Lana Milner
Former Cowley College volleyball standout Lana Da Silva Milner, a native of São Paulo, Brazil, begins her fifth season as an assistant volleyball coach.
Milner serves as the setting coach for the program in working with the Cowley setters. Cowley has sported three KJCCC Setters of the Year in her four seasons with the program. Her duties also include recruiting, video breakdown, generating opponent scouting reports, assisting with practice planning and implementation, team training, and assisting with team travel and equipment, to name a few.
Milner came to Cowley after a stellar playing career in both indoor and beach volleyball and with experience in coaching, having served as an assistant coach for Quincy University. At Quincy, Milner served as a graduate assistant in getting her experience coaching at the college level. There, she assisted in practice planning and implementation, recruiting, scouting, team promotion, NCAA and Quincy program paperwork, and player development. In addition to her coaching duties at Quincy, Milner also coached for the Quincy Elite Volleyball Club that, took First-Place in Silver Div. 18's Stratman Greater St. Louis Area Volleyball Tournament, and competed at a high level.
Milner has also shared volleyball knowledge while coaching for the Star Aquila volleyball club, Cowley Junior volleyball club, and One Volleyball Academy club. At Star Aquila, her teams earned first-place 15's Holden Classic, second-place AVC 18's National Qualifier giving them a national tournament berth, and second-place at the KCKCC Blue D. Bash 15's Tournament. At One Volleyball Academy and Cowley Juniors, she helped enhance volleyball in the Cowley County community.
Before Quincy, Milner completed her playing career at Pittsburg State University and Cowley College, where she shined on and off the court. A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, she came to play for Cowley College as a middle hitter, a setter, and an opposite hitter. At Cowley, she helped the team win their second national championship and also, finish third in the national tournament, win two district championships and two KJCCC conference championships.
Personally, Milner was awarded NJCAA All-American First Team, AVCA All-American Second Team, All-National Tournament team, All-District First Team, All-Conference First Team, Tyler Junior College All-Tournament team and was named a Top Three Athlete of the Greater Wichita Area. Statistically, at Cowley, Milner finished her career with 561 kills, 944 assists, 509 digs, 176 blocks, and hit a .266 hitting percentage.
Off the court, Milner was awarded the Student-Athlete Academic Award twice, was named Cowley's Female Student-Athlete of the Year and was named Cowley's Student-Athlete of the Month. She graduated from Cowley College with an Associate of Arts degree in Health and Physical Education.
Following Cowley, Milner transferred to Pittsburg State, where she played middle hitter and opposite hitter for the program. She participated in the tough Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association conference in the NCAA DII ranks. She finished her career averaging 1.62 kills per set and 0.66 blocks per set.
Off the court, she was awarded the NCAA DII ADA Academic Achievement Award, the Chi Alpha Sigma Class Award, and the Provost Award for Academic Excellence. Milner graduated from PSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science and also completed her Master of Educational Leadership degree at Quincy University.