USA Volleyball has announced a 16-team roster for the 2017 FIVB Swatch Major Series opener in Ft. Lauderdale that begins on Tuesday.
Under new FIVB rules, host countries get more entries than they previously had for the organization’s 3, 4, and 5 star events. Those are the top 3 categories of elite tournaments under FIVB’s new 5-star structure that is being rolled out for the 2017-2020 quad.
Previously, host nations were allowed to register 6 teams of each gender for these categories of tournaments, which included wild card entries. Now they get 8 teams of each gender – the original 6, plus an additional 2 wildcards.
The American roster looks very different coming into this year’s season than it did at the end of last year. Of the 8 teams in the main draw, half are new pairings – the most exciting of which is Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross. But veteran duos return as well, like April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings on the women’s side, and Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena on the men’s side.
Ross and Walsh Jennings are the #1 seed on the women’s side of the tournament, primarily thanks to being the best in-tact pair from last season: Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, while planning to pursue a Tokyo 2020 bid together, are on a temporary hiatus while Ludwig recovers from shoulder surgery; while the Olympic silver medalists from Brazil Agatha and Barbara have both landed with new partners.
The full team USA roster is below:
| Fort Lauderdale 5-Star Roster | ||||||
| Athletes | Coach | Entry | ||||
| April Ross | Kerri Walsh Jennings | Marcio Sicoli | Main Draw | |||
| Brooke Sweat | Summer Ross | Ty Tramblie | Main Draw | |||
| Lauren Fendrick | Sara Hughes | Main Draw | ||||
| Lane Carico | Irene Pollock | Jason Lochead | Main Draw Wild Card | |||
| Brittany Hochevar | Emily Day | Hector Gutierrez | Qualifier | |||
| Kelly Claes | Kelly Reeves | Qualifier Wild Card | ||||
| Emily Stockman | Kimberly DiCello | Qualifier | ||||
| Kendra Vanzwieten | Kelley Larsen | Reserve | ||||
| Phil Dalhausser | Nick Lucena | Paul Baxter | Main Draw | |||
| John Hyden | Tri Bourne | Jon Daze | Main Draw | |||
| Jake Gibb | Taylor Crabb | Main Draw | ||||
| Casey Patterson | Theo Brunner | Rich Lambourne | Main Draw Wild Card | |||
| Stafford Slick | Billy Allen | Qualifier | ||||
| Sean Rosenthal | Trevor Crabb | Jeff Alzina | Qualifier Wild Card | |||
| Ryan Doherty | John Mayer | Tom Black | Reserve | |||
| Mark Burik | Bill Kolinske | Reserve | ||||
| Staff | ||||||
| Phil Noyes | USAV Video Scout | |||||
| Corinne Calabro | USAV Communications | |||||
| Giuseppe Vinci | Scout | |||||
| Tyler Widdison | Scout | |||||
UPCOMING EVENTS | Add to your schedule
Feb. 7-12 FIVB Fort Lauderdale 5-Star
Feb. 15-18 FIVB Kish Island (Men only) 3-Star
March 3-5 FIVB Shepparton 1-Star
March 17-19 FIVB Sydney (Women only) 2-Star
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