The info campaign #365volley continues! Every day we will post interesting facts from the volleyball world, for 1 year, on our Facebook page. The materials have been researched by the international volunteers Alexandra (Portugal), Azer (Azerbaijan) and Alejandro (Spain) and prepared by Andreea (Romania). Follow us on Facebook to find out more about its history, variations, playing rules and more about this world!
Here are the October facts!
1. She went on to break the career record for most wins by a female professional volleyball player when she won the FIVB Grand Slam in Xiamen, China
2. Record win streak of 112 consecutive matches and 19 straight tournaments that lasted from August 2007 to August 2008.
3. April Elizabeth Ross is an American professional beach volleyball player. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with Jennifer Kessy, and a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Kerri Walsh Jennings.
4. April Ross won the Gatorade National Player of the Year award as a senior and was the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Player of the Year in 1998 and 1999.
5. The first special designed ball for the sport was created in 1900.
6. In 2008, with her beach partner Jennifer Kessy during the Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008, they finished in third place at the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam Stavanger, second place at the Dubai Open and first place at the Phuket Thailand Open, where she was named the Most Outstanding Player.
7. On June 26, 2013, April Ross teamed up with Walsh-Jennings to train for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Ross played as a defender behind Walsh Jennings' block.
8. Flora Jean Hyman was an American athlete who played volleyball. She was awarded the first female athletic scholarship at the University of Houston.
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9. When Flo Hyman was 12 years old she began playing two-on-two tournaments on the beach usually with her sister Suzanne as partner. In 1970, at the age of 16, Hyman started playing volleyball professionally.
10. Flo Hyman joined the American national team in 1974. The team failed to qualify in 1976 and USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
11. Hymen and her teammates did get a chance to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and won the silver medal, the first Olympic medal ever for women's volleyball.
12. The longest recorded volleyball game was in Kingston, North Carolina. It took 75 hours and 30 minutes
13. Flo Hyman was very tall (1,96m) but her family and friends persuaded her to be proud of her height and to use it to her advantage.
14. Hyman played in the 1981 World Cup and the 1982 World Championship, when the US won the bronze medal.
15. A specialty of Hyman was the "Flying Clutchman", a fast, hard-impacting volleyball spike that travels at 110 mph (180 km/h).
16. She was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1988 (after her death in 1986).
17. The Women's Sports Foundation dedicated an award in her honor called the Flo Hyman Memorial Sports Award. The award is given annually "to a female athlete who captures Hyman's dignity, spirit and commitment to excellence."
18. Flo Hyman Quote: "To be true to oneself is the ultimate test in life. To have the courage and sensitivity to follow your hidden dreams and stand tall against the odds that are bound to fall in your path. Life is too short and precious to be dealt with in any other fashion. This thought I hold dear to my heart, and I always try to be true to myself and others that I encounter along the way."
19. The nowadays name of “volleyball” because a compound word from volley ball only in 1952 and its know as such ever since
20. American athlete Tara Cross-Battle is one of only a few four-time Olympians in indoor volleyball. Cross-Battle played the outside hitter position for Team USA and was one of the best players in the world.
21. Cross-Battle was known for her all-around skills as a good passer who was responsible for a large part of the serve receive formation.
22. Cross-Battle was a world-class hitter who was an enormous part of the offense for the Americans. She was a member of the bronze medal-winning USA women’s team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Cross-Battle was enshrined in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2014.
23. American athlete Nina Matthies is one of the winningest female beach volleyball players of all-time. Nina Matthies is largely responsible for the start of the first women’s professional beach volleyball tour, the WPVA.
24. For 31 years, Nina Matthies has been the head coach of the women’s indoor team at Pepperdine University, amassing 590 wins before retiring in 2013, but she continued to coach the women’s sand team until her retirement in 2018.
25. Kathy Gregory had one of the longest and most successful careers in women's beach volleyball history. Over nearly 30 years, Gregory competed at the highest levels and became the senior-most woman ever to earn a AAA rating, the highest player rating.
26. The Volleyball Hall of Fame was founded in 1971 and is located in Holyoke, Massachusetts (US) as it was its birth home. It has over 100 honorees including players, coaches, officials and contributors
27. Gregory coached the women's program at UC Santa Barbara until 2013 and logged over 800 wins in her 38 years there. She was inducted in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1989.
28. Top volleyball tournaments you must attend starts with The Manhattan Six. This 6-on-6 tournament is held annually in Manhattan Beach, California during the International Surf Festival.
29. Now named in honour of beach volleyball’s “Godfather,” Charlie Saikley, the event takes place each year in late July and early August. The tournament itself is a big draw for fans that turn out in droves to take in the action
30. The tournament includes divisions for both men and women and is set in the middle of one of Manhattan Beach’s biggest events, which also includes lifeguard races, swim competitions, sandcastle design events and more
31. The Mexico International, also known as the Estero Beach Volleyball Tournament, this massive event takes place each June in Baja, Mexico. With more than a thousand professional and amateur players lined up for this event annually, the tournament is considered the largest beach volleyball event in the world. Players come from all over the world to compete in this tourney, which includes both men’s and women’s divisions.