Khalia Imani Lanier (born September 19, 1998) is an American professional

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 who plays as an

outside hitter 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 Summe ...

for Italian Series A1 team Volley Bergamo 1991 and the United States women's national team. She played collegiately for the USC Trojans volleyball team, where she was an All-American outside hitter.

Personal life

Lanier was born and raised in

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nick ...

. She is the daughter of

NBA 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 St ...

Hall of Fame legend

Bob Lanier Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. (September 10, 1948 – May 10, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who was a center for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lanier was inducted int ...

. She chose to play volleyball over

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, stating in an interview "I didn't want to play basketball because I didn't want to be in er father'sspotlight." She attended

Xavier College Preparatory Xavier College Preparatory is a Catholic, all-female private high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, drawing students from 120 local schools. History Xavier High School was founded ...

high school. She started her international volleyball career as a member of the 2011 USAV Future Select Team. She was part of the United States U18 Team and won a silver medal at the 2015 U18 World Championship. She was named the 2015–2016 Gatorade National Player of the Year in girls' volleyball, marking her the top high school volleyball player in the nation.

Career

College

Lanier played college volleyball for USC from 2016 to 2019. She majored in

human biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, human ecology, ecology, hum ...

and graduated from USC in the spring of 2020. As a freshman in 2016, she received AVCA All-America honorable mention and was named to the AVCA All-Pacific South Region Team and the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

All-Conference and All-Freshman Team. She led the team and ranked second in the Pac-12 for points and was third in the Pac-12 for kills. She started in all 121 sets played for the team and finished with 491 kills, 315 digs and 47 blocks. With the United States U20 Team, she was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the gold medal-winning team at the 2017 U-20 Pan American Cup, which marked the first time the U20 team earned a medal at the tournament. In the championship match versus Argentina, she led all players with 16 points. As a sophomore in 2017, she serve as a team captain and was named an AVCA first-team All-American and was on the Pac-12 All-Conference Team. She finished her sophomore season with 511 kills and 578.5 points. She became the 17th player in USC program history to reach 1,000 career kills and only the second to do so in her first two seasons. As a junior in 2018, she received AVCA All-America honorable mention honors and was on the Pac-12 All-Conference Team for the third straight season, after recording 457 kills and 511.0 points. As a senior in 2019, she was an AVCA second team All-American. She was a finalist for the

Senior CLASS Award The Senior CLASS Award is awarded to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in 10 NCAA Division I sports. An acronym for "Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School," the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete ...

in women's volleyball. She ended her career with 2,025 career kills, ranking sixth in the Pac-12 conference's history. She was only the fifth player in league history to collect 2,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs.

Professional clubs

* Pinkin de Corozal (2020–2021) * Volley Bergamo 1991 (2020–)

Awards and honors

College

* AVCA All-American (First Team in 2017; Second Team in 2019) *

All-Conference (2016–2019) * Senior CLASS Award finalist in volleyball (2019)

External links

Italy Serie A1 profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanier, Khalia 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Scottsdale, Arizona Opposite hitters Outside hitters American women's volleyball players USC Trojans women's volleyball players American expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate volleyball players in Italy Serie A1 (women's volleyball) players 21st-century American women 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century American people 21st-century African-American women African-American volleyball players