Anderson and Russell share award as USA Male Player of the
Year
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, January 25, 2020 – Matt Anderson
and Aaron Russell were given recognition by USA Volleyball
as the 2019 Male Indoor Volleyball Co-Players of the Year.
Anderson and Russell were both important parts of the
veteran group of players that led the USA men’s team to a
silver medal at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League and
a bronze at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup.
They both also helped the USA team qualify for the Tokyo
2020 Olympic Games by winning the three-match qualifier in
August 2019 in the Netherlands.
In 2019, Anderson led the USA squad in scoring with 268
points, while Russell was right behind him in second with
223.
Anderson earned the title for the sixth time (2012, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2018), while it was a new honour for outside
spiker Russell.
“Matt has always played a big role for us as a go-to guy in
important situations and this summer was no different,”
Russell said. “I admire the way he’s adapted to what the
team needs most as the squad has changed so much during his
career.”
“Aaron stepped up big time in the Olympic Qualification
tournament in the Netherlands,” Anderson said. “He also
played solidly for another entire grueling and long World
Cup.”
Both players cited player injuries as the biggest challenge
of the 2020 season. Russell missed most of the VNL
preliminary round with a knee injury, while his teammates
Taylor Sander and Thomas Jaeschke also suffered shoulder
injuries last year.
“I think the players who stepped into bigger roles did a
great job,” Russell said. “In a way, this was really good
for our programme in growing our depth as a squad.”
“That’s why we train the way we do,” Anderson said. “So we
can try to acclimate to line-up changes as soon as
possible.”
Both are also looking forward to carrying their Olympic
experience into Tokyo in 2020.
“Every Olympic experience is different in some ways and the
same in others,” said Anderson, a two-time Olympian. “Being
able to turn it off to start recovery and to free yourself
of what has happened just hours before will allow me to move
on to the next opponent and match. Dealing with the grand
scale of everything that comes with an Olympic Games is
another thing that comes with it not being my first rodeo.”
“I remember being nervous before the first games in Rio,”
said Russell, who is also happy to have an Olympics under
his belt. “I was worried that I wouldn’t play well on such a
big important stage. But after starting 0-2 in the
preliminary round, my mentality had to change. I told myself
that the only difference between these Olympic matches vs
any other match is the amount of exposure and hype.”