American Taylor Averill is PowerVolley Revivre Milano’s first signing from the off-season transfer market for the 2017/2018 season, making him also the first signing under the tenure of new coach Andrea Giani.
The 25-year old Averill is a 6’7″ middle blocker who finished his collegiate career at the University of Hawaii in 2015. He was on the U.S. Men’s National Team at the 2014 Men’s Pan Am Cup, where he won a silver medal, and on the 2015 Men’s Pan Am Games team.
In his senior season in the NCAA (American collegiate system), he ranked 2nd nationally with a .488 hitting perrcentage (329 kills, 59 errors, 553 attacks), and was a two-time AVCA First Team All-American.
Averill started his professional career with Pallavolo Padova, where he played the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons, before signing a contract with Revivre.
Last season, he played 54 sets in 20 games and ended the season with 103 points. He had just 19 blocks on the season (averaging .35/set), but continued his pattern of being used heavily offensively from the middle – though he connected on just 50% of his attacks (73 kills, 9 errors, 146 attacks), a relatively-low pace out of the middle.
A year earlier, he was a much bigger contributor. He scored 192 points as a rookie, which ranked him 3rd among middle blockers in Italy’s Serie A1 – the top league in the country – including connecting on 61.1% of his shots across 83 sets.
Revivre didn’t get top-tier play from the middle last season. Their top scorer at blocker, Gianluca Galassi, had just 150 points in 88 sets – a lower pace than Averill had, though Averill saw less court time.
Milano finished last in the Italian SuperLiga in the 2016-2017 season with just 18 points (5 wins, 21 losses), after finishing second-to-last a season prior with just 16 points (5 wins, 17 losses, in a smaller 12-team league).
Fortunately for Revivre, relegation is not expected prior to next season.
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