April Elizabeth Ross (born June 20, 1982) is an American beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic medalist. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with

Jennifer Kessy Jennifer "Jen" Anne Kessy (born July 31, 1977) is a retired American professional beach volleyball player on the AVP Tour. She currently is the coach of April Ross and Alix Klineman. Early years Growing up in Southern California, Kessy excel ...

, a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with

Kerri Walsh Jennings Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. She is the beach volleyball leader in career victories as of 2016 ha ...

, and a gold medal at 2020 Summer Olympics with

Alix Klineman Alexandra Rose "Alix" Klineman (born December 30, 1989) is an American beach volleyball, 2020 Summer Olympics gold medalist, and former indoor volleyball player. In high school she was the 2006 Gatorade National Player of the Year. She was a ...

. Ross and Kessy were also the 2009 Beach Volleyball World Champions. She married Men’s Beach Volleyball player Bradley Keenan in 2010. They divorced in 2018. Ross got engaged to Josh Riley in summer 2022.

Early life

Ross grew up in Newport Beach, California where she attended Newport Harbor High School. 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 The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have ...

(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 tall.

Personal life

April is the daughter of Glen and Margie Ross, and has a sister- Amy Ross.

College

Ross played indoor volleyball during her collegiate career, where she attended the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. In her freshman season she was the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Freshman of the Year as well as the National Freshman of the Year. Additionally, she received Pac-10 First Team honors as well as AVCA Second Team All-America honors. She helped USC to the NCAA Final Four. 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. 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 Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, 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 Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

in the NCAA championship match. Ross had 14 kills and 19 digs in the winning effort. 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). In 2004, she won the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

as the nation's top female collegiate volleyball player.

Career

Professional career

In 2008, with her beach partner

during the Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008, they finished in third place at the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam Stavanger, second place at the

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...

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 Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coa ...

. On July 4, 2009, Kessy and Ross won the FIVB World Championships in Stavanger, Norway defeating Brazilians Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca. 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.

World tour 2016

Ross played, with partner Walsh Jennings, at the Long Beach, California Grand Slam, which was part of the

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (known between 2003 and 2012 as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour for sponsorship reasons) was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the ' ( FIVB), the ...

. They won the gold medal in straight sets (21–16, 21–16).

Partnering with Klineman

2019-07-06 BeachVolleyball Weltmeisterschaft Hamburg 2019 StP 0520 LR by Stepro

At the end of 2017, Ross and

became beach volleyball partners. Klineman and Ross won the FIVB Dela Beach Open in January 2018, which was the first tournament they played together. During the 2018 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, Klineman and Ross won four tournament events: the Austin Open, the Manhattan Beach Open, the Championships (in Chicago), and the Hawaii Invitational. In mid-October 2018, Klineman and Ross won their second FIVB tournament event, earning the gold medal over Brazil at the Yangzhou Open. They were named the AVP Team of the Year at the AVP Award Banquet that November. In 2019, their success continued as they won the

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

and New York City Open AVP tour events, and won the FIVB Itapema Open mid-May. They also won the silver medal at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. In July 2020 the two won the AVP Monster Hydro Cup and the Wilson Cup, and in August they won the AVP Champions Cup. In August 2021, two weeks after winning gold at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, the pair won the AVP Manhattan Beach Open, their second time winning this tournament together.

Olympic career

In the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, No. 4 seed Ross and Kessy won the

Silver Medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, e ...

by defeating Brazil's No. 1 seed team of

Juliana Juliana (variants Julianna, Giuliana, Iuliana, Yuliana, etc) is a feminine given name which is the feminine version of the Roman name Julianus. Juliana or Giuliana was the name of a number of early saints, notably Saint Julian the Hospitaller, wh ...

and

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

in a semi-final match after dropping the first set. They lost to teammates Misty May-Treanor and

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. Ross played as a defender behind Walsh Jennings' block. Seeded at No. 3, Ross and Walsh Jennings lost to Brazil's No. 2 seed team of Agatha and

Barbara Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously as ...

in straight sets of 20–22 and 18–21 in a semi-final match. They defeated the No. 1 seed Brazil team of

and Talita in the Bronze Medal match for Ross's second Olympic medal. On August 6, 2021, Klineman and Ross captured the gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics, after winning in straight sets versus Australia. In the entire tournament, they went undefeated in match play, and only lost one set throughout 7 matches. The win allowed Ross to complete the trifecta of winning an Olympic bronze, silver, and gold medal.

Awards

College

(2004)

FIVB

* FIVB Top Rookie: 2007 * FIVB Best Offensive Player (1): 2009 * FIVB Best Hitter: 2009, 2011 * FIVB Best Server: 2011, 2012, 20152017

AVP

* AVP Rookie of the Year: 2006 * AVP Most Improved Player: 2007 * AVP Best Server: 20132017 * AVP Best Offensive Player: 2013, 2017 * AVP Most Valuable Player: 20132017 * AVP Team of the Year: 2012 (with

), 2014, 2016 (with

), 2019 (with

Clubs

* Leonas de Ponce (2004–2006) * Orange County Volleyball ClubOrange County Volleyball Club
/ref> for 5 Years

References

External links

* * *
2009 FIVB World Championship recap
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, April 1982 births Living people American women's volleyball players American women's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball defenders Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players of the United States Olympic medalists in beach volleyball Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Newport Beach, California USC Trojans women's volleyball players People from Costa Mesa, California Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics FIVB World Tour award winners Newport Harbor High School alumni Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in volleyball Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in volleyball Olympic silver medalists for the United States in volleyball Volleyball players from California 21st-century American women