Fabiola receives the Best Setter Award from FIVB Vice-President Aleksandar Boricic at Zurich 2014.
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 1, 2015 - Dinamo Krasnodar setter Josefa Fabiola Almeida De Souza Alves is certain to be in the limelight at the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship Zurich 2015. Happily for copy writers, editors, commentators and fans alike, she’s better and more conveniently known as Fabiola.
Fabiola won her first medal with the Brazilian national team at the 2007 FIVB Volleyball World Cup in Japan - as a sub for Fofao, with very little on-court time. But three years later, Fabiola was instrumental in claiming the silver medals at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship, again in Japan.
Dropped from the London 2012 Olympic Games roster, Fabiola soon made a comeback. She has usually played in the shadow of starting setter Dani Lins since, but at last year’s World Championship in Italy, she was there again, starting in two of her team’s 13 matches, including the 3-0 victory over USA in pool play. She also won her second world championship medal - this time a bronze.
Fabiola is a true Club World Champioships veteran. Playing for Brazil’s Osasco Volleyball Club, the 32-year-old led her team to gold in 2012 in Doha. She had to settle for silver last year in Zurich, however, when Molico Osasco lost the final to Dinamo Kazan.
Despite that loss, Fabiola was named best setter of the tournament. It was one of many individual awards she’s picked up in her career, including MVP of the Russian Cup in 2014 - a distinction rarely attributed to setters.
This season, she has moved to Russia’s Dinamo Krasnodar, joining Brazil teammate Fe Garay. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster season for Fabiola and Dinamo, though. Dinamo struggled in the Russian Superleague and eventually bowed out in the quarterfinals, eliminated by legendary Nikolay Karpol’s Uralochka-NTMK Ekaterinburg.
Surviving a Golden Set in the quarterfinals of the CEV Cup against Lokomotiv Baku, Dinamo sailed on to the final of the competition, where another Golden Set against Poland’s PGE Atom Trefl of Sopot clinched the title for them.
In the meantime, Krasnodar were granted a wild card for Zurich 2015 and Fabiola was given a chance to add yet another distinction to her illustrious career. Will she help bring Dinamo Krasnodar to the forefront of world volleyball, as she previously did with Brazil and Osasco? We’re counting down the days now to Zurich 2015 and come May 10, we’ll know.