University of Mount Olive

Wendy Lee became Mount Olive's head women's basketball coach in 2000 after spending her first two years at Mount Olive as assistant women's basketball coach and assistant cross country coach. She has also served as an instructor in the recreation and leisure studies department.

Lee was recognized in May of 2018 by the Conference Carolinas league office with the Milestone Award. A coach receiving the 'Milestone Award' has surpassed 200 career wins in soccer or lacrosse; 250 wins in basketball, tennis or volleyball; 500 in baseball or softball; or 15 years of coaching in golf, cross country or track. Lee hit the 275 career win mark at the end of the 2017-18 season.

Coach Lee led her team to the quarterfinals of the Conference Carolinas Championship Tournament at Limestone in the 2019-2020 campaign. Jada Bacchus was name to the Conference Carolinas All-Conference second-team. 

During their 2018-19 run, Coach Lee led her Trojans to the semifinals of the Conference Carolinas Championship Tournament hosted by No. 1 seed Emmanuel College. Kelly Post was named to the All-Tournament team, while Felecity Havens and Jada Bacchus each earned All-Conference honors. Havens again garnered post-season All-American honors with the D2CCA and the WBCA associations.

The Trojans captured their third consecutive winning conference record during the 2017-18 season. Under Coach Lee's direction, junior guard Felecity Havens collected numerous honors which were capped off with a D2CCA 3rd-Team All-American title. In addition, Havens was named to the D2CCA Southeast All-Region 1st-Team, the Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, and earned National Player of the Week honors from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

Lee had her second-best season at the helm of the UMO women's basketball program as her squad went 22-7 overall and 12-4 in conference action with a run to the Conference Carolinas semifinals during the 2016-17 season. Lee had four members of her squad earn all-conference honors in Daria Simmons, Felecity Havens, Kiara Jones, Ni'Ya Styles. In addition, four Trojans, Rachel Fehl, Julie Gonzalez-Rodriguez, China Marshall, and Ni'Ya Styles, landed on the all-academic team for their hard work in the classroom as well as on the court. 

In the 2015-16 campaign, Lee guided the Trojans to a 19-11 overall record and a 16-6 mark in Conference Carolinas play. Mount Olive earned the No. 2 seed in the Conference Carolinas Women's Basketball Tournament and advanced to the tournament semifinals.

Despite suffering its first sub-.500 season in 10 years, Mount Olive reached the Championship Game of the Conference Carolinas Women's Basketball Tournament for the second straight year and the sixth time in the last eight years under Lee in 2014-15. The Trojans became the first-ever No. 7 seed to advance to the Championship Game of the women's basketball tournament.

Lee guided Mount Olive to its second Conference Carolinas title in 2012-13 as the Trojans posted three consecutive tournament wins on the road against higher seeded teams. No. 5 seed Mount Olive upset top-seeded and nationally eighth-ranked Limestone College in the semifinals and defeated third-seeded Pfeiffer in the championship game. Jasmine McDonald, who pulled down a tournament record 45 rebounds in three games, was named Most Valuable Player.

The Trojans earned their second trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament, facing nationally top-ranked Clayton State in the opening round.

Lee has led the Trojans to 18 or more wins six times in the last eight years, including three 20-win seasons. The 2010-11 season saw Mount Olive make its first-ever national television appearance. The Trojans' game at Limestone was televised live by CBS Sports Network.

In 2007-08, Mount Olive won the Conference Carolinas championship and earned a bid to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament for the first time in school history. The eighth-seeded Trojans stunned No. 1 seed and nationally 12th-ranked Indiana (Pa.) in the first round of the East Regional to advance to the regional semifinal. The Trojan women's basketball team became the first UMO athletics team in any sport to record a win in its first NCAA Tournament appearance.

The Trojans set a single-season record for most wins (since Mount Olive became a four-year college in 1985) with a 23-8 record in 2008-09. The team's 14-game winning streak during the season remains a women's basketball school record.

Prior to arriving at Mount Olive, Lee served as a graduate assistant women's basketball coach at Campbell University. She also coached basketball and softball at the high school level.

Lee earned her undergraduate degree at Meredith College, majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry while earning her teaching certification. She earned her master's in community counseling at Campbell.

While at Meredith, Lee was a member of the basketball and softball teams. She played basketball for Sammy Hatchell, husband of University of North Carolina head women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell.

Lee is married to Billy Lee, who earned multiple Big South and Atlantic Sun Men's Basketball Coach of the Year honors and guided Campbell to the 1992 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. 

The couple has two dogs named Annie Belle & Ellie Mae and a cat named Oakley.

The Lee family are members of Angier Primitive Baptist Church in Angier, N.C.

Advice to prospective student-athletes: "The best players that have been a part of the University of Mount Olive women's basketball program have been the ones who truly love to compete at their highest level every day. They are the ones who we all remember as the teammate that approached every practice just as though it was a conference game and every possession as though it was the game-winning play of the National Championship. Those are the kind of players we want at Mount Olive. Ultimately, a true University of Mount Olive women's basketball player is one who understands that 'it isn't hard to be good from time to time, what is tough is

being good every day.'"

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