Faulkner University

Julianne Wilkes-Mathews continues her decorated career in blue and white, rejoining the volleyball program she starred for in college as a volunteer assistant while working as an Admissions Counselor for athletes and transfer students. She worked as Tori Renda's assistant coach from 2021-23. 

She also coaches for Renda’s Capital City Juniors. In 2020-21, Wilkes was head coach of the CCJ 16-1 team and an assistant for the 14-1 team that made a nationals appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2022, she coached the CCJ 16-1 team to a first place finish, winning four of seven tournaments. In summer of 2022, she led the CCJ 16/17 AAU team to nationals in Orlando, Florida, where they won the 17 Aspire National Championship with a 13-0 record. While coaching at Faulkner, she served as Programs Manager for CCJ before being promoted to Club Director for the 2023-24 season. In fall of 2024, she was hired as head coach at Pike Road High School before returning to Faulkner in early 2025.

Upon her graduation from Faulkner, Wilkes worked during the 2020 season as assistant coach for the Trinity Presbyterian School varsity volleyball team and head coach of the middle school squad. The varsity team won the 3A state championship and the middle school team finished the season as runner-up in the Capital City Conference. She served as a volunteer assistant for Renda in the COVID-affected 2020-21 spring season. 

Faulkner landed a star out of New Life Christian Academy when Wilkes committed to the Eagles. She was a six-year varsity letter in volleyball, basketball and softball. She won numerous MVP awards and First Team All-Conference in each sport and was a nominee for Elmore County’s Joe Sewell Award in 2012 and 2016. She was on 1s teams in CCJ for eight straight years from age 11 to 18. 

A dual-sport athlete during her college career from 2016-20, Wilkes lettered each of her four years on the court as well as the softball diamond. On top of making the All-Academic list twice for volleyball and three times for softball, she truly made her mark as libero for the Lady Eagles. She was named a First-Team All-SSAC defender in all four seasons, the first athlete in Faulkner athletics history to do so, and voted to the All-Freshman team in 2016 and the All-SSAC Tournament team in 2017 and 2018. 

Her most successful campaign came in 2018, when she helped lead Faulkner to the first berth in the national tournament in the program’s history. The junior was named SSAC Libero of the Year and an All-American Honorable Mention for her efforts that season, when she finished tenth in the nation in total digs with 782, the seventh-best season mark in program history, and received 97.1 percent of serves hit to her. She won 13 SSAC Defender of the Week awards for her career, she totaled 2615 digs, the third-highest mark in Lady Eagle history, to go with 369 assists, 144 kills and 98 aces in 494 career matches. Additionally, five of the top ten highest match marks in program history belong to her, including the record of 42 she put up at home against Mobile as a senior in 2019, breaking the record of 41 set by Carrie Butler in 2007. 

A native of Deatsville, Alabama, her sister Scottie Wilkes Laney also played volleyball and softball at Faulkner. Scottie was an All-American softball player, also earning a spot on the 2010 First-Team All-SSAC team and the 2011 All-Tournament team. She is currently the head softball coach at Auburn University at Montgomery.

Julianne graduated with her Bachelor of Physical Education in 2020 and her Master of Science in Management in 2023. She married former Eagle and standout second baseman John Michael Mathews in January 2024, and they are expecting their first child in November 2025.