Nia Calloway

Nia grew up in Memphis, the youngest of three, in a house where the living-room ceiling fan was always the first casualty of indoor ball games. Her older brother played basketball, but she found volleyball at twelve when a coach at her middle school saw her touch the top of a doorframe without jumping. She is now a senior outside hitter on a Division I scholarship, studying kinesiology with the plan of becoming a physical therapist. Teammates know her for two habits: she tapes her left ring finger before every match whether it hurts or not, and she keeps a running list on her phone of every serve she has missed this season so she can practise exactly those.