 Cox attended Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, CA, and was a star player on both the basketball and volleyball teams there.Repeated injuries led her to choose volleyball as her collegiate sport.Cox's collegiate athletic career included four years (1988 to 1991) on the University of the Pacific (Division I) women's volleyball team, serving as team captain on a team that was ranked in the top five nationally from 1988 to 1991, reached the Final Four and was a national championship runner-up in 1990.