WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue volleyball alumna, Annie Drews has been selected to USA Volleyball's roster in the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals. This is her second stint with Team USA this summer as she helped lead the Americans to a gold medal in the Pan Am Cup in June after leading her club team to a championship in Puerto Rico.
"I am so impressed with Annie's resilience," said Purdue head coach Dave Shondell. "Her determination to improve both physically and emotionally have opened the door for life-changing opportunities. Our program is very proud of Annie's growth and roster spot on the USA National Team. I encourage everybody to pay attention to the Grand Prix Finals."
This is USA's third consecutive trip to the Final Six of the tournament and a championship would be the seventh in Team USA's history. In it's 25th year, the World Grand Prix is the premier annual international women's volleyball tournament. The tournament takes place August 2-6 in Nanjing, China.
Team USA, which finished second in the nine-match preliminary round to gain one of the five spots in the Final Six to play alongside host China, will face preliminary round leader Serbia (7-2, 22 points) on Aug. 2 followed by fifth-place Italy (6-3, 16 points) on Aug. 3. Both matches will air live on The Olympic Channel at 3 a.m. ET.
The U.S. concluded the World Grand Prix preliminary round with a 6-3 record and 19 points. Brazil, the reigning World Grand Prix champions and holder of a record 11 event titles, finished third ahead of fourth-place Netherlands, while Italy was fifth in the preliminary round. Brazil was in a must-win situation over the United States on the final day of the preliminary round to even qualify among the Final Six. While Japan finished sixth ahead of China, the host Chinese advance as host of the Final Round. All five teams from second place to sixth place in the final preliminary standings ended with 6-3 records, one win behind leader Serbia.
Team USA has faced four of the other competitors in the World Grand Prix Final Six during the preliminary phase, only missing the opportunity to play Serbia. The Americans held a 3-3 record against the Final Six teams during the preliminary round. They split a pair of matches with both Italy and China, defeated Netherlands and lost to Brazil. The U.S. is the only team that did not have a loss in the preliminary round to a country that did not make it to the Final Six.
In USA's championship run in the Pan Am Cup, Drews posted 54 kills and just 14 errors on 108 attempts in the tournament for a .370 hitting percentage on the right side. She proved to be one of USA's top offensive options throughout the tournament as she posted the team's highest hitting percentage and was tied for the second most kills.
Drews is a two-time All-American, two-time All-Northeast Region and a two-time All-Big Ten selection in her career as a student-athlete at Purdue. The Elkhart, Indiana, native is the most recent Boilermaker to join the 1,000 kill club and is one-of-25 student-athletes in program history to reach the milestone. She registered the program's ninth most kills in a single season as a senior when she finished the 2015 campaign with 518 kills.
