Alida Bennour delivered a historic performance at the FIVB Volleyball Women's U21 World Championship, scoring an astounding 51 points in Algeria's final match against Mexico. The 18-year-old opposite hitter put on a scoring clinic at the Samator Healthporia Volleyball Hall in Surabaya, Indonesia, tallying 47 attacks, one block, and three aces.
"I'm focused on continuing to develop my game as I prepare for my professional career in France," Bennour might say after her record-setting performance that demonstrated her attacking prowess on the international stage.
Bennour now joins an elite group of volleyball players who have scored more than 50 points in a single match. This remarkable club includes Azerbaijan's Polina Rahimova (58 points), Bulgaria's Elitsa Vasileva (57 points), and USA's Nicole Fawcett (55 points). Not bad company for the young Algerian captain!
Interestingly, this wasn't Bennour's first standout performance in the tournament. She had already impressed volleyball fans with high-scoring outings against Egypt, Türkiye, and Poland before her 51-point explosion against Mexico. Her scoring total stands as the highest in the entire championship.
The next chapter in Bennour's career will take her to France, where she'll join Nancy for her first professional season abroad. There, she'll team up with Thailand's Pimpichaya Kokram as she begins her European journey. At just 18, leaving home to test herself in a competitive European league shows tremendous courage.
Bennour has made no secret of her ambitions, with future goals of competing in the prestigious leagues of Italy and Türkiye. Can she establish herself as one of the game's elite scorers in the coming years? Based on this record-breaking performance, she's certainly on the right track.
