Asjia O'Neal (born October 23, 1999) is an American

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player. She played college volleyball for the Texas Longhorns and won back-to-back NCAA championships in

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and

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

Early life

O'Neal was born to

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) player Jermaine O'Neal and his wife Mesha. She practiced basketball with her father after fourth grade and took up volleyball in seventh grade in 2012 after moving from Miami to Dallas. She played three years of varsity high school volleyball at

Carroll Senior High School Carroll Senior High School (commonly known as Southlake Carroll) is a Public school (government funded), public secondary school in Southlake, Texas, serving students in grades 11 and 12. The school is part of the Carroll Independent School Dist ...

Southlake, Texas Southlake is a city located predominantly in Tarrant County with minor areas extending into Denton County in the U.S. state of Texas. Southlake is a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth. As of th2019 census estimateit had a population of 32,376. Histo ...

. As a high school sophomore, she committed to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. O'Neal was born with a heart murmur and

mitral valve The mitral valve (), also known as the bicuspid valve or left atrioventricular valve, is one of the four heart valves. It has two cusps or flaps and lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle of the heart. The heart valves are all one-w ...

leak, for which she underwent

open-heart surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...

at age 13 and again after her freshman season of college.

College career

O'Neal

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ed her first year at Texas in 2018. She averaged a hitting percentage of .413 to start her first season, while having a worsening mitral valve leak and a new tricuspid valve leak that required a second open-heart surgery in January 2020. That summer, she helped organize campus activism to rename landmarks and build statues of former black students during the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

. She helped Texas reach the final of the 2020 NCAA tournament held in the spring of 2021. She received the Honda Inspiration Award for the 2020 season. O'Neal helped the Longhorns win the 2022 NCAA championship alongside fellow first-team

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

Logan Eggleston Logan Eggleston (born November 13, 2000) is an American professional volleyball player who plays for Galatasaray in the Turkish Women's Volleyball League. She played five seasons of college volleyball for the Texas Longhorns. In 2022, she won an ...

and Zoe Fleck. She averaged a career-high .443 hitting percentage that season. She returned for a sixth year and led Texas to defend its title at the 2023 NCAA championship.

Professional career

O'Neal was drafted first overall in the first

Pro Volleyball Federation The Pro Volleyball Federation is a women's professional indoor volleyball league in the United States. The league was announced on November 17, 2022. History The Pro Volleyball Federation was announced in November 2022 as a new professional wome ...

(PVF) draft in December 2023. In January 2024, she officially signed with the

Columbus Fury The Columbus Fury are a professional indoor volleyball team based in Columbus, Ohio. The team competes in the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF). The Fury began play in the league's inaugural 2024 Pro Volleyball Federation season, 2024 season. The t ...

. In July 2024, it was announced Asjia had signed with LOVB Pro for the 2024-2025 season, playing for LOVB Austin. {{cite news, url=https://www.kvue.com/video/sports/ncaa/longhorns/269-3790996c-cd73-4f6d-b353-eb2a4e90a59e , title=Asjia O'Neal joins 5 other Longhorns on pro volleyball team , date=July 1, 2024, newspaper=

KVUE KVUE (channel 24) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Steck Avenue just east of Loop 1 in northwest Austin, and its transmitter is located ...

International career

O'Neal first played for the

United States national team The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

at the

2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League The 2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League will be the fifth edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League, an annual Women's international volleyball tournament. The competition will be held between 30 May to 16 July 2023, and the f ...

.{{cite news, url=https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2023/07/24/asjia-o-neal--volleyball--team-usa, title='Comfortable and confident': How Texas volleyball star Asjia O'Neal acclimated herself to Team USA, last=Rossow, first=Adam, date=July 26, 2023, publisher= Spectrum News, location=Dallas, access-date=November 14, 2023

References

{{Reflist

External links

Texas Longhorns profile
{{Honda Sports Award {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneal, Asjia Living people 1999 births Middle blockers African-American volleyball players American women's volleyball players Columbus Fury players Sportspeople from Indianapolis Texas Longhorns women's volleyball players