• Home:  Costa Mesa, Calif.
  • Birth Year:  1982

Resides: Newport Beach, Calif.
Height: 6-1
College: USC
Olympic History: None
View April's complete statistics at BVBInfo.com

PERSONAL: Born April E. Ross on June 20, 1982 in Costa Mesa, Calif. Father's name is Glen. Mother's name is Margie. Step-mother's name is Lynda. April has one sister, Amy, three step-brothers - Tommy, Jimmy and Weston - and one step-sister - Mindy... April married fellow beach volleyball player Brad Keenan in November, 2010... April attended Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, Calif. ... She competed in indoor volleyball (four years), basketball (three years) and track and field (four years)... April was the 1999 Gatorade Circle of Champions National Player of the Year, a "Fab 50" selection and was also an honor roll student all four years... April graduated from USC in 2005 with a degree in international marketing... In 2000 and 2001, April was a member of the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team. She was on the USA A2 Women's National Phase 1 Team in 2002, and the Women's National Team in 2003... April enjoys reading, shopping, miniature golf, yoga and camping... Musically, she likes everything from Akon to the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. Her role model is her mother for the strength she exhibited throughout her life.

INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS: 2011- In the FIVB season opener in Brasilia, April Ross and patner Jen Kessy overcame a first-round loss to win a bronze medal, while in Shanghai the duo rebounded from a second-round loss to win a silver medal... 2010 – April and partner Jen Kessy competed in 15 FIVB World Tour events in 2010, winning two (Shanghai, China and the Grand Slam in Rome, Italy) and capturing one second place (the Grand Slam in Moscow, Russia) and two thirds (Seoul, Korea and Sanya, China)... Ross was named the Most Outstanding Player of the event in Rome. She also had the fastest serve at the events in Shanghai (82.2 km/h) and Rome (80.1 km/h)... The team had two fourth-place finishes and three fifths. They won a total of $106,675. 2009 – April and partner Jen Kessy won the FIVB World Championship in Stavanger, Norway (6/25-7/4). The pair went 8-0 and lost only two sets, defeating Brazil's Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca in the final. April was named the event's MVP. She led all players in aces with an average of 1.44 per set...  April and Jen also won SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Marseille, France and Phuket, Thailand. The team had four second-place finishes and two thirds and finished the season in third place for World Tour ranking points. As a team they earned $139,100. 2008 – April and Jen competed in 12 international events, winning $87,300 and just missing a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team as Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs finished ahead of them. April and Jen finished the 2008 FIVB Beach World Tour in impressive fashion, winning the season's final two events – (Thailand and China) and finishing second in Dubai... In Dubai (Oct. 5-10), the pair reached the finals before falling to fellow Americans Kerri Walsh and Nicole Branagh... The pair went a perfect 6-0 in Thailand (Nov. 4-9) to capture the gold medal, this time defeating Branagh and partner Tyra Turner in the final. April was named the Most Outstanding Player... The squad got over a third-round loss in China (Nov. 11-16) to come all the way back and reach the finals. April and Jen swept China's Ying Huang and Zhang Xi for their second straight gold. The pair finished the season with $87,300 in international earnings. In Berlin, April recorded the FIVB's second fastest serve in 2008 (85.7 km/hr). 2007 – April and Jen competed in eight FIVB international tournaments. They won the event in Stavanger, Norway, becoming the lowest seeded team (29th) ever to win an FIVB event. They fought through three rounds of qualifying and lost their first two pool play matches. They also finished second once and totaled $53,050. 2006 – April played in two FIVB World Tour events. Playing with Barbra Fontana in Mexico, April lost in the country qualifier to Dianne DeNecochea and Holly McPeak. Playing in Thailand with Nancy Mason, she finished 17th, earning $1,500.

DOMESTIC HIGHLIGHTS: 2010 – April and Jen opened the season with a third-place finish in Fort Lauderdale and a fifth in Santa Barbara before winning its next four AVP Tour stops before the AVP ceased operations on Aug. 13. They won $47,750… The pair finished the season with a victory at the Cincinnati Pro Beach Volleyball Players Championship on Sept. 3-5 in Cincinnati, Ohio, defeating Rachel Scott and Elaine Youngs in the final and winning $5,000. 2009 – April and Jen won their first AVP title in Houston (5/15-17) and went on to win three more. They also had four second-place finishes and two thirds, winning a total of $117,850… In Chicago, April and Jen became just the sixth team worldwide to surpass the $1 million mark in career earnings as a partnership... April also played in five AVP Hot Winter Nights events, winning two and placing second in two. 2008 – April and Jen played in 13 AVP summer events and took five second-place finishes and six thirds. They won a total of $125,250… April played in six AVP Hot Winter Nights events, winning four and finishing third twice. 2007 – Playing for the first time as a team, April and Jen opened the season with a second-place finish in Miami. They played in 16 summer AVP events, taking second two times and third four times. In Hermosa Beach, they defeated Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in the winners’ bracket. They won a total of $73,525. 2006 – Playing with Keao Burdine, April played in 13 AVP events, with their best finish two ninth places. Combined, they won $6,287.50.

COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS: April left USC as one of the best all-around players in program history... Among her notable accolades, she was named the 2003 Pac-10 Player of the Year (her senior season), earned four All-America selections, including first team accolades in 2002 and 2003 (the last USC player to earn more than two honors was four-time honoree Tracy Clark in 1982-85), and was USC's first-ever National Freshman of the Year when she earned the Volleyball magazine accolades in 2000 (in addition to Pac-10 Freshman of the Year)... April also earned four AVCA All-Pacific Region selections, four All-Pac-10 first team honors, two Academic All-Pac-10 selections, was honored as Pac-10 Player of the Week three times, earned one National Player of the Week selection and was named a tournament MVP a total of seven times... In 2000 and 2002 she was named the NCAA Regional MVP and was selected to NCAA Championship All-Tournament teams in 2002 and 2003… April led the team in kills, kills per game and points in each of her four seasons... She also led the team in digs and digs per game prior to the introduction of the libero position in 2002... In four years she started every single match... In fact, she played all but three single games... Among USC's all-time career record-holders, April ranks among the top 6 in eight statistical categories, including first in points (1,430) and points per game, second in service aces (161) and service aces per game (0.38), fourth in attacks (3,859), fifth in kills (1576), kills per game (3.73) and digs (1,296) and sixth in digs per game (3.06)… As a senior, April was the team co-captain and go-to player, April led USC to the 2003 NCAA Championship... She started in all 35 matches and led the team in kills, service aces and points... With yet another outstanding season to compete her career, April was honored as an AVCA All-America first team selection, the 2003 Pac-10 Player of the Year (the first USC player to ever earn the Pac-10 honor and the second Trojan to be named conference Player of the Year)... She also earned her fourth-straight All-Pac-10 first team honor and AVCA All-Pacific Region first team honors... April was named the Most Valuable Player at all three nonconference tournaments, including the NACWAA State Farm Volleyball Classic, USC-Holiday Inns Tournament and McDonald's-Texas A&M Invitational... Also named to the Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention team... She won the 2003-04 Honda volleyball award.

PARTNERS: 2010 – Jennifer Kessy. 2009 – Jennifer Kessy. 2008 – Jennifer Kessy. 2007 – Jennifer Kessy. 2006 – Keao Burdine.

HONORS: 2009 - USA Volleyball Female Beach Player of the Year, USA Volleyball Beach Team of the Year (with Jen Kessy), FIVB Best Offensive Player, FIVB Best Hitter. 2007 – AVP Most Improved Player; FIVB Rookie of the Year. 2006 – AVP Rookie of the Year.

Updated Nov. 29, 2010