Lausanne, Switzerland, January 7, 2019 – 42-year-old Jacob Gibb was honoured as USA's Male Beach Volleyball Player of the Year. The three-time Olympian receives this recognition from USA Volleyball for the third time, after 2012 and 2013.
Jake Gibb has had Taylor Crabb as his regular partner on both the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and USA’s domestic AVP Tour since the beginning of the 2017 season, but it was in 2018 when they first achieved a final-four finish at a World Tour event.
They did so at the Gstaad five-star stop in July, where they dropped the match point they had at 14-13 in the tie-breaker of the semifinal against Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, who went on to win the tournament, as well as their next three World Tour events and the European Championship.
Jake Gibb spikes against Anders Mol at Gstaad 2018
Gibb and Crabb were very close to the bronze medal at Gstaad as well, but lost another overtime tie-breaker by a dramatic 20-18 in the third place game against Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo.
At the Vienna five-star stop in late July and early August, Gibb and Crabb had to start off from the qualifications, but managed to make it all the way to the fifth place.
In 2018, they also performed well on the AVP Tour, winning two gold and two silver medals. They also won the King of the Court events in Waikiki and Huntington Beach.
At the end of the 2018 calendar year Gibb and Crabb were the highest ranked US men’s pair in the world, occupying the 11th place in the FIVB ranking.
“2018 was a good year, but we definitely have some room for improvement, particularly in serving,” Jake Gibb said before looking forward to the FIVB World Championship in Hamburg and possibly a fourth Olympic appearance at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. “It’s such a fun journey to go on with Taylor! I can’t wait for the next two years.”