USA Volleyball Enjoys Broad Success in August

Statement from Doug Beal (USA Volleyball CEO) and David Schreff (chairman of USA Volleyball Board of Directors)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 3, 2010) – Two years ago, USA Volleyball players gripped the nation’s attention on television in an unprecedented performance in August 2008 at the Beijing Olympic Games, pulling in a record three gold medals and a silver followed by a silver at the Paralympic Games one month later for five overall medals.

Fast forward to August 2010. USA Volleyball athletes and teams have once again captured the fancy of volleyball enthusiasts and media across the country and around the world with more success on the courts.

Most recently, the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team bounced back from a 1-2 start to the FIVB World Grand Prix to reel off 11 consecutive victories to win its third World Grand Prix title and first since 2001. Impressively, the team started four players without Olympic experience and two playing in their rookie campaigns. Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.) was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Grand Prix, along with the Best Blocker Award. Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) earned the Best Setter award, despite being a first-year player at the National Team level. Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, Texas), playing in her first international competition with the National Team, was the tournament’s fourth-leading scorer. Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.), playing just her second season, was a consistent starter throughout the tournament. All four, along with Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, Calif.), Ogonna Nnamani (Bloomington, Ill.), Nicole Fawcett (Zanesfield, Ohio), Nellie Spicer (Barrington, Ill.) and Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) have come up through the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline.

Balance these young players with the World Grand Prix presence of veteran Olympians Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah), Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.), Stacy Sykora (Burleson, Texas), Jennifer Tamas (Milpitas, Calif.), Nnamani and Nicole Davis (Stockton, Calif.) and the team found a winning mix in the premier annual international tournament. With the depth shown on this roster at the World Grand Prix and others training at the USA National Teams Center in Anaheim, the future looks bright for the U.S. Women’s National Team heading into the 2010 FIVB World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games.

Courtesy of FIVB Phil Dalhausser (left) and Todd Rogers show off their gold medals won in Austria in August, one if their nine FIVB Tour titles won in 2010. Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), who captured the 2008 Olympic Games beach gold medal, have put together a record-breaking season on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour in 2010 that will be hard to match by anyone in the future. The duo won the PAF Open in Finland on Aug. 22 to capture their ninth tournament gold medal of the year. They could have put the record out of reach, but elected not to compete in the final men’s tournament of the season the following weekend. That set up the stage for another pair of American beach players to stand on the top step of the podium as Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) captured the season-ending Milner Open event in The Netherlands on Aug. 28.

During 2010, Dalhausser and Rogers played in 12 of the 14 men’s FIVB World Tour events on the 2010 calendar. Not counting last weekend’s tournament they sat out, they were the only team to reach the semifinals in each of their appearances. Along with the nine gold medals, Dalhausser and Rogers brought home a silver medal, a bronze and a fourth-place finish. They won 75 of 86 matches on the FIVB circuit with $387,700 in earnings. The tandem was also successful domestically with five gold medals and a silver on the AVP Tour in 2010 netting just under $60,000 in winnings.

Courtesy of FIVB Jane Croson (left) and Summer Ross show off their gold medals won at the FIVB Youth (U-19) Beach World Championship. August 2010 started out on a high note with the U.S. Girls’ Beach Team of Jane Croson (Lakewood, Calif.) and Summer Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) making history as the first U.S. team ever to win the FIVB Youth (U-19) Beach World Championships on Aug. 1. Croson, 16, and Ross, 17, defeated a pair from Russia in three sets in the gold-medal match. For Croson, it was a three gold-medal summer as she also played on the U.S. squad that won the NORCECA Women’s Junior Continental Championship and the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships 18 Open Division in July. For her efforts, she was recognized in the Sept. 6 issue of Sports Illustrated’s Face in the Crowd.

Late in August, the U.S. Men’s Junior National Team captured its first-ever NORCECA Men’s Junior Continental Championship by defeating host Canada in the gold-medal match. The team went 5-0 in the tournament and did not drop a single set. Taylor Crabb and Micah Christenson, both from Honolulu, Hawaii, were selected as the tournament’s Best Spiker and Best Setter, respectively. Evan Mottram (Leona Valley, Calif.) was named the Best Receiver of the tournament. With the tournament victory, the U.S. qualified for the 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship to be held in Brazil.

Photo Courtesy of Xinhua/SYOGOC The USA on the silver-medal platform of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. One day later, the U.S. Girls’ Youth Olympic Team started participation in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. The fourth-seeded Americans won their pool with victories over top-seed Belgium and Egypt, followed by a sweep of Japan in the semifinals. In the gold-medal match, Team USA met Belgium once again. However, the U.S. played the rematch without its leading scorer due to an injury and lost a four-set heartbreaker to earn the silver medal. There is no shame in placing second at an event like this.

August has not been the only month of success for USA Volleyball in 2010. The U.S. Women’s Junior National Team won the gold medal at the NORCECA Women’s Junior Continental Championship held in July at Tijuana, Mexico. The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team won the silver medal at the 2010 World Sitting Volleyball Championship held in July at Edmond, Okla. The event, with 36 men’s and women’s teams representing 26 countries, was the largest international tournament ever hosted on USA soil. The U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team earned the NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship gold medal in May held at Guatemala City, Guatemala. In April, the U.S. Boys’ Youth National Team finished second at its NORCECA championship. All four of the USA Volleyball Indoor High Performance Championship teams have qualified for their respective FIVB World Championships to be held in 2011.

USA Volleyball is very proud of its broad platform of success this summer encompassing indoor, beach and sitting volleyball. At the same time, our recent success shows our potential to reach our goals at the 2012 London Olympic Games and beyond with the medals won by our pipeline athletes in the High Performance programs.

Tags: 2010 Sitting Volleyball World Championships, 2010 U.S. Boys' Youth National Team, 2010 U.S. Girls' Youth National Team, 2010 U.S. Girls' Youth Olympic Team, 2010 U.S. Men's Junior National Team, 2010 U.S. Women's Junior National Team, 2010 Youth Olympic Games, Alisha Glass, Cynthia Barboza, David Schreff, Destinee Hooker, Doug Beal, Evan Mottram, FIVB, FIVB World Grand Prix, Foluke Akinradewo, Heather Bown, Jane Croson, Jennifer Tamas, Jordan Larson, Logan Tom, Megan Hodge, Micah Christenson, Nellie Spicer, Nicole Davis, Nicole Fawcett, Ogonna Nnamani, Philip Dalhausser, Sitting Volleyball, Sitting Volleyball World Championships, Stacy Sykora, Taylor Crabb, Todd Rogers, U.S. Women's Sitting Volleyball Team