SCAC Women's Volleyball

ICYMI: 6 Things That Happened In Volleyball This Week

ICYMI: 6 Things That Happened In Volleyball This Week

Catch up on what happened in the world of volleyball this week.

May 27, 2016 by Megan Kaplon
ICYMI: 6 Things That Happened In Volleyball This Week
This week wasn’t nearly as eventful as the time an NCAA beach champ, NCAA men’s champ and AVP Huntington Beach winner were crowned in the span of two days, but plenty went on in the volleyball world.

In case you missed it, let us bring you up to speed:

1. Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross won gold at the FIVB/AVP Cincinnati Open. The top American duo punched their ticket to Rio and continued their streak of podium finishes, defeating the Chinese team Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi in three sets. On the men’s side, Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser took bronze.

2. Five women’s teams qualified for the Olympics and the FIVB released the pools for the women’s competition in Rio. Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea and Puerto Rico earned Olympics berths at World Olympic Qualification Tournaments in Tokyo and San Juan. The U.S. will be joined in Pool B by China, Serbia, Italy, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico, while host team Brazil, Russia, Japan, Korea, Argentina and Cameroon make up Pool A.

3. The Thailand-Japan match at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tokyo ended in controversy. Two red cards were given to the Thai team toward the end of the fifth set in this three-hour match. Thai fans and outside observers exploded in anger and disgust on social media, but their outrage didn’t change the scoreline, and Thailand lost out on a chance to go to Rio.

4. Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes won the NORCECA playoff hosted by USAV. The pair of USC rising seniors will now play in the upcoming NORCECA beach tournaments in Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Adam Roberts and Marty Lorenz won the men’s playoff.

5. The NVL crowned their first champions of the season: Mike DiPierro and Steve Grotowski and Raquel Ferreira and Karolina Marciniak. DiPerro and Grotowski battled through the qualifier before entering the main draw, where they lost in the third round, only to win the crossover match and fight their way into the final. They defeated Martin Caban and Petr Doubravsky to finish on top. Ferreira won four NVL tournaments in 2015 with Vivian Cunha, while her new partner, Marciniak, titled twice last year. They went undefeated, eliminating Kristen Batt-Rohr and Priscilla Piantadosi-Lima in the final.

6. Georgia State volleyball made this video. We think it speaks for itself.