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| Lakeland athletics photo |
Amber Peterson has been promoted to Lakeland University's head women's basketball coach. The announcement was made today by Lakeland athletic director April Arvan.
Peterson has served as an assistant coach with the program for seven years, including four years as the lead assistant. She has also served as the Muskies' head women's golf coach and as the Lakeland athletic department's director of sport specific recruiting operations.
Peterson has been part of squads that have won 101 games, including the 2016-17 team, which advanced to the Division III NCAA Tournament. She has coached 12 all-conference players.
She replaces Aaron Nester, who spent five years as head coach and had four winning seasons. This season, Lakeland lost its first six games and finished 11-14. Nester was 83-49 with the Muskies.
She led the golf team to four consecutive top-three finishes in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championships, and sophomore Ali Wilson became Lakeland's first NACC women's golf champion this past fall.
Peterson has coached five individuals to receive all-conference recognition. Her teams have set school records for low individual and team rounds, and team members have registered seven of the 12 best individual rounds in school history and seven of the top 10 team rounds ever at Lakeland.
She came to Lakeland after serving as a student assistant at Augusta State (Ga.) in 2012-13. She assisted the Jaguars while finishing up her bachelor's degree in sociology, and also was a coach with the Georgia Sting AAU team. Peterson made her way to Augusta State in 2011, playing her senior year at the NCAA Division II school and averaging 7.3 points per game and leading the Peach Belt Conference in 3-point shooting.
Prior to playing at Augusta State, she spent one year at Southwest Minnesota State, where she averaged 6.5 points and led the team in assists per game. Peterson transferred to SW Minnesota State from Iowa Western Community College, where she finished fourth nationally in NJCAA Division I in assists while being named first team all-region.
A native of Elkhorn, Nebraska, she completed her master of arts in counseling degree from Lakeland.