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Ali Lamberson brings to Beach Prospects a full and varied career in the sport of beach volleyball. As a former collegiate volleyball player, professional beach player, educator, and NCAA beach national championship coach, Ali puts her knowledge, experience and network of relationships to work personally guiding clients on their recruiting journeys.


Ali was the assistant coach to the 2016 and 2017 University of Southern California (USC) National Championship Beach Volleyball team. During that time she also led the USA Under-19 and Under-15 Girls Beach National Teams to back-to-back USAV Beach High Performance Championships. Ali spent the 2019 and 2018 collegiate beach seasons serving as the Assistant Coach for Tulane University, helping the Green Wave to their most team wins in program history, and best finish at AVCA Pairs Championship (9th). Additionally in 2018 she coached the USA U-19 National Teams to 4th and 9th place finishes at the FIVB Youth World Championships and the Youth Olympic Games.


From 2013-2015 Ali served as the Head Coach of the USA Under-17 Beach National Team, guiding her women’s pairs to a historic gold and silver medal finish at the inaugural 2014 FIVB U-17 World Championship, and a second consecutive USAV Beach High Performance Championship title. Since 2007 Ali has served as a lead cadre member for USA Volleyball’s Beach Coaching Accreditation Program, teaching national BCAP and B-IMPACT courses and collaborating on curriculum development for future programs.


In 2006 Ali became USA Volleyball’s first full time beach staff. She served as the Director of International and High Performance Beach Programs from 2006 to 2013, overseeing all aspects of support and development for USAV’s Olympic, Pan Am, and Youth and Junior Beach athletes. She created elite athlete funding, sports medicine, and video scouting support programs and rewrote the High Performance Plan for Olympic bound athletes. Ali served as the Team Leader for numerous international events including the double gold medal 2008 Olympic Games.


In 2008 Ali launched USAV’s Beach High Performance Program comprised of the USA Youth and Junior Beach National Teams, the Beach High Performance tryouts and national camps, and the USAV Beach High Performance Championships, the premiere elite beach event for athletes ages 12-25. Under Ali's direction the USA Youth and Junior teams won more than six international medals.


Ali took the lead representing USAV’s support of adding sand volleyball to the NCAA Emerging Sports List.  Providing input on topics as diverse as court construction, talent identification, and competition formatting, to hosting the annual USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge, Ali helped forge the relationship between the AVCA, NCAA, and USAV. She served on the AVCA Collegiate Championship Selection Committee from 2012 - 2014 and the event’s Seeding Committee in 2013 and 2014.


Ali competed on the AVP, FIVB, BVA and WPVA pro beach volleyball tours from 1992-2005, competing in 178 career tournaments. She earned a fifth-place finish at the 2001 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Austria with former Florida State Head Coach Danalee Bragado-Corso and was voted the BVA’s Top Server in 2000.  She has four pro beach final four appearances to her credit, and since her retirement continues to play on the CBVA tour.
Ali has been involved with indoor club volleyball since 1999, first as a coach and consultant for South Bay Volleyball Club then as the Head Coach and Club Director for Starlings LA West which she founded in 2004.


From 2001-2005 she was head coach of the Cal State University Dominguez Hills (NCAA DII) women's volleyball program, leading the Toros to one of their best seasons to date and their first-ever Regional Ranking in 2004. From 1998 to 2005 she also ran a series of successful adult volleyball classes, The Indoor Intensity Clinic and The Beach Intensity Clinic.


Ali was UC Irvine’s top outside hitter (1986-89) where she was a 1989 First Team All-Region Selection and lead the Anteaters to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance and top 20 ranking in 1988. A three-time Scholar Athlete award winner and the 1990 Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she graduated from UCI in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in English then spent one season as a middle/opposite with Vfl. Oythe in Germany’s Bundesliga and one season with the PVL’s San Jose Stars.


She earned her master's degree in behavioral science: negotiation, conflict resolution and peace building from Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2003, where she then taught a graduate level course in Dispute Resolution for Sports. In 2005 Ali was certified as a mediator by the Los Angeles County Bar Association.