Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who first played volleyball?
In the winter of 1895[4], in Holyoke, Massachusetts (United States), William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a new game called Mintonette, a name derived from the game of badminton,[5] as a pastime to be played (preferably) indoors and by any number of players. The game took some of its characteristics from other sports such as tennis and handball.[6] Another indoor sport, basketball, was catching on in the area, having been invented just ten miles (sixteen kilometers) away in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, only four years before. Mintonette was designed to be an indoor sport, less rough than basketball, for older members of the YMCA, while still requiring a bit of athletic effort.
Panellinios was one of the first volleyball clubs in Greece. The former sports trainer of Panellinios, Anastasios Lefkaditis, is considered to be the man who is mainly responsible for importing the sport of volleyball to Greece. Panellinios took part in the first unofficial Greek men's volleyball championship, along with Panionios and Ethnikos Athens. It was the first winner of the official Greek volleyball championship in 1936. It won 6 overall Greek championships, through the year 1961. In recent years, the team has played in the A2 Ethniki (2nd-tier level).Panellinios also has a volleyball team that dominated in Greek women's volleyball, during the 2000-2002 period. The team won two Greek Women's Championships (2001, 2002), and one Greek Women's Cup (2001). In 2012, the team withdrew from the women's championship, due to financial problems, and nowadays, it plays in the lower local divisions.
Lee Da-yeong also known as Da Yeong Lee (born 15 October 1996) is a South Korean female volleyball player who currently plays as a setter for the South Korea women's national volleyball team. She is also the twin sister of fellow national volleyball player Lee Jae-yeong who also plays for South Korea in international level. She also currently plays for the domestic volleyball club Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate in the V-League, a professional volleyball league in South Korea.
Beach volleyball grew in popularity in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1930s as it was an inexpensive activity. The sport also began to appear in Europe during this time. By the 1940s, doubles tournaments were being played on the beaches of Santa Monica for trophies. In 1948 the first tournament to offer a prize was held in Los Angeles, California. It awarded the best teams with a case of Pepsi. In the 1960s, an attempt to start a professional volleyball league was made in Santa Monica. It failed, but a professional tournament was held in France for 30,000 French francs. In the 1950s, the first Brazilian beach volleyball tournament was held, sponsored by a newspaper publishing company. The first Manhattan Beach Open was held in 1960, a tournament which grew in prestige to become, in the eyes of some, the "Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball".
In the meantime, beach volleyball gained popularity: in the 1960s The Beatles tried playing in Los Angeles and US president John F. Kennedy was seen attending a match. In 1974, there was an indoor tournament: "The $1500.00 World Indoor Two-Man Volleyball Championship" played in front of 4,000 volleyball enthusiast at the San Diego Sports Arena. Fred Zuelich teamed with Dennis Hare to defeat Ron Von Hagen and Matt Gage in the championship match, Winston Cigarettes was the sponsor. Dennis Hare went on to write the first book on the subject of beach volleyball: "The Art of Beach Volleyball".
Sports are an important part of Urmia's culture. The most popular sport in Urmia is volleyball. Urmia is considered Iran's volleyball capital, and that is because of the ranks that Shahrdari Urmia VC got in Iranian Volleyball Super League and for the great volleyball players who play on the Iran men's national volleyball team (such as Saed Marouf, Abdolreza Alizadeh, and Milad Ebadipour) and first-class coaches in Iran. Recently, Urmia has also been called "the city of volleyball lovers" by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (International Volleyball Federation, FIVB) official website.
Christian "Chris" Marlowe (born September 28, 1951) is an American professional sportscaster who resides in Denver, Colorado. He currently is the play-by-play announcer for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association in the fall, winter and spring, and in the summer he is a play-by-play announcer for the Association of Volleyball Professionals. He is a former collegiate basketball and volleyball player and played on the US National Men's Volleyball Team. He played beach volleyball extensively and won numerous tournaments on the Open beach circuit. He also was a captain of the US Men's volleyball team that won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympic Games.
Kira Katarina Walkenhorst (born 18 November 1990) is a German beach volleyball player, playing as a blocker. She has an older brother Alexander Walkenhorst who is a professional beach volleyball player and a younger sister Pia Walkenhorst who also plays beach volleyball.
Menges started playing beach volleyball on Santa Monica's Sorrento Beach at the age of 17. He commonly played with and against Tom Chamales, who had graduated a year before him from Santa Monica High, and Randy Niles. Initially they played Santa Monica's "outside courts" before being invited up to play the "first court". It was at Santa Monica in 1972 that Menges met longtime partner Greg Lee. Menges' first Open tournament victory was with Lee at the 1973 Marine Open. They were partners off and on for the next two seasons while each completed an athletic career at UCLA. Menges played volleyball for Al Scates while Lee played basketball as a guard for John Wooden during the Bill Walton era. On the 1974 beach volleyball circuit Menges advanced to the finals of 4 events, winning 2 times, once with Chamales and once with Ron Von Hagen.
One of the most historic sports departments of the club is the men's volleyball club, which participated in the Greek Volleyball First Division in 1965-66, 1969–70, 2000–01, and 2001-02. From 1981-83, the men's volleyball club played in the Greek Volleyball Second Division, and in 1987, it played in the Greek Volleyball Third Division.
The Arab Volleyball Clubs Championship Cup Winners is a sport competition for club volleyball teams who won the cup trophies in their countries, played for the first time in 2000
In South Korea, nine-man volleyball is popular as a recreation. But those who plays it are not used to the detailed rule of the game because they generally watch only 6-man volleyball (standard volleyball) on TV or somewhere. So the rule generally played tends to be the mixture of the original 9-man volleyball and standard volleyball.
Javier Ernesto Jiménez Scull (born November 16, 1989) is a volleyball player from Cuba, who plays as an opposite hitter for the Cuba men's national volleyball team. On 2014 he became the first Cuban player ever to be transferred to a non-Cuban team (PAOK VC) having acquired at first the approval of the Cuban Sports Ministry. He played for PAOK VC from 2014-2016 having a major contribution to the team's first ever Championship, including the first ever Double (Championship and Cup) on 2015 and the Championship of the 2016 Greek Volleyleague. During his period in Thessaloniki and PAOK VC he was much beloved by the PAOK fans, especially for his way of celebrating points.
Nada Meawad (born April 12, 1998) is an Egyptian indoor volleyball player.
She has been playing volleyball since she was 5 years old in El Shams Sporting Club, following her siblings that were playing volleyball in the same Sporting Club.
She participated for the first time in the Egypt women's national volleyball team when she was 15 years old playing for the 2013 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship in Thailand.
In Turkey the club have won 13 Turkish Championship titles (5 in the current Turkish Women's Volleyball League and 8 in the former Turkish Women's Volleyball Championship), 3 Turkish Cups, and a record 3 Turkish Super Cups, among others.The women's volleyball department was founded in 1928 by who, as a young woman, played for the club's men's volleyball team, and was the first woman architect in Turkey. However, the section was closed due to a lack of opponents. In 1954, a new era started with assistance from Çamlıca Girls' High School (). Starting in 1958, the girls won eight Turkish Championships among many other titles. In 1977, the branch was closed again until 1989, this time due to insufficient funds. In 1993, the team was promoted from the Istanbul First League to the Turkish Second League. The following year, they played in the Turkish First League. However, they were relegated to the Turkish Second League in the 1995–96 season.
Senior Jenny Fitch, sophomore Alison Kalish and freshman Kathleen Yony will seek to receive the majority of playing time at libero this season. Fitch, who received a medical red-shirt a year ago, also has playing experience setting for the Sharks. Kalish started 11 matches and played in 80 games in her first year as a Shark a year ago. Yony, a freshman from Westminster Christian High in Miami, earned All-Dade County Volleyball honors and was selected to the Miami Herald 4A-1A Volleyball first team last year.
Monika Bociek has a three older brothers - Łukasz, who played volleyball in past, but went to seminary, Piotr and Grzegorz, who is also volleyball player and plays as an opposite hitter in Poland men's national volleyball team and ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle.
Maedeh Borhani (, born 22 June 1988) is a volleyball player from Iran, who plays as an Opposite Spiker for the Women's National Team and Shumen W Club. Her transfer to the Bulgarian club, Shumen W made her the first ever Iranian female volleyball player who plays outside the country and abroad.
Liu Libin (; born February 16, 1995 in Beijing) is a male Chinese volleyball player. He is the first volleyballer who joined a foreign club as a current player of China men's national volleyball team. He currently plays in JT Thunders.
The Montenegro women's national volleyball team is the national team of Montenegro. It is governed by the Volleyball Federation of Montenegro and takes part in international volleyball competitions.
Soon after the Montenegrin independence referendum, Volleyball Federation of Montenegro founded national teams. Women's team started to play in 2008, with the first match against Albania (3:0, friendly game).
Same year, Montenegro played its first games in official competitions - against Georgia in 2009 European Volleyball Championship qualifiers.
Raquel also has a son named Matt West who also plays volleyball. He played college volleyball at Peperdine University and is currently playing for Klando Volleyball.
Morado was born in Manila to Ariel and Hedy Morado. She has three siblings, two sisters and one brother. All the girls played varsity-level volleyball. An older sister, Jessica Katrina, who also played for the Ateneo Women's Volleyball Team from 2007 to 2012, was the one who convinced the younger Jia to pursue volleyball. Her other older sister, Jamie Marielle, played for the UST Golden Tigresses volleyball team as a libero. Upon pursuing volleyball, she became a multi-awarded athlete and a full-time student at the Ateneo de Manila University where she graduated with degree of BS in Psychology. She graduated high school at the Colegio San Agustin – Makati.
Shane Alexander (born ) is an Australian male volleyball player who plays the position of setter. He was part of the Australia men's national volleyball team at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship in Italy. He played for Queensland Pirates.
On spring 2016, Montenegro women's team for the first time played in 2016 Women's European Volleyball League.
At the same time, the team started to play in qualifiers for European Championship 2017. Montenegro made score 2-1 in the first stage of qualifiers and participated on the final stage, but at the end, with the score 2-4, didn't succeed to qualify for their first big tournament.
In spring 2016, Montenegrin women's team played for the first time in European Volleyball League, finishing with score 2-4. Same score they made in European Volleyball League 2017.
Born in Schwerin, Weiß began playing volleyball at the age of eight when her mother, who was a volleyball player, made a training group teaching techniques and tricks. She then joining her town's club Schweriner SC in 1993, where she progressed through the youth team system until reaching the first team and becoming professional. In 2000, she was combining her studies with volleyball training while trying to break into the first team. She then played for 2 Bundesliga club VC Parchim from 2001 to 2003, gaining more playing opportunities and experience.
Celeste Plak (born 26 October 1995) is a Dutch volleyball player, who plays as an outside hitter. She plays for Igor Gorgonzola Novara, and is the first non-caucasian player to be a part of the Netherlands women's national volleyball team.