April Ross

April Ross
Ross at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full name	April Elizabeth Ross
Nickname	The Boss
Nationality	United States
Born	June 20, 1982 Costa Mesa, California, US
Hometown	Newport Beach, CA, US
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Beach volleyball information
Current teammate
Years Teammate 2013–present Kerri Walsh Jennings[1]
Previous teammates
Years Teammate 2007–2013 2006 2006 2006 Jennifer Kessy Keao Burdine Barbra Fontana Nancy Mason
Medal record Women's beach volleyball Representing the  United States Olympic Games 2012 London Beach 2016 Rio de Janeiro Beach World Championships 2009 Stavanger Beach FIVB World Tour 2016 Long Beach, CA Beach

April Elizabeth Ross (born June 20, 1982) is an American professional beach volleyball player.

Early life

Ross grew up in Newport Beach, California where she attended Newport Harbor High School.^[2] At NHHS, in addition to lettering in track, she was a star indoor volleyball player, eventually becoming the nation's top recruit for her graduating class. She 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. In her senior season, she notched 624 kills and 526 digs. She played club volleyball for Orange County Volleyball Club for five years. She also played on the U.S. Junior National Team. She is 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall.^[3]

Personal life

She is married to Brad Keenan, since 2010, who also is a beach volleyball player.^[2]

College

Ross attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where in her freshman season she was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year as well as the National Freshman of the Year. In her freshman season in 2000, she received Pac-10 First Team honors as well as AVCA Second Team All-America honors. She helped USC to the NCAA Final Four.^[3]

As a sophomore in 2001, she was a second team All American and finished the season ranked fourth in Pac-10 in kills (3.98 kpg), sixth in points (4.52 ppg) and seventh in digs (3.04 dpg) and helped USC to the NCAA Regional Finals, when she suffered a sprained ankle during game two and was forced to leave the match.^[3]

In her final two seasons, she helped USC to back-to-back NCAA Titles. In 2002, she was named a First Team All-American and had 15 kills and 14 digs in the NCAA Championship win over Stanford, avenging their only loss of the season to the Cardinal. In 2003, she repeated as a First Team All-American, and helped USC to an undefeated season after defeating Florida in the NCAA championship match. Ross had 14 kills and 19 digs in the winning effort.^[3][4]

She finished her career among USC's all-time career record-holders, ranking in 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).^[3]

Career

Professional career

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. On September 7, 2008, Ross and Kessy upset the World No. 1 duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh at an AVP tournament in Santa Barbara, California. On July 4, 2009, Kessy and Ross won the FIVB World Championships in Stavanger, Norway defeating Brazilians Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca.^[5] As of April 2012, Ross had eight AVP and nine FIVB 1st-place finishes overall, as well as over $937,813 in total prize money.^[5]

World tour 2016

She played, with partner Walsh Jennings, at the Long Beach, California Grand Slam,^[6] which is part of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. The pair won all 3 matches against, Carol/Ana Patrícia Brazil (21 - 17, 21 - 19), Humana-Paredes/Pischke Canada (21 - 16, 21 - 17), Maria Antonelli/Lili Brazil (21 - 19, 18 - 21, 15 - 13).^[7]

In semi final action (Aug 27, 2016) Ross and Walsh Jennings played against Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany and won in straight sets (21 - 17, 21 - 16).

Gold Medal goes to Walsh/April in straight sets (21–16, 21–16),^[8] Silver goes to Spain's Liliana Fernández Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan.

Competing at the World Tour Finals in Toronto, Playing in Pool A they are in 1st with a 2-0 and advance to quarter finals.

Olympic career

In the 2012 London Olympics, #4 seed Ross and Kessy won the Silver Medal by defeating Brazil's #1 seed team of Juliana and Larissa in a semi-final match after dropping the first set. They lost to teammates Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings in the Gold Medal final straight sets by an identical score of 16-21.

On June 26, 2013, Ross teamed up with Walsh-Jennings to train for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Seeded at #3, Ross and Walsh-Jennings lost to Brazil's #2 seed team of Agatha and Barbara in straight sets of 20-22 and 18-21 in a semi-final match. They defeated the #1 seed Brazil team of Larissa and Talita in the Bronze Medal match for Ross' second Olympic medal.

Awards

• 2006 – AVP Rookie of the Year
• 2007 – Most Improved Player
• 2007 – FIVB Top Rookie
• 2012 – Olympic Silver Medal
• 2016 – Olympic Bronze Medal

Clubs

• Leonas de Ponce (2004–2006)
• Orange County Volleyball Club^[9] for 5 Years

References

1. Branch, John Kerri Walsh Jennings Seeks Olympic Success With a New Partner New York Times. July 8, 2016
2. http://www.teamusa.org/Athletes/RO/April-Ross
3. "April Ross". University of Southern California (USC) Trojans Women's Volleyball. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
4. Perfect ending to a perfect season
5. "April Ross". Beach Volleyball Database. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
6. Team Profile
7. "Main draw - Long Beach Grand Slam 2016". Worldtour.2016.fivb.com. FIVB.COM. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
8. Long Beach Grand Slam 2016 | 24 - 28 August 2016
9. Orange County Volleyball Club

External links

• April Ross' official bio at USA Volleyball
• April Ross Photo Gallery: Sun, Sand and Olympic Silver
• Bio at Beach Volleyball Database
• April Ross at FIVB
• USC Trojans bio
• 2009 FIVB World Championship recap
• Beach Volleyball