Hooker won the Most Impressive Player award in the World Cup match against Serbia
She is the first athlete – male or female – to have won the Express-News award three times.
“That’s a huge honor to have won it three times,” Hooker, 24, told the Texas-based paper.
Hooker played a huge part in earning USA an Olympic berth when they finished second in the FIVB World Cup in Japan in November. She scored 39 points in the Americans’ win over China and followed that up the next day with 24 against eventual champions Italy. It was the Italians’ only loss in the tournament. China won the bronze medal in the World Cup.
Hooker finished as the third-highest scorer in the World Cup and she was the second-highest scorer in the FIVB World Grand Prix, which the Americans won.
USA coach Hugh McCutcheon said he was not surprised at his star attacker’s success.
“Once you get to know her and you understand her drive and competitive nature, it’s not surprising,” he was quoted as saying. “Athletically, she’s a very special talent.”
Of her World Cup performance, he stated: “[Destinee] just competed like crazy and just kept fighting and scrapping. Like everyone else, she was trying to punch that ticket to London.”
USA also triumphed in the 2011 NORCECA Continental Cup in Puerto Rico.
