Jennifer Kessy

Jennifer Kessy was born and raised in Orange County, California. She participated in numerous sports growing up and took up volleyball when she was 13 years old. While attending Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, Kessy was on both the swimming and volleyball teams, earning numerous local, county and state awards for volleyball. This resulted in Kessy earning a volleyball scholarship to the prestigious and world-renown University of Southern California (USC) where she enrolled in 1995. During her fours years at USC, playing the position of outside hitter, she was named an All-American and was a member of the United States Junior National Team. Following her tenure at USC, Kessy played professional indoor volleyball in both the United States and Puerto Rico, while also playing on the beach volleyball circuit in the summers. From 2004 on, she concentrated exclusively on beach volleyball. Over the years, Kessy played with numerous beach volleyball partners and in 2007, teamed up with April Ross, who was also a former USC volleyball player. The pair immediately set themselves the goal of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. During 2007, they became the lowest seeded team (29th) ever to win an FIVB event and in 2008, were in the semifinals in all but one AVP event. However, Kessy and Ross missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics, despite finishing seventh in the world rankings, as they were ranked third among American teams with each country only allowed a maximum of two teams to participate in the Olympics. By failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, Ross and Kessy decided to refocus their efforts on the 2012 Olympic Games in London. They decided to increase their cardiovascular workouts, adopt healthier diets, and hired a coach who would also travel with them to tournaments. Their efforts paid off almost immediately when in 2009, Kessy and Ross appeared in the finals of nine of their 10 regular season AVP events, winning four times, and on the FIVB Tour they won the World Championships in Stavanger, Norway. In 2012, Ross and Kessy achieved their goal by qualifying for the Olympic Games in London, where they represented the United States of America. Despite being seeded number four entering the games, the pair made an improbable and undefeated run to the Gold Medal game, with a record of 6-0, including a semifinal win against the number one ranked team in the world, Brazil's Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva, who had beaten Kessy and Ross in each of their previous nine meetings. Kessy and Ross would go on to win the Silver Medal at the 2012 London Olympics.