Jordan Thompson shines in her first Italian season

The Lega Pallavolo Serie A1 is widely recognised as one of the best women's domestic leagues in the world and features many of the leading players in international volleyball. These players have a huge impact on the outcome of the Italian League and Vero Volley Milano illustrate that well with Tokyo Olympic champion Jordan Thompson helping her team to an unbeaten run of six consecutive victories since the start of the season.

The 25-year-old American opposite has been the team’s leading scorer so far and will be relied on to keep powering Vero Volley Milano's offence as they face two of their strongest opponents this week, hoping to maintain a perfect record. On Wednesday, November 16, at 20:30 local time (19:30 UTC), second-paced Vero Volley will visit Savino Del Bene Scandicci, who are fourth on a 5-1 win-loss record. Then, on Sunday, November 20, at 17:00 (16:00), Jordan Thompson and her teammates will play away to Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano, the defending champions and current table leaders on a 7-0 win-loss record.

· Watch all Lega Pallavolo Serie A1 matches live or on demand on Volleyball TV.

Thompson’s first season in the Italian league has been a great success so far. With her on the squad, the team from Milan are on a streak of six back-to-back wins. She was the best scorer in three of those six matches, including the most recent two, and has already piled up a total of 97 points, or an average of 4.62 per set, an achievement that puts her in fourth place in the league’s statistical charts on both counts. Her tally includes 82 spiking points, nine kill blocks and six aces.

“I think, personally and as a team, we are just trying to find our rhythm. It’s early in the season, we are a new team, so we’re trying to connect with each other, and I think, little by little, focusing on each individual skill as we go, we are going to continue to improve,” Thompson said after Vero Volley’s fifth victory, a sweep of CBF Balducci HR Macerata at home, when she was named MVP of the match.

Jordan was born in 1997. Following in her father’s steps, a professional basketball player, she first started playing basketball, before switching to volleyball. In her high school years, she excelled with the Edina High School team in Minnesota, and with some club teams, before joining the University of Cincinnati Bearcats.

During her collegiate years, Thompson was a three-time American Athletic Conference player of the year and a two-time AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) All-American. In her last season with the Bearcats, she broke the NCAA Division I rally-point-system record with 50 kills in a single game.

The 1.93m-tall opposite made her debut with the United States national team at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League and helped them earn their second consecutive trophy in the competition. She was also part of the line-up that won a Tokyo Olympic qualification tournament in the summer of 2019. Two years later, right after a pandemic-ridden 2020, Thompson and her US teammates claimed a third VNL title in a row and topped it with the Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

At the Olympic tournament, Thompson was her team’s best scorer before suffering an ankle injury, which kept her out of play for almost 10 months. She returned to play for the USA at VNL 2022, but another last-minute injury kept her out of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 in the Netherlands and Poland.

In the meantime, right after her last season in collegiate volleyball, the American athlete made her debut in professional club volleyball with Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce Opet Istanbul. In her first season with the team, they reached the quarterfinals of the CEV Champions League before the competition was prematurely interrupted by the coronavirus. The following season, playing for Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul, Thompson made the Champions League quarterfinals again, in addition to winning the national Super Cup and progressing to the final of the national Cup.

She sat out most of the 2021-2022 club season because of her injury, but returned at the start of the season as a member of the Vero Volley Milano roster.

“I’m really excited! This is such an amazing team, with a lot of talented players and knowledgeable staff, so I’m excited to get to work and help in any way that I can,” Thompson said upon joining Milano. “Physically, I feel great now, healthy and ready to play.”

This week, Thompson could get a chance to face two of the Lega Volley Femminile’s fiercest hitters, Scandicci’s Zhu Ting on Wednesday, and Conegliano's Isabelle Haak on Sunday. Watch all the action on Volleyball TV.

Quick links:
Lega Pallavolo SuperLega Credem Banca
Lega Pallavolo Femminile Serie A1
Volleyball TV
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