USA girls youth national
team have high expectations leading into U-18 World
Championships
July 16, 2005, Colorado, USA – The USA girls youth national
team have high expectations going into the FIVB Girls U-18
World Championships in Macau, China beginning on July 23.
This will be the fourth appearance for the Americans at the
World Championships, where they hope to build upon their
best-ever fourth-place finish at the 2003 World
Championships in Poland.
The tournament field consists of 16 teams broken up into
four pools of four teams each. The United States is a member
of Pool D along with Chinese Taipei, Italy and Tunisia. Pool
A includes Argentina, Croatia, Egypt and Macau, China. Pool
B consists of Austria, China, Korea and Ukraine. Pool C is
made up of Brazil, Belarus, Puerto Rico and Russia.
Team USA qualified for the 2005 World Championships by
winning the gold medal at the 2004 NORCECA Zone
Championships last July in Catano, Puerto Rico, with a
perfect 4-0 record.
The roster for this year’s team includes: Taylor Carico;
Kori Cooper; Jennifer Doris; Ashley Edinger; Ashley Engle;
Megan Hodge; Rachel Holloway; Christina Kaelin; Alix
Klineman; Kim Kuzma; Geena Urango and Lauren Williams.
First-year head coach Erikka Gulbranson has high hopes for
her team and believes that the talent recruited for this
year is top notch.
“This is probably one of the best youth or junior teams that
USA Volleyball has ever put together,” said Gulbranson.
“Most of these kids have been involved with USA Volleyball
for at least three or four years and you can tell by their
skills, techniques and physical play that they are, and have
been, a very big part of this program…It’s unbelievable how
good they are.”
Seven players from last year’s team that qualified for the
World Championships will return for the United States this
year, including the NORCECA Most Valuable Player and “Best
Attacker” (Hodge), “Best Setter” (Holloway) and “Best
Serve-Receiver” (Kuzma).
Gulbranson expects these veterans to help lead the newer
players throughout the tournament.
“Leadership is key. These girls have done it before and have
seen what it looks like. They are going to prepare the new
players,” she said.
The team has been training at the U.S. Olympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., since July 9.
The coaching staff noticed in the first couple days of
practice that their players already possessed the skills
needed to compete at this level of competition.
“Everyone is excited for practice. Most of them know the
training for USA Volleyball…so we want to get them playing
within a system and comfortable playing together,” said
Gulbranson.
Hodge credits the team’s past international experience as
one of the reasons they are ready to play.
“This year the girls are at a really high level because the
competition is more elite,” Hodge commented.
Among all the returning players are a few fresh faces that
are new to the USA Volleyball scene.
“Jennifer Doris is probably the most athletic kid, right
behind Megan Hodge, to be in this program,” Gulbranson said
of the middle blocker. “She jumps out of the gym, and is
very physical, but has the least amount of USA Volleyball
experience.”
Other newcomers include Engle, Urango, Edinger and Kaelin.
Team USA will head to Macau, China, on Saturday, July 16 and
they will go head-to-head with Tunisia in their first match
on July 23.
The players and coaches feel confident that they will have a
good showing at the World Championship.
“This tournament is much more difficult than the qualifier,
but we’ve got good players and a good staff going in so I
feel pretty confident,” said Gulbranson.
“We want to win a gold medal…I don’t think people are
expecting us to do anything big, but I think we have a good
chance,” Hodge added. |
