Battle of Caving Banks

Micha Danielle Hancock (born November 10, 1992) is an American indoor volleyball player for the United States women's national volleyball team. Hancock played setter for the Penn State women's volleyball team, and won back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014. Hancock won gold with the national team at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.[1]

Career

High school

Hancock played volleyball for Edmond Memorial High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. She guided her team to the 2007, 2009 and 2010 Oklahoma 6A State Championship, was a two-time All-Edmond Player of the Year, All-City Player of the Year and MVP of the State Championship All-Tournament Team. She was named the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year twice.

College

She played college women's volleyball at Penn State University. In her freshman season in 2011, Hancock was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year as well as the AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year and set the Penn State single-season aces record with 91. As a sophomore in 2012, she was a first-team All-American and Big Ten Setter of the Year. Hancock set the NCAA Tournament record for aces in tournament play with 22, including the Penn State single-match record for aces with 10. In her final two seasons, she helped Penn State win back-to-back NCAA titles. In 2013, Hancock was named a First-Team All-American and earned NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors, and she became the Nittany Lions' all-time career aces leader with 254. In 2014, she was named the AVCA National Player of the Year and her third consecutive First-Team All-America honor. Under her guidance, Hancock ranked first nationally as a college senior in aces per set (1.05) with at least one ace in all but three matches in 2014. Hancock finished her career among Penn State's all-time career record-holders, ranking first in service aces (380) and service aces per game (0.76), fifth in assists (5,578) and sixth in assists per game (11.16).

Hancock was named as one of the four finalists for the Honda Sports Award in volleyball for 2014–15.[2][3]

International

In the 2016 Pan-American Cup she was awarded Best Server[4] after she set a new serving record in a single match, first with 11 aces in the pool play against Costa Rica, then 12 aces in the bronze medal match over Cuba.[5] She was named Most Valuable Player in the 2017 Pan-American Cup.[6] She was selected to play the Italian League All-Star game in 2017.[7]

In May 2021, Hancock was named to the 18-player roster for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League tournament.[8] It was the only major international competition before the 2020 Summer Olympics. U.S. won the gold medal for the third year in a row after defeating Brazil in the final.[9]

On June 7, 2021, U.S. National Team head coach Karch Kiraly announced she would be part of the 12-player Olympic roster for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[10] Primarily used as a backup setter and serving substitute, Hancock stepped in after starting setter Jordyn Poulter injured her ankle during U.S.'s final pool play match against Italy, helping lead the team to victory in 5 sets. In the quarterfinals against Dominican Republic, Hancock started again and led her to team to victory, advancing U.S. to the semifinals.[11] Team USA eventually won the gold medal after defeating Brazil, 3 sets to none.[12]

Clubs

Awards

Individuals

See also

List of Pennsylvania State University Olympians

References

  1. ^ "Volleyball HANCOCK Micha". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on August 16, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Nominees Announced for 2014-15 Honda Volleyball Sport Award". CWSA. December 17, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  3. ^ "Lauren Carlini nominee for Honda Sports Award". Wisconsin Badgers. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  4. ^ "Brayelin Martinez named MVP of Pan Am Cup". NORCECA. July 10, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  5. ^ "U.S. Women Win Bronze at Pan Am Cup". USA Volleyball. July 10, 2016. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  6. ^ "Micha Hancock named MVP of XVI Pan Am Cup". NORCECA. June 25, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  7. ^ "All Star Game: A Bergamo la sfida Selezione Italia vs Resto del Mondo" (in Italian). Bergamo: Volleyball.it. December 18, 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  8. ^ "Kiraly announces 18 USA Volleyball women on FIVB VNL Roster". Volleyball Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  9. ^ "USA volleyball wins third straight VNL title; Wong-Orantes named tourney's top libero". Lincoln Journal Star. June 26, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  10. ^ "USAV Announces U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team". USA Volleyball. June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  11. ^ "USA Women's Volleyball sweeps Dominican Republic to reach fourth straight Olympic semifinal volleyball". Draft Kings. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  12. ^ Reiner, Olivia. "Olympics final update: Poulter, Bartsch-Hackley, Virtue win gold with Team USA volleyball". The Daily Illini. Retrieved August 8, 2021.

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha_Hancock