Libero Caroline Fruge joins 2025 Golden Eagle volleyball signing class
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Less than a week after the Tennessee Tech volleyball team and head coach Jeannette Phillips celebrated eight members of the squad with Senior Day festivities, the Golden Eagles announced the signing of one of the largest classes of freshmen in the history of the program. Over the next few days, we’ll be taking a closer look at each of the newest members of the Golden Eagle volleyball family. Today, we take a look at Meridian, Miss. native Caroline Fruge.
By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Less than a week after the Tennessee Tech volleyball team and head coach Jeannette Phillips celebrated eight members of the squad with Senior Day festivities, the Golden Eagles announced the signing of one of the largest classes of freshmen in the history of the program.
The purple and gold is set to welcome seven fresh faces to Cookeville for the 2025 season, including liberos Caroline Fruge, Brooklyn Rapp, and Ella Watford, middle blockers Tuva Falk and Jordyn Milhouse, right side Sarah Noto, and outside hitter Eryn Spradley.
"This is the biggest recruiting class we have brought into Tech, but due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had two classes morphing together and our graduating class is sizeable this year," Phillips explained. The talent level is also very sizeable in this 2025 class. They know they have some big shoes to fill and they are ready for the challenge. This class is all very passionate about Tech and the buy-in from them is already so high, that the sky really is the limit."
Over the next few days, we'll be taking a closer look at each of the newest members of the Golden Eagle volleyball family. Today, we take a look at Meridian, Miss. native Caroline Fruge.
Caroline Fruge
Libero | 5'5
Meridian, Miss. (Lamar HS)
Queen City Athletics (Club)
Fruge was a four-year letterwinner as a libero for head coach Courtney Schimelpfening at Lamar High School in Meridian, Miss. She also competed as a member of the cheer squad for three years.
Piling up 1,058 digs, 739 kills, 254 service aces, and 172 assists, she enjoyed a highly decorated career at LHS with numerous honors and accolades to speak of. The defensive specialist led her team to a pair of 5A state titles in 2022 and 2023 and was a member of the 2021 5A state championship cheer squad.
During her time at Lamar, Fruge was a two-time team captain as a junior and senior, earning the Captain's Leadership Award in 2023. Named Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, she was also honored as the MidSouth Association of Independent Schools 5A Player of the Year as a sophomore and junior. She was named All-MAIS in 2022 and 2023 and All-State in 2021 and 2022.
"Caroline is going to fool some people with how sweet she is as a person and how tenacious she can be on the court," Phillips expressed. "If you ever have the pleasure to meet Caroline, you will feel what we felt the moment we met her. She is someone you want on your team and around you as much as possible. She will have the ability to heighten everything we do within our program on and off the court. I always say that we can do great things if we surround ourselves with great people, and Caroline is a classic example of that."
