Payton Carter is entering her first season as head coach for the Lady Flames.
Former Lady Flame Payton Carter named head women’s beach volleyball coach
7/31/2024 12:20:00 PM | Women's Beach Volleyball
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Carter prepares for new role after serving as assistant coach last season
After spending last season as an assistant coach for Liberty's women's club beach volleyball team, Payton Carter ('20, '21) has been promoted to head coaching duties with the departure of former head coach Jess Nelson.
Carter spent four years as an outside hitter for the Lady Flames Division I Women's Volleyball team and one additional year competing with the club women's beach team. During her junior year, she recorded 53 kills and 96 digs in 21 matches, five of which she started. She was also a four time conference Honor Roll recipient with the Lady Flames.
As a graduate student on the beach team, she made history with her partner Jenae Baker by defeating a DI NCAA pair (College of Charleston) in Wilmington, N.C.
Carter enters her new role with over nine years of coaching experience at the middle school, high school, and national club level.
"I'm really excited about this new position," she said. "Last season, I was an assistant coach under Jess Nelson, who was previously under (former Head Coach) Kaleb VanDePerre. Both of those coaches have laid such a great foundation for me at Liberty. I learned from them and the foundation that they set. So, I'm excited to continue that and build on the competitive culture that they had." Carter competed with the Lady Flames for the 2021 campaign.
Carter originally planned to return home to South Carolina after graduating with a B.S. in Elementary Education in 2020, but VanDePerre advised her to pursue a master's degree while also competing on Liberty's beach team. She later completed her Master of Education – Reading Specialist and now works as a sixth-grade teacher at Timberlake Christian Academy in Forest, Va.
"It is so crazy how the Lord works," she said. "You can see how everything He was doing led me up to here."
Although she served as an assistant coach last season, Carter's new position will provide her with even more opportunities to invest in her returning and incoming athletes.
"I am super excited about the returners that we have this year," she said. "The personalities are awesome, and I think it will be a really cohesive team. So, I'm excited to develop that competitive aspect and have a competitive and cohesive culture that not only wants to win volleyball matches, but also wants to serve the Lord through that. My vision is to have a team of girls that uses volleyball to serve the Lord."
This desire to glorify Christ through the team's performance stirs the athletes to compete at the highest level possible. In addition to Carter and the team captains, the squad also has two spiritual leaders who prioritize keeping the team grounded through facilitating Bible studies, praying with and for student-athletes, and planning team bonding activities.
"I think the players on this team have such a heart for each other and serving each other," Carter said. "Servanthood and servant-heartedness comes from the Lord, and we are to follow His example. In relation to volleyball, 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, 'but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' So, we know that any victory we have on the court doesn't compare to the victory we have in the Lord. The girls know this. So, going into any volleyball match, we're really just playing for Him and giving back the talents and gifts He gave us to serve Him and each other through the sport of volleyball."
The Lady Flames women's beach volleyball team will host tryouts on August 20 for prospective players, and then will transition into a semester of training before the 2025 campaign starts this spring.
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