Aven Lee enters her second year on staff as the director of women's volleyball operations. She returned to alma mater after earning 16 years of coaching experience on the mainland.
Lee played for five years under Dave Shoji from 1996-2000 (redshirted in 1998) and was a teammate of Ah Mow-Santos and current assistant coach Angelica Ljunqvist as a freshman when the Ah Mow-Santos and Ljunqvist were seniors in 1996. Lee played both as an outside hitter and a defensive specialist and during her UH playing career, the 'Bows recorded a 120-15 overall record—including a perfect 60-0 record in the Western Athletic Conference. Lee was also apart of an NCAA champion match (1996), a Final Four appearance (2000) a sweet sixteen (1999), as well as four conference titles. Lee graduated from Hawai‘i with a degree in sociology in 2002.
Most recently, Lee spent two seasons (2015-16) at Sacramento State, where she served a dual role as an assistant coach to the Hornets' indoor women's volleyball team and the director of operations for their beach volleyball team. At Sac State, she helped lead the Hornets to a combined overall record of 46-19 while going 25-7 in the Big Sky Conference. Last season, Sacramento State captured its first Big Sky South Division championship finishing the year with a 13-3 conference record. At Sac State, she handled all the travel, was the camp coordinator and on the court handled the team's serve receive and defense. Lee also coached the Big Sky's Libero of the Year, Lexie Skalbeck.
Prior to coaching the Hornets, Lee spent two years as an assistant at Nevada (2013-14), and four seasons at Pacific (2009-12). With those two teams, she handled numerous responsibilities, including recruiting, in-game offensive tracking and strategizing, serve receive and defensive systems, outside hitter and libero training, on-court instruction, execution of drills, travel, academics, admissions, eligibility, compliance and match scouting. She also spent one season (2004) as a volunteer assistant coach at Hawai'i Pacific.
Lee was involved with USA Volleyball where she coached at various USA High Profile camps and teams, including the 2009 Women's National A2 Team and the 2008 Girls Junior National A2 Team.
She spent a decade coaching in the prep ranks in Hawai'i at the junior national and high school levels. She coached club for Asics Rainbows VBC, Imi Ike VBC, Kilohana VBC, Magnum 5.0 VBC, and Quicksets VBC in the islands.
The Honolulu native also coached high school varsity girls volleyball in Hawaii as both a head coach and assistant. Lee spent two seasons as the head coach at Kalani High School, where she was the 2003 Oahu Interscholastic Association Coach of the Year after her team finished third in the state.
Lee is a 1996 graduate of Kamehameha Schools - Kapalama where she earned four letters in volleyball, three in basketball and two in paddling. Lee helped to lead the Warriors to state championships in girls basketball (1993) and in girls volleyball (1994 & '95).
