Kelly Marie Cheng ( Claes, born September 18, 1995) is an American

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

player. She and her partner Sara Hughes won the bronze medal at the 2013 U19 World Championships, the silver medal at the 2014 U21 World Championships, the gold medal at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and back-to-back

NCAA Championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and 1 in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Early life

Cheng was born in

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and S ...

, to Paul, a former San Diego State baseball player, and Quincy. She played high school volleyball at El Dorado High School in

Placentia, California Placentia () is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. Its population was 51,233 during the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 46,488 in the 2000 United States Census, 2000 census. This includes the community ...

, where she was awarded All-CIF Division 1A and ''

Orange County Register ''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...

'' All-Orange County first team honors. Along with partner Sara Hughes, she won the bronze medal at the 2013

FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships The FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships (previously known as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Youth World Championships) is a double-gender international beach volleyball tournament for athletes under the age of 19. The competition first t ...

and the silver medal at the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships.

College

Cheng began playing volleyball at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

with partner Alexa Strange in 2014. During her sophomore year she rejoined former partner Sara Hughes and won the AVCA Pairs National Championship. Cheng was named a 2015 AVCA All-American. During their junior and senior years Cheng and Hughes led the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...

to back-to-back

and

. In 2016, Cheng won the inaugural Pac-12 Player of the Year award along with Pac-12 Pair of the Year and the Pac-12 Pairs Championship with Hughes. Cheng graduated from USC in 2017 with a degree in sociology.

Professional career

In her first year as a professional, Cheng won her first AVP Gold Series Championships in Chicago with college partner Sara Hughes. The duo became the youngest team to win an AVP event. Hughes split from Cheng in early 2018. Cheng then teamed up with Sarah Sponcil. The duo won the silver medal at the 2019 FIVB four-star event in The Hague and then qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo after winning gold medals in Sochi and Ostrava.

Personal life

Cheng is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. She married husband Jordan Cheng in 2022.

References

External links

* * *
Kelly Cheng
at

USA Volleyball USA Volleyball (USAV) is a non-profit organization which is recognized as the national governing body of volleyball in the United States by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committe ...

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Kelly 1995 births Living people American women's beach volleyball players USC Trojans women's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century American sportswomen Sportspeople from Fullerton, California Volleyball players from California Beach volleyball players at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for the United States