1,000-1,000 Club Highlight: Kate Gibson McArthur Needed Only Three Seasons to Join the Club

OXFORD, Miss. – In celebration of Ole Miss volleyball's 50 seasons of competition, OleMissSports.com is proud to highlight nine student-athletes part of an elite club, who accomplished one of the rarest athletic feats in program history.

Comprised of athletes from the 1980's to as recently as 2017, Ole Miss' 1,000-1,000 club honors players who record at least 1,000 tallies in two statistical categories throughout their careers, generally kills and digs, showcasing excellence in both offense and defense.

Ole Miss fans were treated to a pair of 1,000-1,000 club inductees during the 2017 season, Kate Gibson McArthur and Lexi Thompson Stickler. After 13 seasons without an athlete having joined the illustrious club, McArthur and Thompson did so within one week of each other, early in their senior seasons.

McArthur was a dynamic playmaker for the Rebels in just three seasons with the program, having started her career at Memphis. When accounting for her overall career stats, McArthur was the first of the 2017 pair to reach 1,000 kills and digs each. However, much like another member of the 1,000-1,000 club, Michelle Whitby-York, McArthur also had over 1,000 of each stat when only looking at her time in Oxford.

She finished her overall career with exactly 1,500 kills, which would have become a program career record, and 1,406 digs, which also would have briefly served as the program record for a career as well. As it stands, McArthur's 1,120 kills in three seasons at Ole Miss is the eighth-most in the rally scoring era, while her 1,047 digs are also slotted at the No. 8 spot.

As can be inferred with her transferring in, McArthur had one of the shortest Ole Miss careers among her 1,000-1,000 club peers, playing in only 97 matches for the blue and red. However, that didn't stop her from playing a pivotal role in Ole Miss' securing its first ever NIVC title in 2017.

Her talents came to fruition on both ends of the court, picking up 46 total double-doubles for the Rebels. She had four career matches with at least 20 digs, as well as six career outings with at least 20 kills. What made McArthur special is that she shared a court with some of the best middle blockers in Ole Miss history, which included All-American Nakeyta Clair as well as the talented Ty Laporte. With all the gifted athletes around her, McArthur still found a way to shine through.

Destination: Oxford

For McArthur, it took her some time to find volleyball. Growing up, she was a soccer player, but never found it to be that enjoyable. Things changed when a good friend of hers on her soccer team told McArthur she was going to try out for the volleyball team. McArthur was intrigued, so she joined her friend at the try outs.

While not immediately engaging with the team, choosing to sit in the bleachers, the coach of the team approached McArthur and offered her the chance to play. McArthur accepted, and by the end of the practice, she had been given a spot on the team.

"I was playing soccer and volleyball, and then once soccer was done, I never played again," McArthur said. "It was just volleyball from there."

Along with her love for volleyball, she quickly developed a talent for it. By the time she got to high school, the Sedalia, Colorado, native had already begun to catch the eyes of recruiters.

While competing for Valor Christian High School, she set the school record for kills in a season with 376 while leading her team to the Colorado High School Activities Association state tournament multiple times. She was named to the 2013 CHSAA Class 4A All-State first team and was named Valor Christian's Female Athlete of the Year the same year she set the kill record.

She amounted for nearly 1,000 kills in her high school career, offering just a taste of what would be an outstanding collegiate career, wherever she went. As it went, McArthur chose Memphis as her future home.

She had an impressive freshman campaign for the Tigers, tallying 380 kills and recording almost as many digs with 359. She scored over 450 points that season while helping lead Memphis to a 23-11 record. Despite her success, McArthur felt compelled to challenge herself further, somewhere Memphis couldn't.

As luck would have it, Ole Miss head coach Steven McRoberts and assistant coach Ronaldo Pacheco were entering their second season in Oxford. Prior, the duo had the reins at Tulsa and were heavily recruiting McArthur out of high school. When McArthur entered the transfer portal, Ole Miss had made it on her radar because of the previous relationships she had built with the coaches, particularly Pacheco.

"They, as coaches, didn't have to sell themselves much, because I knew them," McArthur said. "The university spoke for itself. It was pretty incredible walking around. Even though it's an SEC school, it's very tightknit."

All roads lead to home. This was especially the case for McArthur, who had decided that Oxford would be the place for her volleyball career to continue. She had made it apparent to her parents that she wanted to remain in the south and close to Memphis, because of the friendships she developed while there. Ole Miss seemed to be the most obvious answer.

Almost immediately, McArthur began to make an impact on the team. Whether it came on the court or off, McArthur clicked with her new teammates right away. She developed a particularly strong bond with setter Aubrey Edie, the program's all-time leader in assists, a bond that still stands to this day.

"She's got the best personality I've ever seen," Edie said following the 2015 season. "She knows when to be funny and goofy, and when to click it in and be serious. She has moments where she steps up and is a leader on the court."

In her inaugural season with the Rebels in 2015, McArthur finished with 270 kills and 268 digs, both good enough to be top three on the team that season. She helped lead the Rebels to a 22-11 overall record while making 29 starts at outside hitter alongside Thompson. Edie also thrived at the setter position, recording 1,256 assists. McArthur was one of five Rebels to record at least 200 kills that season and recorded nine double-doubles.

She wouldn't stop there, however, as the next two seasons saw McArthur blossom into not only a dynamic playmaker, but a flat-out superstar in the SEC.

As a junior in 2016, McArthur exploded a career best 427 kills while adding 336 digs. Her kill total was second-best on the team, and just 10 behind Thompson, who set the then-program record for single season kills. She ranked fourth among all SEC student-athletes that season in double-doubles with 16 and finished 10th in the conference in kills per set (3.42) and 11th in points per set (3.79).

She started that season on a high note, earning both SEC Offensive and Player of the Week nods after the first weekend of competitions. She had two double-doubles while compiling 54 kills in just three matches. She also added 32 digs in that same span. She gave plenty of credit to her coaching staff for her rapid development, particularly Pacheco.

"Ronny's knowledge is just unfathomable," McArthur said. "With him being on the Brazilian national team, his fine attention to the smallest detail to change something made me such a better player."

Despite McArthur and Thompson playing at the highest level of SEC volleyball, Ole Miss took a step back as a team, finishing 17-14. This lit a fire inside McArthur, who was determined to make a statement in her final collegiate season.

In 2017, Ole Miss fans were treated to the emergence of sophomore outside hitter Emily Stroup. Alongside McArthur and Thompson, they formed one of the most dynamic trios in collegiate volleyball. The three Rebels guided Ole Miss to another 22-win season under McRoberts, as well as accomplishing something it never had before: winning the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.

To do that, McArthur contributed by downing 420 kills, her second consecutive season of at least 400 kills, as well as digging a career-best 443 balls, both good for second on the team. She was one of only eight student-athletes in the nation that season with 400 of each. She also paced the SEC in double-doubles with 21. Those numbers helped her team win, as well as helped her get into the 1,000-1,000 club.

After finishing her junior campaign with 1,067 kills to her name, she had already reached that milestone, and all that remained was digs. She reached 1,000 digs in her career early in the season. In fact, she did so in the first match of the season against North Dakota after tallying a career-best 26 digs.

McArthur steadily improved her digging skills as the years went on, with each passing year seeing a growth in that production. McArthur said it was her competitive nature that helped her succeed defensively, as well as offensively.

"I'm just so competitive that I was like, nobody is going to beat me," McArthur said. "That part was fun, but in a rally and we're on the defense, I'm not going to be the one to let that ball fall. I loved them both but in different ways."

2017 saw the growth of McArthur in nearly every statistical category. She led the team in service aces with 40, which is still second-most by any Rebel in the rally scoring era. Defensively, not only had her digging improved, but her blocking skills had become some of the best on the team. She finished the year with 58 total blocks, which included 16 solos. Her competitiveness provided the extra spark she needed to help her team.

"My height was not always to my advantage, so I knew I had to always load and get up," McArthur said. "The biggest thing was one: I'm going to help my teammates behind me, I don't want to be in no-mans-land where they don't know where to go defensively, and two: I am better than you, and you are not going to get this ball past me. I'm going to take up space and I'm going to shut you down."

McArthur reached 1,000 digs at Ole Miss against Stephen F. Austin on Nov. 29, 2017, the first round of the NIVC. Having reached the 1,000 mark for kills and digs in her overall career to that point was impressive, doing it in again just with Ole Miss is something special. Only Whitby-York can say she did the same during her time at Ole Miss.

"To know that I competed at that high level and was so successful is just incredible," McArthur said. "I think too now that now I'm a mom, my husband obviously has this incredible platform, but for me to be able to show my kids one day that I too was a high-level athlete is just pretty incredible. I'm honored to be part of all of it, especially to be one of nine women, that's so cool. And to do it in three years, I'm like 'if I was there for a fourth, what could I have done?'"

However, her first goal was always to help Ole Miss to the NCAA Tournament. Since the Rebels had just missed the cut, she shifted her focus to the NIVC. As a senior, she felt a responsibility to be a leader on the team during the tournament.

After sweeping Stephen F. Austin in the first round, Ole Miss would recreate that score in three of its remaining four matches. They gave up only one set for the remainder of the tournament, which was to Arkansas State in the following round. They proceeded to sweep SEC foe Georgia next, then swept Big 12 foe West Virginia after that.

It came down to another Big 12 opponent in the championship round, Texas Tech. Once again, the Rebels rose to the occasion on homecourt and shined in front of their home crowd. McArthur contributed nine kills and 15 digs in Ole Miss' dominant win, which helped her earn NIVC All-Tournament Team honors. She averaged 2.88 kills, 3.62 digs and 0.5 aces per set in Ole Miss' five matches.

"We were so close to making the NCAA Tournament, and not to make it, but then go win it all at the NIVC, that was pretty cool," McArthur said. "It's your senior year, so you want to go all out. You want to play hard, you want to leave a legacy, and you want to set people up for when you're gone, that they can also be successful."

McArthur and her teammates did leave a legacy, one of excellence on and off the court. As she exited Gillom for the final time as an NIVC champion, she had the sixth most kills and the fifth most digs in the rally scoring era in program history. She helped lead the Rebels to three consecutive winning seasons, for the first time in three decades and owned two of the top five single seasons for kills at Ole Miss.

Life After Volleyball

While McArthur was at Ole Miss, she began a relationship with Rebel baseball player James McArthur. The couple met in an all-athlete class which taught them the how-to's of college, where they began a friendship. After some time, their friendship blossomed into a romance.

The Ole Miss athletics power couple have since been together for 10 years and married for just over six. James was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018, the year Kate graduated.

McArthur graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in general business. She stayed in Oxford for an additional year to stay close to James, with the intention of going to nursing school. She attended community college to check the necessary boxes in the meantime.

Afterward, she returned to Colorado while James began working his way up the Minor Leagues. Ultimately, James made his MLB debut in 2023 for the Kansas City Royals. That season, despite some options back to Triple-A and even more call ups, James made 18 appearances for the Royals that season, including two as a starter. The next season, James had found a rhythm as Kansas City's closer and showed much improvement from the season prior.

All the while, Kate stuck by his side. By the time James made his professional debut, the couple had welcomed both of their children into the world, daughter Lennie and son Maddox. She said they pack up and move wherever he goes, keeping the family together as often as possible. The family also includes two dogs, including a golden retriever named Hank, who the couple adopted while they were in Oxford.

McArthur became a stay-at-home mom for her children, who she encourages to follow whatever passions develop for them. Her son, Maddox, is a major sport fan, and loves participating in all that he can, including volleyball. In one of her games at Ole Miss, McArthur threw a pregame mini volleyball to her parents who kept it, and now Maddox finds the ball fascinating.

Meanwhile, Lennie has developed a passion for the performing arts, such as dancing and theatrics. McArthur mentioned that her former teammate Aubrey Edie is Lennie's godparent, further cementing the relationships she built while at Ole Miss as strong as possible. Recently, McArthur announced her and James are pregnant with their third child.

As life has continued to revolve around sports for McArthur, she said Ole Miss helped her develop her discipline and communication skills through her time in Oxford. Even as a stay-at-home mom, she's capable of building relationships with new people while having discipline, patience and plenty of support for her family throughout trials and tribulations. All that was cemented with the decision to come to Ole Miss.

"My husband and I are so thankful for our opportunities we had at Ole Miss, and we are ride or die for the Rebels," McArthur said. "Our kids, from the moment they could talk, we were like 'Hotty Toddy, say it, Hotty Toddy.' We're so thankful for the school we got to go to. It's what started our future. Again, I don't know where I'd be if I wouldn't have gone and played at Ole Miss, so I'm super thankful. My love for volleyball and Ole Miss runs so deep."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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