2017 FIVB World U18 Girls’ Championships
- August 18th-27th, 2017
- Rosario and Santa Fe, Argentina
- Tournament Central
- Schedule/Results
- Results/Ranking
USA Volleyball has named their 12-player Girls’ Youth National roster that will represent the United States at the 2017 FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championships. The tournament will be held from August 18th-27th in Rosario and Santa Fe, Argentina.
The team has spent the last two weeks training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and will depart for Argentina this week.
“They’re always the best in the gym,” said the team’s head coach Jim Stone, who has led the USA Volleyball Youth National Team since 2008, where he finished a 25-year run as the head coach at Ohio State. “I tell them all the time, ‘you’re big and tall and made of steel, but now you get to play other players that are also big and tall and made of steel.’ Watching just how teams can accept that challenge and learn and grow as a player and as a person; I think that’s the thing I find most intriguing and most enjoyable about the whole process.
“I think everybody’s looking forward to what’s in front of us.”
The girls’ U18 Youth team has been the most successful of all of the USA Volleyball youth or junior teams. In 2013, when they took silver, they were the first youth or junior team of either gender to medal at an FIVB World Championship. They repeated their silver in 2015.
The United States is the top-ranked U18 team in the world, jumping the defending World Champions Italy on the strength of a superior continental championship result (2nd for the USA in NORCECA behind the Dominican Republic, whereas Italy was just 5th back in their last counting tournament in 2014-2015). The Americans qualified for the tournament based on the 2nd-place finish there
“I think we have a lot of work to do,” libero Brooke Nuneviller said. “We have a lot to get to if we want to end up with our goal of getting a gold medal. We’ve never done that as a youth team. So I think that we need to work really, really hard if we want to get that goal, but I think we can do it if we push ourselves hard enough.”
“Not that many 16-year-olds can say they’ve been to South America to go compete for their country,” outside hitter Madi Kubik said. “That’s an exciting experience for anyone to have. I think the playing level in our gym is very eye opening coming from our club and our high school teams. I’d say that my goals are to go compete, represent our country well and go win that gold medal.”
Team USA will play in Pool B – arguably the most challenging in the entire tournament. Their opening match is against the European Champions Russia, and they’ll also run into Brazil in the pool stages. The group of 5 teams is comprised of the United States, Belarus, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. Group play runs from
The top 4 teams in each of 4 pools will advance to the knockout stages, which is a 16-team bracket. That means only 4 teams are eliminated in pool play. 17th-20th place matches are played from August 23rd-26th, while the battle for the title will be played from August 23rd-27th. Classification matches are played for all 20 placements in the tournament.
Italy are the defending champions, having won their first title in 2015, while China is the most successful team in the tournament’s history with 4 titles. Brazil has landed on the podium 9 times in the tournament’s 14-year history, and has another 4th place finish to go with those medals. Brazil is the only country to have played in all 15 editions (after 2017) of the tournament.
9 of USA Volleyballs regions are represented on the roster, led by the Great Lakes Region with 3 players (Mica Allison, Madison Horin, and Taylor Landfair).
By Region
- Great Lakes – 3
- Southern – 2
- Lone Star – 2
- Arizona – 1
- Iowa – 1
- North Texas – 1
- Northern California – 1
- Southern California – 1
USA Pool Matches
Date … Matches…time (US Eastern)
Aug. 19 … USA v. Russia …9:00 AM
Aug. 20 … USA v. Belarus … 11:00 AM
Aug. 21 … USA v. Brazil … 11:00 AM
Aug. 22 … USA v. Mexico … 9:00 AM
Roster
2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior National Team
# — Name (Position, Ht., Hometown, Club, Region)
3 – Brooke Nuneviller* – L, 5-11, Chandler, Ariz., Aspire, Arizona
4 – Mica Allison – S, 6-0, White Heath, Ill., Illini Elite, Great Lakes
5 – Nicklin Hames – S, 5-11, Maryville, Tenn., K2 Volleyball, Southern
6 – Selina Xu – S, 6-0, San Carlos, Calif., Vision Volleyball, Northern California
8 – Madison Williams – OH, 6-1, Texas Advantage, North Texas
9 – Logan Eggleston* – OH, 6-3, Franklin, Tenn., Alliance, Southern
11 – Skylar Fields* – OH, 6-2, Missouri City, Texas, Houston Juniors, Lone Star
14 – Madi Kubik – OH, 6-2, West Des Moines, Iowa, Central Iowa Select, Iowa
15 – Kendall Kipp* – MB, 6-5, Newport Beach, Calif., Laguna Beach, Southern California
16 – Madison Horin – MB, 6-3, Munster, Ind., First Alliance, Great Lakes
17 – Holly Campbell – MB, 6-3, Austin, Texas, Austin Juniors, Lone Star
19 – Taylor Landfair – OH, 6-4, Plainfield, Ill., Elite Sports Performance, Great Lakes
* Member of the 2016 U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Jim Stone
Asst. Coach: Michelle Chatman-Smith
Asst. Coach: Michael Gee
Head of Delegation: Lizzy Briones
Technical Coordinator: Herb Summer
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