Kelly Claes

Claes was born in Fullerton, California to Paul, a former San Diego State baseball player, and Quincy. She played high school volleyball at El Dorado High School in Placentia, California where she was awarded All-CIF Division 1A and Orange County Register All-Orange County first team honors.[2]

Claes, along with partner Sara Hughes, won the bronze medal at the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships and the silver medal at the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships.[2]

Claes began playing volleyball at the University of Southern California with partner Alexa Strange in 2014.[2] During her sophomore year she rejoined former partner Sara Hughes and won the AVCA Pairs National Championship.[3] Claes was named a 2015 AVCA All-American. During their junior and senior years Claes and Hughes led the USC Trojans to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Claes 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. Claes graduated from USC in 2017 with a degree in sociology.

In her first year as a professional, Claes 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.[3] Claes split from Hughes in early 2018 and teamed up with Sarah Sponcil. The duo won the silver medal at the 2019 FIVB four-star event in The Hague.[4]