There were no summers off. Eventually, Lloyd’s only request to her uncle was to do the workouts early and quickly so she could move on with her day. Hurt me as much as you want, she would tell him, but do not make me stay out there long.

Tomlinson appreciated her willingness.

“I said, ‘If you don’t want to put your head on the pillow when you’re 30 years old and wonder what if, then this is the stuff that has to be done now,’” he said. “And she bought into it.”

It was not always harmonious. The relationship between a child and a parent who also coaches can be fraught with frustration, disappointment and resentment.

“I wouldn’t say it was perfect,” Lloyd said. “We’re both pretty sensitive and stubborn. But it works. I love him, and he loves me, and it works because we want it to.”

The biggest disagreement came when Lloyd was 15. She made a nationally ranked under-18 club team. Tomlinson became an assistant coach and asked the head coach if he thought Lloyd, now 5-foot-11, had a better future as a setter or an attacker. The coach said she could be a great college hitter but an elite setter.

That was enough for Tomlinson. He told Lloyd that she would immediately devote herself to becoming a full-time setter. It is a position not unlike point guard in basketball, or catcher in baseball — an on-court leader controlling the pace and distributing the ball to others.

“For the first month, she was really unhappy with me,” Tomlinson said. “Everyone wants to hit the ball. That’s the fun stuff. It wasn’t until the first tournament, where she was running the team as a setter, a little sophomore with these seniors out there, that she realized it was a good thing.”