and sits second on the all-time list, while Lauren Tadlock (2014-16) tallied 1,328 kills, good for fourth on the list.  Bridgett Knobbe (2017-19) sits third on the all-time assist list with 3,289 career assists.  Wilber also coached 12 players on the all-time digs list, including Maggie Stehly (2012-15) who finished with 1,681 career digs.

Wilber lives in Mitchell with her husband, Matt, the head men’s basketball coach at DWU.  They have four sons: twins A.J. and Ben, Nathan and Tyson, along with a daughter, Lizzie.