USA Volleyball has recently announced its 12-player U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team roster that will compete in the 2018 NORCECA Girls’ U18 Continental Championship Aug. 25 to Sept. 2 in Honduras. The top two countries in the NORCECA event will qualify for the 2019 FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championship. Team USA has won the NORCECA Girls’ U18 Continental Championship seven of the 10 times of the biennial event, but have finished second to Dominican Republic in the last two editions.
The girls who made the cut from the previous 20-Player rosters are as follows (Note: Verbal Commitments only):
- Outsides/Opposites: Ally Batenhorst (Uncommitted), Allison Jacobs (UCLA), Lindsay Krause (Nebraska), Emily Londot (Ohio State), Jess Mruzik (Michigan)
- Middles: CC Crawford (Kansas), Bre Kelley (Uncommitted), Devyn Robinson (Wisconsin)
- Setters: Kami Miner (Uncommitted), Kennedi Orr (Nebraska)
- Liberos: Hattie Monson (Notre Dame), Sydney Taylor (Uncommitted)
The team will be led by head coach Jim Stone, who won silver medals at the 2013 and 2015 FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championship, USA Volleyball’s only medals in age-group World Championships.
“I think we have a fairly good ball control team. In our training, our first touches have been fairly consistent. Ball control will have to be a strength. I think we are a fairly good serving team. We have tried to emphasis the importance of serving, and the players have bought into serving with velocity, deep and hard on the court. Hopefully our ball control and serving will be strengths as we go through the tournament. I am really proud of our players. I mean, this is hard because everything is new. They put in a lot of time on the court. It was physically demanding. Putting a system together while you are trying out is hard because it gets people out of their comfort zone a little bit. They are trying to do what they are good at, but at the same time we are asking them to do some different things. I am really proud of the efforts they gave. The players got significantly better over the 13 days we were here. I am pleased with their efforts, I am pleased with where we are at. Now we just have to find out if that is good enough.”
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