Beach Volleyball: Ross, Gibb MVPs

Costa Mesa residents April Ross and Jake Gibb earned top individual and team honors in the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ 2013 season awards announced Tuesday.

Ross, a Newport Harbor High product, was named women’s Most Valuable Player, as well as Best Offensive Player and Server of the Year. Ross, along with Jennifer Kessy, also claimed Team of the Year honors.

Gibb was named Men’s MVP and along with Casey Patterson of Huntington Beach, the Team of the Year in the men’s circuit.

Ross, a 2012 Olympic silver medalist who was AVP Rookie of the Year in 2006, won three of the seven AVP events, two with Kessy and one with three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings.

Ross averaged just more than seven kills per match, amassing 582 for the season, which led the AVP women’s participants.

In 83 games as a server, Ross, who was the top server on the Federation International de Volleyball tour in 2012 and 2011, had .93 aces per game.

Gibb, a 6-foot-7 veteran of two Olympic games who debuted on the AVP tour in 2000, excelled in his first season as partner to Patterson. The duo won four AVP titles and added three third-place finishes.

Gibb was also the MVP of the AVP in 2005.

— From staff reports