University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Soccer
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- soccer@louisiana.edu
With demonstrated success at multiple levels of professional and collegiate soccer, Lance Key begins his third season as head coach of the Louisiana Women's Soccer program.
The third head coach in Louisiana Women's Soccer history, Key was officially introduced on Dec. 6, 2018 after posting a stellar 210-11-16 record on the pitch with an impressive 83.3 winning percentage during his tenure at Trinity University in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
Changing the culture was evident in his inaugural season with the Ragin' Cajuns as he inherited a 2-win team from 2018 and molded them into a 9-8-3 squad which earned its first-ever berth in semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships.
A repeat performance for Louisiana would occur during the 2020-21 season that was affected by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Louisiana posted a 9-5-1 record during the fall portion of the schedule and made its second straight berth in the SBC semifinals before falling to eventual champion South Alabama. Key's team opened the season with wins over Abilene Christian and USA and would run off a string of six straight wins and seven consecutive clean sheets to rank as one of the top defensive teams in the nation.
The Ragin' Cajuns set school-records for most shutouts (10), goals against average (1.18) and consecutive minutes without allowing a goal (724). The Ragin' Cajuns were also a perfect 4-0 against in-state schools during the regular season, outscoring its competition 10-0.
Guiding the Trinity program from 2004-16, Key led his team to 11 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship Tournaments and coached 21 All-America student-athletes on the pitch.
Entering the 2020 season, Key possessed the second-ranked all-time winning percentage across NCAA Divisions I, II or II, both Men's and Women's sides, and was tabbed as the national coach of the year after both the 2009 and 2013 seasons. The Tigers went an outstanding 210-20-18 under his guidance.
Successes in all phases of a program have been hallmarks of Key's leadership, with 27 student-athletes earning Scholar All-America status under his watch. Four student-athletes went on to earn NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships during his time directing the Trinity program.
Following the 2016 season, Key served as an assistant women's soccer coach at Texas (2016-17) before returning to Trinity as an assistant for the men's soccer program. Key began his coaching career with the program, assisting the Tigers from 2001-04 and helping the program to the 2003 NCAA National Championship. The program built an impeccable 96-6-5 record with Key providing direction from the sideline.
Key was a standout defender for the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer from 2000-2001, earning 34 caps for all 34 of his appearances in two campaigns before retiring as a professional due to injury. Key was the only Division III student-athlete selected in the 2000 MLS SuperDraft.
Key was a three-time All-American at Trinity from 1996-99, earning Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Player of the Year as a senior. He was inducted into Trinity University's Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its 2015 class.
Key has received multiple coaching certifications and diplomas from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). He also served on the NSCAA Women's Soccer Advocacy Council in 2016. In addition to his work at Trinity, Key previously served as an assistant with the San Antonio Scorpions of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2014, as the director of Trinity Soccer Academy from 2004-16 and the Director of Training at the Classics Elite Soccer Academy (CESA) from 2002-08. He has also been a broadcast analyst for Fox Sports' coverage of San Antonio Football Club broadcasts since 2017.
Key earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Trinity in 2000. He and his wife Natalie, are the parents of two daughters, Ava and Ela, and one son, Judah.
Key's Year-By-Year Record
| Overall | Conference | |||||
| at Trinity | ||||||
| Year | W | L | T | W | L | T |
| 2004 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| 2006 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| 2008 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| 2009 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 2010 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2012 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 19 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| at Louisiana (2019-present) | ||||||
| 2019 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 2020-21 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Totals | 228 | 38 | 21 | 116 | 12 | 5 |
| at Trinity | 209 | 21 | 17 | 108 | 5 | 2 |
| at Louisiana | 19 | 17 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 3 |
