This MDC Volleyball Player’s Mom Has Three Olympic Gold Medals—She Wants A National Title
Anllelivis Fernandez knows a thing or two about high expectations.
Her mother—Ana Ibis Fernandez Valle—is the most decorated female volleyball player in Olympic history, capturing three golds and one bronze from 1992 to 2004.
Now Anllelivis, who has hopscotched the globe with her mother from Russia, Spain and Italy, is poised to blaze her own volleyball path at Miami Dade College.
The 6-foot-7 inch opposite hitter is a sophomore on the Lady Sharks, the preseason No. 6 ranked junior college volleyball program in the nation.
“We are attempting to win a national title,” Anllelivis said.
The 20-year-old started her athletic career in the United States last year as a member of the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota volleyball team. She excelled, scoring 187 points and adding 153 kills.
But the Manatees struggled, finishing with a 2-16 record.
At the end of the season, Anllelivis asked for her release from the team. Shortly after, she reached out to MDC head volleyball coach Kiko “Origenes” Benoit.
“She is very coachable,” Benoit said. “She trains really hard because she has her own goals.”
Anllelivis was born in Mariano, a borough in Havana, Cuba in 2002. Four years later, she moved to Spain with her mother to play for a professional team in Murcia. In 2004, Ana Ibis won her last Olympic medal for Cuba—a bronze—at the Games in Athens, Greece.
By 2016, the talented teenager began crafting her volleyball skills. In 2019, she started a one-year stint with the Fundación Centro Alto Entrenamiento y Promoción Deportiva in Soria, Spain. The following season she played at Club Volleyball Sayre Centro Comercial La Ballena which is part of the Murcia Volleyball Federation in Spain.
“I have always told her that volleyball is a beautiful sport,” Ana Ibis said. “She has to take advantage of the size she has, study and more importantly, she has to enjoy the experience.”
This season, the Lady Sharks hope to utilize Anllelivis length to fortify its frontline. She joins an impressive core that includes outside hitter Romina Cornelio, defensive specialist Kiaraliz Perez, setter Luisa Melloni and new players Beatrice Carulli, Alexandra Koleva and Yanelis Cabada-Mendoza.
During the Lady Sharks’ first four matches, Anllelivis had 28 kills, 64 total attacks and scored 32 points. The team, which has eight new players this season, is 2-2. They are working on their chemistry.
Despite being a first-year player at MDC, Anllelivis, who is majoring in business, is doing her best to build camaraderie.
“If someone needs help she is always there,” said Anllelivis’ roommate, Ana Tevdoradze, a six-foot-three outside hitter from the country of Georgia.
The Lady Sharks’ next game is on Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. versus Iowa Western Community College in Fort Myers at the Battle of the Beach Tournament.
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