When the Ohio Valley Conference added women’s volleyball to its sponsored sports in 1983, Tennessee Tech stepped forward to dominate the league by winning four consecutive Southern Division championships. One of the most prolific players during that span was defensive specialist Angie Duncan Hyche, who was a standout not only on the court but also received national recognition for her academic success.
A native of Kingsport, Tenn., Duncan Hyche capped her career by being named First-Team Academic All-America as well as First-Team All-OVC. Beginning with an honorable mention on the Academic All-America Team as a sophomore, she was a Second-Team Academic All-America choice as a junior. She also was named as one of three OVC Female Scholar-Athlete winners as a senior, graduating in 1987 with a degree in biology and boasting a 3.98 grade average for her career.
After filling a reserve role as a freshman, the 5-foot-7 Duncan became a starter in her sophomore season for coach Sharron Bilbrey and provided defensive leadership throughout her career. As a sophomore, she ranked fourth in the OVC and 16th in the nation in dig average, and earned a spot on the OVC all-tournament team. As a senior, she captured first-team all-OVC honors and was named to the all-tournament team for the second time. She was a member of several honor societies and was a finalist for the prestigious Derryberry Award (which she lost to her future husband, Eric).
In 1988, when the OVC celebrated its 40th anniversary, Duncan was one of 21 student-athletes from Tennessee Tech named to the All-Time All-OVC team.
Married for to her college sweetheart, Angie and Eric (‘87 electrical engineering), have two daughters – Emma and Lydia.
Upon graduation, the couple moved to Atlanta where Angie worked as a micro-bacteria research biologist in the Centers for Disease Control, concentrating on leprosy and tuberculosis. She received her teaching certificate and taught high school science for one year, the attended graduate school, receiving her master’s degree as a Physician’s Assistant in 1992 from Emory University. She worked as a P.A. in Pediatrics at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.
