Avery Skinner (volleyball)

Avery A. Skinner[1] (born April 25, 1999) is an American professional volleyball player who plays as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team and Italian Series A1 professional team Chieri.

This article is about the volleyball player. For the American politician, see Avery Skinner.
Avery Skinner
Personal information
Nationality United States
Born (1999-04-25) April 25, 1999
HometownKaty, Texas, U.S.
Height185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
College / UniversityKentucky / Baylor
Volleyball information
PositionOutside hitter
Current clubItaly Chieri
Number27 (national team)
Career
YearsTeams
2017–2020United States Kentucky
2021United States Baylor
2022–2023France Béziers Volley (fr)
2023–Italy Chieri
National team
2022– United States
Honours
Indoor Volleyball
Pan-American Cup
Representing the  United States
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Hermosillo

Personal life

Skinner is from Katy, Texas. In addition to playing volleyball, she was tap, ballet, and musical theater dancer before deciding at age 13 to focus solely on volleyball. Skinner played school volleyball for HCYA and she helped the team win state championships in 2015 and 2016. She also played club volleyball for Houston’s Skyline. She considered playing volleyball for Baylor, Iowa State, and Texas A&M but ultimately settled on Kentucky as she wanted to see what life was like outside of Texas.[2][3]

Skinner is the daughter of Brian Skinner, who was a star basketball player at Baylor and played in the NBA for 14 years.[4] Her sister, Madi, played volleyball with her at Kentucky.[2]

Career

College

Skinner played college volleyball for a total of five years, as she opted to use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

From 2017–2020, she played for the Kentucky Wildcats. As a freshman in 2017, she finished second on the team with 362 kills and was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.[3] In 2019, plagued by a knee injury, she only played in nine matches.[3] However, she was able to return back to full strength in 2020 and credited the extra time off due to the COVID-19 quarantines that were in place at the time allowing her more time to rehabilitate her injuries.[3] As a result of her strong senior season, she was named an AVCA First Team All-American after leading Kentucky to its first ever NCAA championship title in the 2020 NCAA Tournament. She was named on the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team. She graduated from Kentucky with two degrees in interdisciplinary early childhood education and communication studies and disorders.[5]

She opted to play her extra year of eligibility as a graduate transfer for the Baylor Bears. She finished the season as an Honorable Mention All-American and had the second-most kills on the team with 355 in her 101 sets played, averaging 3.51 kills per set, had 255 digs and 49 blocks. She was named a finalist for the NCAA Women of the Year.[5]

Professional clubs
  • France Béziers Volley (2022–2023)
  • Italy Chieri (2023–)

Skinner signed her first professional volleyball contract with Béziers Volley in June 2022 and played for the team in the 2022–2023 season.[6] She will play in Italian Serie A1 team Chieri for the 2023–2024 season.[7]

Awards and honors

College

The following are the awards Skinner won during her collegiate career:[4]

  • 2021 All-Big 12 First Team (unanimous)
  • 2021 AVCA All-America - Honorable Mention
  • 2020 AVCA All-America First Team
  • 2020 All-SEC First Team
  • 2017 All-SEC Freshman Team

International

References
  1. "UK Spring Commencement" (PDF).
  2. "Skinner carving out own name for herself for No. 10 Baylor volleyball". wacotrib.com. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  3. "NCAA volleyball: The resurgence of UK's Avery Skinner, Wednesday's recaps". volleyballmag.com. 5 November 2020. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  4. "Avery Skinner - Baylor Profile". baylorbears.com. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  5. "TVB's Avery Skinner Woman of the Year Finalist". baylorbears.com. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  6. "Mercato saison 2022/23 - Avery Skinner". beziers-angels.com. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  7. "Chieri investe su Avery Skinner". corrieredellosport.it. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
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