Lausanne, Switzerland, October 7, 2020 – Star middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo is set to return to the courts. The 33-year-old American has picked a familiar environment for her comeback by joining Japan’s Hisamitsu Springs for the upcoming club season.
Akinradewo played for the Japanese team between 2017 and 2019, before she put her career on pause to give birth to her first son, Olukayode Ayodele, last December.
Akinradewo led Hisamitsu Springs to back-to-back victories in the Japanese V.League in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons, and received the Most Valuable Player award at the end of the second season, when her club also triumphed in the Empress Cup.
Hisamitsu Springs are set to debut in the 2020-2021 Japanese V.League on October 16, when they take on Denso Airybess, in Saga.
Akinradewo’s career also includes successful stints in Azerbaijan, where she won three national titles, Switzerland, where her club Volero Zurich was a two-time champion, and Russia. She graduated and played volleyball at Stanford University, in California.
She has been a staple for USA women’s national team for over a decade, helping the Americans to victory at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championship, the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League, four editions of the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and to silver and bronze medals at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, respectively.
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