The USA Volleyball Cup or USAV Cup is an annual indoor volleyball event organized by USA Volleyball.
The USAV CUP is an initiative of the USA Volleyball that draw elite teams to the United States to compete with the U.S. Men's and Women's National Indoor Volleyball Teams.
This provides the chance for the local communities around the U.S. specially to the host city of USA Volleyball, Anaheim, to watch world-class competition of women's volleyball.
In every tour series, at least one match will be played in Southern California and one throughout the country.
The USA Volleyball Cup was inaugurated in 2013 with the U.S. Women's National Team hosting Japan's Women's National Team.
The following year, the U.S. Men's National Team started the men's tour of USAV Cup hosting Iran's Men's National Team.[1]
The inaugural year of USA Volleyball Cup only had the women's series. Japan's women's volleyball team accepted the U.S. invitation.
The event served as a preparation to the 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix.
Prior to this tour series, the U.S. Women's National Team hosted Japan during the spring of 2000 with matches in Burleston, Texas, Pueblo, Colorado, Colorado Spring and Denver.
Japan won three of the four matches with three of the matches extending to a fifth set. In Pueblo, Colo., Japan won the contest with a 25–23 score in the fifth set. The single victory of U.S. also came to a five-set match.[2]
For this year's USAV Cup, the U.S. women hosted Brazil Women's National Team. In addition to the women's series, the U.S. Men's National Team were introduced to the USAV Cup with the inclusion of men's series.
The U.S. men hosted the I.R. Iran men's national team. This marked the first time the Iran's volleyball team compete on U.S. soil.[3]
The 2014 USAV Cup featured four exhibition games for both men and women. It also served as a preparation for the 2014 FIVB World Championship.[4]
The 2015 USAV Cup featured China as the visiting team.[5] This series was viewed as the continuation of the 2014 World Championship finals where the same two teams met.
The U.S. Men hosted Brazil for the 2015 USAV Cup.[6] The seven served as a preparation of for the 2015 World Cup.
The men's series of this year's USAV Cup was shorter than the previous editions with only two-exhibition games. The U.S. men hosted Japan.[7]
The men's series was scheduled slightly earlier than the previous editions. Some of the leading players of U.S. men's team were still competing abroad making them unable to participate in the event.