Krista Vansant

Vansant was born in Whittier, California, east of Los Angeles, to Tricia and Robert Vansant and grew up in Redlands, California.[3] She played volleyball all four years at Redlands East Valley High School where she helped lead her team to three CIF championship titles.[4] She recorded 1913 kills during her four years on the high school team.[5] Her high school accomplishments resulted in being awarded the Gatorade Player of the Year award in volleyball. She was the consensus top pick in the nation as a senior, and chose to go to the University of Washington.[3]

In her junior year at Washington, Vasant was named the National Player of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, as well as Pac-12 Player of the Year.[6] She helped lead her team to the semifinals of the 2013 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament.[6] In 2014 and 2015, she was the winner of the Honda Sports Award, given to the nation's top female collegiate volleyball player.[7]

Vansant had played professional club level volleyball for only 2015/16 season with the Swiss side Voléro Zürich.[8] She won the Swiss Championship as well as the Swiss Cup with her team and contributed to club's eleventh double in twelve years.[9] At the Champions League; Voléro topped their respective group with six wins from six matches,[10] and eliminated Lokomotiv Baku in the first knock-out round to reach the playoff 6 stage of the competition,[11] in which they were defeated by the eventual finalist VakıfBank S.K..[12]

Vansant represented United States national team on an international competition for the first time at the 2015 Pan American Cup.[4] She led the team to gold medal with a tournament-leading 50.4% kill percentage to go with 81 total points,[8] and earned "most valuable player" and "best outside hitter" honors for the tournament.[13] At the 2015 Pan American Games, she was the top scorer for the Team USA in five of their six matches and selected as the "best outside hitter",[4][14] while the Americans winning the title.[15] She also helped Team USA to capture the gold medal at the 2015 NORCECA Championship[4] and was on the preliminary round squad at the 2015 and 2016 FIVB World Grand Prix,[16][1] where Team USA won the gold and silver medal, respectively.[17][18]

Vansant was named as an alternate for the 2016 Rio Olympic Team,[19] but did not take part at the Olympic Games.[8]