BYU All-American Jake Langlois, who really came into his own as a senior while Ben Patch was injured, has signed his first professional contract with Gi Group Monza of the Italian Serie A League.
Langlois recorded a career-high 435 points last season, including 350 kills in 95 sets played for the Cougars. He also chipped in 63 blocks and 52 service aces on the season. The most impressive stat from his final season of collegiate volleyball was that he hit .346 – 46 points better than his career average.
Langlois stands 6’10” (2.08m) tall at outside hitter. He hits at 365cm (11’11”) and blocks at 355cm (11’7″).
Langlois, whose dad played club volleyball at BYU, was a late bloomer in the sport. He played soccer and golf in high school before a huge growth spurt late in his prep years pushed him to try out for the BYU volleyball team as a walk-on. He was a team manager in 2011, then spent two years on his mission in Brazil and returned to make the team as a walk-on, red-shirt freshman.
A year later, he was a starter, and a year after that he was an All-American. As a senior, in 2017, his incredible collegiate run finished with a first-team VolleyMob All-America Dream Team selection.
Langlois will be older than most graduates, having turned 25 earlier this month, and has 10 Team USA selections on his resume – though never at a World Championships or Olympic Games. He’ll get his biggest assignment yet this summer as a member of the USA team for the 2017 World League.
Langlois has the same agent as fellow BYU alums Taylor Sander, who also signed with an Italian club this week, and Ben Patch, who hasn’t signed his first contract yet after leaving school early to turn pro, but who is expected to also wind up in Italy.
Monza finished 7th in Serie A last season with 34 points and fell to eventual finalists Trentino in the quarterfinals. Langlois and his BYU team lost to Ohio State in the NCAA National Championship game for the second straight season.
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