15 club volleyball tryout tips from a Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee and elite club coach who's helped hundreds of athletes navigate tryouts successfully.

Ebony Nwanebu Is A 3x NCAA Champion Hitter And A Pro Volleyball Player

Ebony Nwanebu is a 3-time NCAA champion who played at Stanford and an American professional volleyball player in the Athletes Unlimited Pro League.

Ebony Nwanebu is a former USC Trojan and Texas Longhorn outside hitter now a professional volleyball player in the Athletes Unlimited Professional League. (photo UT Longhorn Athletics)

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“When I transferred to Texas, I medically redshirted,” she said. “That year, it was just more of not just physically healing but mentally. So I got to just talk more. I started seeing a therapist regularly. I talked about it more. My coaches were super, super supportive.

They encouraged me to write more and talk to them. I met with them weekly. It was just a big healing year for me. I think that really helped and just continuing to reach out to people, not only letting them know that they’re not alone but also I’m not alone. That helped a lot, too.”

Part of that writing includes a blog: EbbOnTheWeb.

(auprosports.com website)

Volleyball Quote by Ebony Nwanebu explaining her personal interest in mental health advocacy for prep volleyball players.

(Athletes Unlimited volleyball professional)

Listen in as Ebony Nwanebu talks about what it was like to watch from the bench as Texas roared all the way to the national championship match. She also touches on the loss of Chiaka Ogbogu (2022 Olympic gold medal winning middle blocker) on the 2016 team due to academic ineligibility.

The Ebony Nwanebu volleyball player profile found on this page contains quick facts and biographical information about this amazing outside hitter from Fairview, Texas.

Check back often to see which world class professional volleyball players have been added to our list.

Ebony Nwanebu is a pro volleyball player who has played in Turkey and Italy before joining the Athletes Unlimited Pro League for the 2020-21 and 2021 - 2022 season.

Check out Ebony Nwanebu mic'ed up

at an Athletes Unlimited’s volleyball practice

Ebony Nwanebu
Pro Volleyball Player Overseas

The portrait is of Ebony Nwanebu when she played for Serie A2 Italian Team ITAS CITTÀ FIERA MARTIGNACCO in 2019-2020. (Lega Pallavolo)

The portrait above is of Ebony Nwanebu when she played for Serie A2 Italian Team ITAS CITTÀ FIERA MARTIGNACCO in 2019-2020.

She played professionally in Turkey for the 2018 - 2019 season in A-2 for Buyukcekmece Volleybol Akademisi (TUR).

Ebony's Top 13 College Volleyball Athletic Accomplishments as a Texas Longhorn

2017 AVCA All-America honorable mention …
2017 All-Southwest Region …
2017 All-Big 12 First Team
2016 Honda Award finalist …
2016 AVCA All-America First Team …
2016 VolleyballMag.com First Team All-America …
NCAA All-Tournament Team …
Austin Regional Most Valuable Player …
2016 All-Region First Team …
Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (Nov. 21) …
Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 26) …
2016 All-Big 12 Preseason Team …
2015 All-Big 12 Preseason Team

Top College Volleyball Freshman

Get to know University of Southern California volleyball freshman Ebony Nwanebu.

Freshman outside hitter Ebony Nwanebu accepts her AVCA first-team All-American award at the annual banquet in Seattle and does an interview with Olympian Courtney Thompson. SUBSCRIBE to USCAthletics

AS A FRESHMAN 2013 (USC)

Led USC with 3.47 kills per set (413 kills)...
The only freshman and the only non-middle blocker to rank in the league’s top 10 for hitting percentage...
Recorded double-digit kills 24 times including a career-high 30 kills without an error (53att) for a .566 hitting percentage against Washington in the NCAA regional final on Dec. 14.

Top College Volleyball Sophomore

Ebony Nwanebu USA National team player

2014 (USC) As A Sophomore

Selected to the USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team in China during the summer ...
Played with the U.S. Senior National Team at the Montreux Volley Masters tournament in Montreux, Switzerland and helped USA to a silver medal ...
Posted 337 kills (3.12/set) on 993 attempts for a .226 hitting percentage ... also added 156 digs (1.44/set), 55 blocks (0.51/set) and 17 service aces in her sophomore season.

Impact Player: That time Ebony scored 30 points with no errors in the NCAA Regional finals vs Washington.

Top College Volleyball Junior

Ebony Nwanebu blocking with Rachael Adams Texas Longhorn teammates on the USA National Team (photo provided by brvc)

AS A JUNIOR (2016)

Posted 16 kills and seven digs vs. Stanford in the national championship match (12-17-16) …
Had 15 kills (.378) vs. Nebraska (12-15-16) … registered a team-high 13 kills (.619) vs. Creighton (12-10-16) …
Recorded 19 kills, six blocks and six digs vs. BYU (12-9-16) … posted 15 kills (.577) vs. SMU (12-3-16) … had seven kills (.462) vs. UTRGV (12-2-16) … registered seven kills and matched a season high of four block assists for the fourth time vs. West Virginia (11-26-16) ...
Had a career high for hitting percentage at .625 on ten kills vs. Kansas State (11-19-16) … recorded a third game of the season with a .500+ hitting percentage and a tenth with .400+ with .560 on 15 kills vs. Texas Tech (11-16-16) …
Broke 300 kills on the season with 18 at Iowa State (11-12-16) …
Posted a .600 hitting percentage with nine kills, three digs and two block assists vs. Oklahoma (10-26-16) … had 16 kills and five digs at Texas Tech (10-21-16) … matched a career high of three service aces vs. TCU (10-19-16) …
Registered a hitting percentage of .483 with 16 kills and had six digs, three block assists at Baylor (10-12-16) …

Top College Volleyball Senior

Ebony Nwanebu and USA Olympic silver medalist Rachael Adams (photo provided by brvc)

AS A SENIOR (2017)

Finished her senior season with 212 kills (2.52/set), hitting .345, 78 blocks (0.93/set), and 36 digs (0.43) …
Had a season-high 13 kills two times (vs. TCU, .500; at Baylor, .478) …
Posted a season-high hitting percentage (.778) vs. Fairfield (7 kills, 0 errors on 9 swings) …
Recorded a season-high 7 blocks vs. Georgia Tech.

High School Varsity Volleyball Achievements

As a prep player Nwanebu played for Texas Advantage Volleyball Club in Fort Worth, Texas, under coaches John Sample and Ping Cao...

named Most Valuable Player of the 2013 USAV Junior National Championships after leading TAV 18s to the national title...

Ebony helped lead her club to the silver medal at the Junior National Championships in 2012...
selected to the 2012 JNC All-Tournament Team ...

Nwanebu prepped at Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas, under head coach Ryan Mitchell and while there she was named the Mizuno/Volleyball Magazine High School Player of the Year...

PrepVolleyball.com Senior Ace No. 7... named an Under Armour All-American and helped Team West win the Under Armour All-American game...

Chosen as the Under Armour Skills Competition Hardest Hitter... picked to the Dallas Morning News SportsDayHS All-Area Team (first team as a sophomore and senior, and second team as a junior) and named the DMS Player of the Year in her senior season...

A three-time selection to the LoneStarVolleyball.com All-Texas First Team Ebony was a finalist for the PrepVolleyball.com and won the Freshman of the Year award in 2009...
She led Lovejoy HS to three Texas 3A state championships (2010-12) and was named tournament MVP in 2010 and 2012...
Ebony had 26 kills and 11 digs in the championships match and finished her senior season with 701 kills, 356 digs, 103 blocks, and 35 service aces.

(video by Athletes Unlimited)

Pro Volleyball Player Athletes Unlimited

During the 2021 Season:

EBONY NWANEBU SELECTED AS NO. 1 PICK IN VOLLEYBALL’S WEEK 2 DRAFT

With the No. 1 pick, De la Cruz selected opposite Ebony Nwanebu. Nwanebu had 39 kills and hit .260, and had 25 digs over the first weekend of competition. With 603 overall points, Nwanebu is currently 11th on the leaderboard.

Team De La Cruz

Bethania De La Cruz
Ebony Nwanebu
Kelly Hunter
Ali Bastianelli
Nomaris Vélez Agosto
Deja Mcclendon
Molly Lohman
Erica Wilson
Nia Grant
Sareea Freeman
Amanda Peterson

More About Ebony Nwanebu

Check out Ebony when she spends the weekend at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Ebony Nwanebu in the News, Interviews and Media

“When you’re going through mental-health stuff, you just feel super lonely,” she said. “I remember not knowing if I could talk to my teammates about it or my coaches or if I did, some of them just didn’t understand. That feeling, when you go through it, is the worst feeling in the world. If I could help just one person not feel that way, I wanted to."

(auprosports.com website)

Sophomore outside hitter Ebony Nwanebu shows off her very unusual hidden talent that has "Statisfaction" host Ryan McGrady roaring with laughter

Senior ebony Nwanebu talks about her social media series Ebbs on the Web which became one of the first viral video series in the US.

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Private or semiprivate volleyball indoor/sand lessons are an excellent way for young Las Vegas high school volleyball players to quickly improve their individual skills through a private or semi-private coaching experience. These lessons are conducted by former pro volleyball player, former USA Volleyball High Performance instructor and Evaluator and Tstreet Vegas 18s head Coach April Chapple on a weekly basis. Sign up now!

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I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list.

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend

Lady Vol volleyball legend and record holder Coach April Chapple a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Hall of Fame Inductee, 3-time All American, 3-time SEC Champion, SEC Tournament MVP, 2-time All SEC Team is celebrated with her 1984 SEC champion teammates at Neyland Stadium during Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024.

utkaprilcollegepiconneylandstadiumvideoboard

Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee, Coach April Chapple is

the first First Round Draft Pick for the first American pro indoor women's league
named to the first First Team All-Pro team for Major League Volleyball in USA volleyball history
former USA National team member
one of the few American women players named as an Italian Pro League D-I Championship Finalist, Italian Cup Finalist and Cup of Cups Tournament Finalist

April Chapple The first First round Draft Pick For Major League Volleyball the first American Women's Pro League Honored At Athlete Unlimited Pro Volleyball Match

Coach April's 2025 Private and Semi private Volleyball Training

Pre-Registration now open for 2025 Private and Semiprivate Training Sessions with Coach April . Get prepared for club tryouts or train with me during club season!

Email now for information on semiprivate or private indoor skills, individual or small group training volleyball classes and my Breakfast Club for College Players training for 2025.

Invest in your improvement while preepping for your next level and college goals while working hard and training smart.

Email me right now to register or for more information.

info@improveyourvolley.com

Serving slang is not just about individual techniques; it also relates to overall game strategy. A coach might instruct a player to serve a "short serve" or a "deep serve" to target specific areas of the opponent's court or exploit weaknesses in their serve receive formation.

Ari, my private training client and I are working specifically on serving on jump float cross court serves ...short to Zone 2

There's so much we work on to get to this point where she can contact the ball with

the same toss height and same toss location
the same armswing speed
the same timing for when her serving hand contacts the ball
the middle of the hand contacting the middle of the ball every single time
getting use to watching her serving hand contact the ball at the highest point of her jump ...before she starts to land
and finally contacting the ball in the precise spot on the ball so it goes where the coach wants the player to put it so in this case ..a short serve in the farthest short right corner on the court also called Zone 2.

kamiminerpac12setteroftheyearformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

Tommi Stockham All Big West Conference sophomore former Coach April Chapple private client 3 years

katepriorallwestcoastconferencebyufreshmanformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

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Dear Vegas Parent

Read my open letter to Las Vegas Jr high/high school volleyball parents about my predictions on individual and small group volleyball training trends for 2019/2021

Tennessee Athletics Honors April Chapple at Champions Weekend for Legendary Volleyball Achievements

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Produces Powerful Passionate Players...is that you?

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Congratulations to my seven Boys-18s Vegas Volley club players who played in two state championship finals yesterday, the 3A and 5A State champinship finals at Sunrise Mountain High School.

TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!

A-1 Vegas Volley VBC

In It To Win It Tournament

May 2 - 4, 2025 Tournament

Gold Medalists

18s Premier Division

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Making A-1 Vegas Volleyball history as the very first TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS! In the In It To Win It Tournament, May 2-4, 2025 Tournament, A-1 Vegas Volleyball Club Gold Medalists, 18s Premier Division