University Southern California Trojans
Photo by: John McGillen
A Name of Her Own
October 13, 2017 | Women's Volleyball, USC Ripsit Blog, Features
As the popping of the volleyballs and the hardwood squeaks die down, the USC women's volleyball team breaks its huddle to end practice. Sophomore Khalia Lanier slowly starts to make her way over to be interviewed.
At 6-foot-2, Lanier is a towering presence. She's humble too, never speaking of her personal accolades. Instead, she smiles and tells the story of how she became a college volleyball superstar, although Lanier would never use that word.
"I used to play basketball actually," Lanier said right out of the gate.
There's another Lanier that used to play basketball too: Khalia's father, Hall of Famer Bob Lanier. Khalia is used to being questioned about her dad, so she did not even wait to be asked.
"I always get the question of how is it to play underneath your dad and stuff like that, but with basketball it was just so much worse," Khalia said. "I always found myself trying to please someone or kind of live up to these expectations that I didn't really set for myself, so I wanted to step out of his spotlight and make a name for myself."
Although Khalia did not say it, she has made a name for herself. She started her international volleyball experience when she was a 12-year-old on the USAV Future Select Team, reached the 2013 and 2014 Girls' Junior National Championships with her hometown Arizona Storm Volleyball Club, was the MVP of the 2013 GJNC, a three-time GJNC All-American, the 2015 Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year, the 2016 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year, was selected to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team her freshman year, the Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team this year, and she is a captain of the 19th-ranked Trojans.
Needless to say, Khalia has made a name of herself, and in a sport her father knew very little about before she started playing. They do share one thing in common, though, as Khalia wears her dad's number, 16, as a tribute to his basketball career.
"She was a good basketball player. I think she would've ended up getting a scholarship in basketball," Bob said. "She didn't want to be in my shadow, so she went to something I didn't really know about. It's your kid, so you always want to be there for them, whatever happens, even though I enjoyed her playing basketball this was the game she wanted to do, so you just get behind her. Rose and I just tried to help her excel."
Khalia's mom, Rose, has only ever missed a few road games since Khalia started playing volleyball in the eighth grade. Rose's sister and brother-in-law, who went to UCLA, live in Los Angeles, and they go to every one of her home games with Rose.
"I'm very proud of her volleyball journey, but I am very proud of her academics," Rose said. "Khalia has been a straight-A student for all of her junior high, high school, and she went to some pretty academically demanding schools."
Khalia is a human biology major at USC and acknowledged the growing pains from last year when she was just figuring out the balance between volleyball and biology, two huge time commitments.
You would never know Khalia had moments that were "like the end of the world" because she exudes happiness and a have-fun-doing-what-you-love attitude. Even as she talked about the difficulties of biology, she was smiling and laughing about how it "really stabs me in the heart" sometimes, but that she is learning how to balance it all out.
"She always would tell me that she wanted volleyball in her life, but she didn't want it to be her life," Rose said.
When she's not playing or studying, Khalia says she is an avid Candy Crush-er, doodler, writer, and moviegoer. Khalia is also a self-proclaimed conversationalist, saying she loves just going to dinner and talking with friends. So, volleyball isn't Khalia's whole life, just like she wanted.
For a long time, volleyball was not even a part of Khalia's life. Rose recalled how she started out in gymnastics, and was good at it, but that they told her she was too tall. Then, she went to soccer with scorching Arizona temperatures, then softball, and then basketball. Once a coach approached her at a basketball game saying she could be a great volleyball player too, but Khalia had never touched a volleyball before, the sport her sister played (Khalia also has two brothers).
When she went to practice with that coach, he was amazed and said, "Wow, she is a natural." Khalia started playing volleyball while playing basketball, but eventually went full time with volleyball, and after joining an AAU team, her progression skyrocketed and the future became clearer for the rising star.
Khalia is now laser-focused on bringing USC a national championship, but she also realizes she may be on the path to the 2020 Summer Olympics. She could graduate in 2019, giving her the perfect window to train and compete in the games.
"It kind of fits perfectly," Khalia said. "But if I don't make 2020 I'll probably have to go overseas, get some experience over there, and then come back for '24."
Mick Haley, in his 16th season as USC's head coach and his 40th overall, sees tremendous potential in Khalia, almost guaranteeing her future success.
"She could leave here and actually have a chance to make the Olympic team in her senior year because she finishes in the fall [of 2019]," Haley said. "She could go in January of '20 and train with the Olympic team 30 miles down the road and make that team. If it doesn't happen in '20 and she stays with it, she'll be on the team in '24. She's too good of an athlete. She'll get a contract overseas for sure too and make some good money."
For now, though, Khalia is continuing to adjust to her role as a leader of the team. Being thrust into a featured role as a freshman was a tough spot for her, she admitted, but she continues to work on both her volleyball and leadership game.
"If she says, 'Let's go, the whole team will follow,'" Haley said. "She's not willing to do that yet because it's a lot of responsibility and she wants to be liked and not be demanding…but she has everything inside her that's going to make her great."
Khalia attributes a lot of her success to her mother, not necessarily from a volleyball perspective, but through her attitude, achievements, and unwavering support, Khalia just gets more and more inspired. Not to mention, Rose just got her life coach re-certification.
"She's just such an inspiration," Khalia said. "She's such a happy, youthful person that I'll be like, 'Gosh, I can't make it up these stairs,' and I'll look at my mom and she's running up them at the age of 62. So, yeah, she just kind of gives me life and I know she loves watching me succeed, but she's the one that's constantly succeeding in my eyes."
Khalia, on the other hand, inspires Bob. He was at a point in his life where he didn't know if he would have another child, but after she was born he started calling her "Moocha," pronounced moo-kah.Â
"I call her Moocha for short because that's my little chocolate wonder, my Moocha," Bob said.
Moocha and the Trojans are succeeding right now, tied for second in the Pac-12, as the Women of Troy prepare to host Cal and Stanford this weekend.
"It's going really well, but I think one of the worst things for us would be to get complacent," Khalia said. "It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish."
At 6-foot-2, Lanier is a towering presence. She's humble too, never speaking of her personal accolades. Instead, she smiles and tells the story of how she became a college volleyball superstar, although Lanier would never use that word.
"I used to play basketball actually," Lanier said right out of the gate.There's another Lanier that used to play basketball too: Khalia's father, Hall of Famer Bob Lanier. Khalia is used to being questioned about her dad, so she did not even wait to be asked.
"I always get the question of how is it to play underneath your dad and stuff like that, but with basketball it was just so much worse," Khalia said. "I always found myself trying to please someone or kind of live up to these expectations that I didn't really set for myself, so I wanted to step out of his spotlight and make a name for myself."
Although Khalia did not say it, she has made a name for herself. She started her international volleyball experience when she was a 12-year-old on the USAV Future Select Team, reached the 2013 and 2014 Girls' Junior National Championships with her hometown Arizona Storm Volleyball Club, was the MVP of the 2013 GJNC, a three-time GJNC All-American, the 2015 Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year, the 2016 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year, was selected to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team her freshman year, the Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team this year, and she is a captain of the 19th-ranked Trojans.
Needless to say, Khalia has made a name of herself, and in a sport her father knew very little about before she started playing. They do share one thing in common, though, as Khalia wears her dad's number, 16, as a tribute to his basketball career.
"She was a good basketball player. I think she would've ended up getting a scholarship in basketball," Bob said. "She didn't want to be in my shadow, so she went to something I didn't really know about. It's your kid, so you always want to be there for them, whatever happens, even though I enjoyed her playing basketball this was the game she wanted to do, so you just get behind her. Rose and I just tried to help her excel."
Khalia's mom, Rose, has only ever missed a few road games since Khalia started playing volleyball in the eighth grade. Rose's sister and brother-in-law, who went to UCLA, live in Los Angeles, and they go to every one of her home games with Rose.
"I'm very proud of her volleyball journey, but I am very proud of her academics," Rose said. "Khalia has been a straight-A student for all of her junior high, high school, and she went to some pretty academically demanding schools."
Khalia is a human biology major at USC and acknowledged the growing pains from last year when she was just figuring out the balance between volleyball and biology, two huge time commitments.
You would never know Khalia had moments that were "like the end of the world" because she exudes happiness and a have-fun-doing-what-you-love attitude. Even as she talked about the difficulties of biology, she was smiling and laughing about how it "really stabs me in the heart" sometimes, but that she is learning how to balance it all out.
"She always would tell me that she wanted volleyball in her life, but she didn't want it to be her life," Rose said.
When she's not playing or studying, Khalia says she is an avid Candy Crush-er, doodler, writer, and moviegoer. Khalia is also a self-proclaimed conversationalist, saying she loves just going to dinner and talking with friends. So, volleyball isn't Khalia's whole life, just like she wanted.
For a long time, volleyball was not even a part of Khalia's life. Rose recalled how she started out in gymnastics, and was good at it, but that they told her she was too tall. Then, she went to soccer with scorching Arizona temperatures, then softball, and then basketball. Once a coach approached her at a basketball game saying she could be a great volleyball player too, but Khalia had never touched a volleyball before, the sport her sister played (Khalia also has two brothers).
When she went to practice with that coach, he was amazed and said, "Wow, she is a natural." Khalia started playing volleyball while playing basketball, but eventually went full time with volleyball, and after joining an AAU team, her progression skyrocketed and the future became clearer for the rising star.
Khalia is now laser-focused on bringing USC a national championship, but she also realizes she may be on the path to the 2020 Summer Olympics. She could graduate in 2019, giving her the perfect window to train and compete in the games."It kind of fits perfectly," Khalia said. "But if I don't make 2020 I'll probably have to go overseas, get some experience over there, and then come back for '24."
Mick Haley, in his 16th season as USC's head coach and his 40th overall, sees tremendous potential in Khalia, almost guaranteeing her future success.
"She could leave here and actually have a chance to make the Olympic team in her senior year because she finishes in the fall [of 2019]," Haley said. "She could go in January of '20 and train with the Olympic team 30 miles down the road and make that team. If it doesn't happen in '20 and she stays with it, she'll be on the team in '24. She's too good of an athlete. She'll get a contract overseas for sure too and make some good money."
For now, though, Khalia is continuing to adjust to her role as a leader of the team. Being thrust into a featured role as a freshman was a tough spot for her, she admitted, but she continues to work on both her volleyball and leadership game.
"If she says, 'Let's go, the whole team will follow,'" Haley said. "She's not willing to do that yet because it's a lot of responsibility and she wants to be liked and not be demanding…but she has everything inside her that's going to make her great."
Khalia attributes a lot of her success to her mother, not necessarily from a volleyball perspective, but through her attitude, achievements, and unwavering support, Khalia just gets more and more inspired. Not to mention, Rose just got her life coach re-certification.
"She's just such an inspiration," Khalia said. "She's such a happy, youthful person that I'll be like, 'Gosh, I can't make it up these stairs,' and I'll look at my mom and she's running up them at the age of 62. So, yeah, she just kind of gives me life and I know she loves watching me succeed, but she's the one that's constantly succeeding in my eyes."
Khalia, on the other hand, inspires Bob. He was at a point in his life where he didn't know if he would have another child, but after she was born he started calling her "Moocha," pronounced moo-kah.Â
"I call her Moocha for short because that's my little chocolate wonder, my Moocha," Bob said.
Moocha and the Trojans are succeeding right now, tied for second in the Pac-12, as the Women of Troy prepare to host Cal and Stanford this weekend.
"It's going really well, but I think one of the worst things for us would be to get complacent," Khalia said. "It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish."
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Women's VolleyballWednesday, June 03
Monday, June 01
Monday, June 01
Sunday, May 31
