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University of Wisconsin La Crosse Athletics

Deja Williams

Deja Williams starts her third season as an assistant coach at UW-La Crosse in 2026-27. She also serves as a multicultural admissions counselor.

2025-2026
  • The Eagles finished with a 21-10 overall record and 9-5 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) record.
  • UWL captured the programs first ever WIAC Tournament Championship with a 52-49 upset win of top seed UW-Oshkosh to earn the WIAC automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III National Tournament. 
  • At the national tournament, UWL defeated LaGrange College (Ga.) 78-52 and Carroll University 80-60 to advance to program's first ever trip to the NCAA III Sweet 16. In the round of 16, UWL defeated Southern Maine University 66-45 to advance to the national quarterfinals where they face top overall seed New York University. The Eagles would fall to New York University 72-47.
  • UWL knocked off #7 UW-Whitewater 77-54 for the Eagles sixth win over a Top-25 team since D3hoops.com first released a poll to start the 1999-2000 season. 
  • Helped coach Malia Nelson to D3hoops.com All-Region Third Team selection. 
  • Nelson and Molly Janke were named to the WIAC All-Conference First Team while Grace Knupp was selected to the WIAC Honorable Mention Team. 
2024-2025
  • UWL finished 17-12 overall and 7-7 in the WIAC. 
  • Eagles earned an at-large bid to the NCAA III National Tournament where they defeated Colorado College 79-52 in the first round. They then fell 50-49 to UW-Whitewater in the second round. 
  • Season included upset wins of #15 UW-Stout and #5 UW-Oshkosh. The win over UW-Oshkosh was just the fourth win over a top five ranked opponent in school history. 
  • Under Lonning's coaching, Lauryn Milne was named D3hoops.com Third Team All-Region and WIAC First Team All-Conference. Milne finished her Eagle career as just the 18th player in school history to surpass the 1,000 point milestone (1,215 points, sixth all-time) and is one of only three Eagles to score more than 1200 points and grab more than 500 rebounds (539). 
  • Kailee Meeker also earned WIAC Honorable Mention All-Conference honors. 
Education and Playing Career
  • Earned her masters degree in organizational leadership from Mercer University (Ga.) (2024). Played the 2023-24 season for Mercer where she started all 30 games; averaging 9.3 points, 2.7 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.
  • Williams earned her bachelors degree from Cleveland State University in psychology (2023). She played two years (2021-2023) for the Vikings. During the 2022-23 season, Williams helped lead the Vikings to a 30-5 overall record, league championship and NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. She played in all 35 games, led the team in assists and was named the Horizon League Sixth Player of the Year. Williams played n 30 games with five starts in 2021-22.
  • Prior to transferring to Cleveland State University, Williams played at California State University, Northridge where she earned Big West All-Freshman Team honors.