Jordyn Ashley Poulter (born July 31, 1997) is an American

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player for the

United States women's national volleyball team The United States women's national volleyball team participates in international volleyball competitions and friendly games, and is governed by USA Volleyball. The current head coach is three-time Olympic gold medalist and retired dominant beac ...

. Poulter played collegiate volleyball with the University of Illinois Fighting Illini from 2015 to 2018. Poulter won gold with the national team at the

2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Early life

Poulter was born in

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

and grew up in

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe, Adams County, Colorado, Adams, and Douglas County, Colorado, Douglas List of counties in Colorado, ...

, attending

Eaglecrest High School Eaglecrest High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colorado, near the cities of Aurora and Centennial. Eaglecrest was the fourth high school to open in the Cherry Creek School District, and it is a member o ...

. She was the overall No. 3 nationally (and top setter) ranked recruit coming out of high school and won several state and national awards, including the Andi Collins award for the best setter in the country. She totaled 2,529 assists, 716 kills, 664 digs, 385 blocks and 208 aces over 101 high school matches.

Career

University of Illinois

Poulter was recruited by several top college volleyball teams, with her final two choices being

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and Illinois, ultimately committing to Illinois between her freshman and sophomore years in high school. She was a two-time All-American and was named the Big Ten Setter of the Year during her senior season, and led Illinois to a Final Four appearance.

Professional and US National Team

She currently plays professionally for

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Series A1 (Italy's top professional league) club volleyball team, Igor Gorgonzola Novara. She began training with the senior US National Team in the summer of 2018, while she was still in college. She was part of the team that won a gold medal in the

2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League was the second edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League, an annual international women's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams. The competition was held between May and J ...

tournament, as well as the

2019 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup The 2019 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup was the 18th edition of the annual women's volleyball tournament. It was held in Trujillo and Chiclayo, Peru from 6 to 14 July. Eleven teams will compete in the tournament. United States won the title ...

. In May 2021, she was named to the 18-player roster for the

2021 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League The 2021 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League was the third edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League, an annual women's international volleyball tournament. The 2021 version of VNL was scheduled to start earlier than the previous ...

. Poulter started the majority of the matches, and USA won the gold medal for the third straight year after defeating Brazil. She was named "Best Setter" at the conclusion of the tournament. On June 7, 2021, US National Team head coach

Karch Kiraly Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly () (born November 3, 1960) is an American volleyball player, coach and broadcast announcer. In the 1980s he was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He ...

announced she would be part of the 12-player Olympic roster for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo. After starting all matches, Poulter suffered an ankle injury during the final pool play match against Italy. The injury forced her to miss the quarterfinals versus Dominican Republic, however, USA was able to win the match after fellow setter

Micha Hancock 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 cham ...

came in as a substitute. Poulter successfully returned to lead her team to victories in the semifinals and eventually led Team USA to their first-ever gold medal in women's indoor competition. For her efforts, she was named as the "Best Setter" of the Olympics. Poulter signed with Igor Gorgonzola Novara for the 2022–2023 professional season as the starting setter, but suffered season-ending ACL,

MCL The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3) ...

and

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injuries in her knee during a match in December 2022.

Individual awards

High school

*''2011-2014 All-Centennial Conference First Team'' *''2012-2014

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

All-Colorado Volleyball Team'' *''2014 CHSAA Class 5A All-State Player of the Year'' *''2014 Andi Collins Award'' *''2014

MaxPreps MaxPreps is an American website that specializes in coverage of American high school sports. The site is owned by Paramount Global and is a division of CBS Sports. Founded on August 1, 2002, the company has covered up to 29 sports, including b ...

All-America'' *''2014 PrepVolleyball.com All-America'' *''2014

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sports equipment company that manufactures footwear, sports and casual apparel. Under Armour's global headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices located in Amsterdam (European hea ...

First-Team All-America''

Collegiate

*''2015 Illinois Female Newcomer of the Year'' *''2015 Big Ten All-Freshman Team'' *''2016 AVCA Honorable Mention All-America'' *''2016 AVCA All-Northeast Region'' *''2016 All-Big Ten'' *''2017 AVCA Third Team All-America'' *''2017 All-Big Ten'' *''2018

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 ...

Nominee'' *''2018 AVCA First Team All-America'' *''2018 Big Ten Setter of the Year (co)'' *''2018 AVCA Northeast Region Player of the Year'' *''2018 All-Big Ten'' *''2018 NCAA Champaign Regional Most Outstanding Player'' *''2018 University of Illinois Athletics Dike Eddleman Female Athlete of the Year''

International

*''2013 World Championships U18 – Best Setter'' *''2013 USA Girls Youth National Team, FIVB U18 World Championships – Best Setter'' *'' 2014 NORCECA Championship U20 Women's Junior NORCECA Championship – Best Setter'' *'' 2021 Nations League "Best Setter"'' *'' 2020 Summer Olympics – "Best Setter"''

Personal life

In May 2022, Poulter revealed her gold medal from the 2020 Summer Olympics was stolen out of her vehicle in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

. The thief was arrested in early June, and the medal was recovered on June 27, 2022 after the owners of an Anaheim barbershop discovered it on their property and contacted the Anaheim Police Department.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poulter, Jordyn 1997 births Living people American women's volleyball players Sportspeople from Aurora, Colorado Sportspeople from Naperville, Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini women's volleyball players Setters (volleyball) Expatriate volleyball players in Italy American expatriate sportspeople in Italy Volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in volleyball Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics