Bojana Todorović

Bojana Todorović, also known as Bo Todorovic (born 28 October 1991 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a Serbian-American volleyball player.

Bojana Todorović
Personal information
NationalitySerbian / American
Born (1991-10-28) October 28, 1991
Belgrade, Serbia
HometownIrvine, California
Height183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight70 kg (150 lb)
Spike295 cm (116 in)
Block295 cm (116 in)
College(s)University of California, Los Angeles
Volleyball information
PositionOutside Hitter
Career
YearsTeams
2014-2015CEP Poitiers Saint-Benoît
2015Philips Gold Lady Slammers
2016Valencianas de Juncos
2016Changas de Naranjito

Todorović won the 2011 NCAA Division I competition with University of California Bruins. She was fourth in the 2013 FIVB U23 World Championship. With the Filipino club Philips Gold Lady Slammers she won the bronze medal in the 2015 Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix conference and the Second Best Outside Spiker individual award.

Personal life

Todorović was born on October 28, 1991 in Belgrade.[1] She recalled her childhood influenced by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War and the sirens she used to hear in the playground and spending quality family time while taking shelter underground.[2] Her family moved to Long Beach, California when she was nine years old.[1] Her parents are Dusan and Maja Todorović, who played club volleyball and introduced her to the sport.[1] She has an older brother named Dimitrije.[3][4] She is 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) tall 70 kilograms (150 lb).[5] She speaks Serbian, English and Spanish.[2][1]

She graduated from University High School (Irvine, California) and went to University of California, Los Angeles graduating in Economics.[4] She enrolled herself in the California State University, Long Beach graduate school to pursue a Master's degree in Sport management and Eastern European History.[6][7] Todorović has been praised for having a beautiful look while playing in France[8] and the Philippines.[9][10]As of August 2020, Todorović had reportedly been dating Kirby Ruiz. Todorović is also a professional model.[11]

Career

Todorović practiced karate for a year[1] before shes started with volleyball at the age of seven in Belgrade.[12][8] Playing with University High School, Todorović was All-City every year, including CIF championship in her first year, All-City Most Valuable Player in her last year and a Fab 50 selection from Volleyball Magazine.[3] With the Laguna Beach club, she won the third place in the 2007 and 2009 Junior National Championship and was selected among the All-Tournament Team in 2008 and 2009.[3][13]

She spent her playing career in college for the University of California Bruins as an outside spiker in her first two years, then defensive specialist and libero in her final year[14] and spent one year playing sand volleyball.[4] She was part of the 2011 UCLA Bruins champion team during the 2011 NCAA Division I competition.[15] In her rookie year, she was part of the 2009 All-Pac-10 Freshman team.[16] She won the 2010 USAV IDQ #3 beach volleyball tournament, partnering Tara Roenicke[17] earning a spont in the United States U19 Beach Volleyball Team, but was unable to compete with the team because she was not American citizen yet.[2]

She was part of the United States national team that ranked fourth in the 2013 FIVB U23 World Championship.[18] In 2014, she played another sand volleyball season, this time with the Long Beach State 49ers seeded No.1,[6] reaching the National Championships round of 16.[19] She signed with the French club CEP Poitiers Saint-Benoît located in the city of Poitiers from the second division league,[20] after turning down proposals from Germany and Switzerland to experience a new culture and language.[8]

2015

Todorović helped her club to avoid the relegation in the finals playoff[21] as the team main player.[22] Her coach wanted to keep her but she confirmed that she would return to the United States and the coach asked the club to found him a new "Bojana Todorović".[21]

In October 2015, she accepted the offer to join the Philips Gold Lady Slammers to play the 2015 PSL Grand Prix Conference. and described her stay as a great experience with her teammates and the fans.[23] She took time to learn some Filipino language to improve the communication with her teammates.[24] Scoring 38 points she helped her club to finish the classification round in first place after beating the champion and favorite team Foton.[25] Besides the 31 points scored by Todorović in the semifinal match,[26] again versus Foton, her team lost 2-3 admitting that she could do better for being a competitive person.[27] Philips Gold finally claimed the third place[28] in the tournament and Todorović won the Second Best Outside Spiker.[29] Minutes after the third place game against Cignal HD Spikers on November 21, 2015, Todorovic announced that she would retire from the sport after her planned season in the Puerto Rican volleyball league to complete her master's degree in Sports Management in the California State University, Long Beach.[30]

2016

Todorović signed for the Puerto Rican club Valencianas de Juncos for the 2016 season.[31] But she was transferred to Changas de Naranjito in early march to replace Emily Brown.[32] Even though she helped her team to ascend to the seventh place,[33] she later suffered an injury and could not play in the rest of the season.[34]

Clubs

References
  1. "Thursdays With ... Bojana Todorovic". Daily Bruin. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  2. Virgen, Steven (25 September 2010). "Q&A: Todorovic adapts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  3. "Bojana Todorović". UCLA Bruins. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  4. "Bojana Todorović". Long Beach State. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  5. "Bojana Todorović". FIVB. 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  6. Karla, Chris (8 April 2014). "UCLA sand volleyball to face old teammate in Long Beach". Daily Bruin. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  7. Escarlote, Mark (20 October 2015). "PSL Slam book: Bojana Todorovic". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  8. "Bojana l'exploratrice" [Bojana the explorer] (in French). 7 September 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  9. Cruz, Ramil (6 October 2015). "'Beauty and Best' players sa PSL Grand Prix". Abante. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  10. Suntay, Anthony (24 November 2015). "Top imports wow volleyball fans". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  11. "Bojana Todorovic". New Model Agency. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  12. "Athletic Biographies: Bojana Todorovic". Daily Bruin. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  13. "Three Future Bruins Named to All-Tournament Team at Junior Olympic Championships". Miami, Florida: Pac-12 Conference. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  14. Karla, Chris (14 November 2012). "Digging Deep: Senior's versitality, competitiveness key for women's volleyball team". Daily Bruin. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  15. Voepel, Mechelle (18 December 2011). "UCLA captures volleyball title". ESPN. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  16. "Cook Named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, Gil and Sather Earn All-Pac-10 First-Team Honors". Walnut Creek, California: Pac-12 Conference. 30 November 2009. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  17. "Women's USAV IDQ #3". Beach Volleyball Database. 27 June 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  18. Kauffman, Bill (12 October 2013). "Women's U23 Falls to Japan in Bronze Match". USA Volleyball. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  19. "Sand volleyball ends season at pairs championship". Gulf Shores, Alabama: Long Beach State. 4 May 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  20. "Présentation de l'équipe de Poitiers" [Presentation of Poitiers team] (in French). Quimper Volley. 14 October 2014. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  21. "Focus sur l'équipe de Poitiers/Saint Benoît" [Focus on team Poitiers / Saint Benedict] (in French). La Nouvelle Republique. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  22. "VOLLEY-BALL - Elite féminine : le CEP Poitiers Saint-Benoît recrute la Tunisienne Nihel Ghoul" [VOLLEYBALL - Elite Women: CEP Poitiers St. Benedict recruiting Tunisian Nihel Ghoul] (in French). Centre Presse. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  23. "Get to know this batch of Super Liga imports better through Spin.ph Q & A". Spin. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  24. "Philips Gold import Bojana Todorovic sees clear benefit of understanding native language. Find out why". Spin. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  25. Nakpil, Danielle (16 November 2015). "Todorovic powers Philips Gold past Petron in 4-set thriller to regain top spot". Rappler. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  26. Lozada, Mei-Lin (20 November 2015). "'Sleepless' Philips Gold import Todorovic bummed not to be playing in Super Liga finals". Spin. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  27. Lozada, Bong (20 October 2015). "Todorovic rues poor start vs Foton: 'We should've taken care of it'". Spin. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  28. "Todorovic announces swan song after Philips Gold's third place finish". ABS-CBN Sports. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  29. Nakpil, Danielle (5 December 2015). "Foton import Lindsay Stalzer named PSL MVP". Rappler. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  30. "Bojana Todorovic rules out return to Super Liga, reveals she's leaning toward retirement". Spin. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  31. "Las Valencianas ya tienen sus dos importadas para la LVSF 2016" [Valencian already have two imported for LVSF 2016] (in Spanish). Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  32. "Vuelve a Mayagüez Jetzabel del Valle" [Jetzabel del Valle back to Mayagüez] (in Spanish). El Nuevo Dia. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  33. "En ascenso las Changas de Naranjito" [Rising of the Changas de Naranjito] (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 13 March 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  34. "Leonas y Gigantes formarán una sambumbia" [Leonas and Gigantes will form a mess] (in Spanish). Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
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