COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 18, 2016) – USA Volleyball is pleased to announce the 12-player roster for the 2016 U.S. Girls' Youth National Team.
The team will compete at the 2016 USA Volleyball High Performance Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from July 19-23 before traveling to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the NORCECA U18 Continental Championships Aug. 31- Sept. 8.
Outside hitters named to the team are Logan Eggleston (Franklin, Tennessee), Skylar Fields (Missouri City, Texas), Mia Grunze (Waterford, Wisconsin), Allison Martinez (Montebello, California), Brooklyn Schirmer (Long Beach California) and Haley Warner (Fayetteville, Arkansas).
The team's middle blockers are Sophia Dorsch-Summer (Beaverton, Oregon), Serena Gray (San Gabriel, California) and Kendall Kipp (Newport Beach, California).
Erin O'Leary (Novi, Michigan) and Ella Powell (Fayetteville, Arkansas) will captain the offense at setter while libero Brooke Nuneviller (Chandler, Arizona) will anchor the defense.
Eight regions are represented among the 12 athletes: Southern California has the greatest representation with four players. Both Powell and Warner hail from Fayetteville, Arkansas, giving the Delta region the second largest number of athletes with two. The Columbia Empire, Southern, Lone Star, Badger, Arizona and Lakeshore regions each have one player.
Assisting Virtue – the associate head coach at Northwestern University – on the Girls' Youth National Team coaching staff is three-time Olympian Stacy Sykora as an assistant coach. Joining them are offensive coordinator and Minnesota Select Volleyball Club coach Kayla Cole, middle blocker coach and technical coordinator Nicki Holmes, who currently is the assistant women's volleyball coach at North Carolina State University and program coordinator Denise Sheldon.
"Stacy's experience over her 15 year USA Volleyball career will be invaluable to our team," Virtue said. "Kayla will work closely with our setters to create our USA offense in a short window of time, while Nicki will be instrumental in helping our team prepare for and scout opponents, as well making defensive adjustments during matches.
The 12 players were selected from a pool of 24 athletes named to the Girls' Youth Training Team. That team was named following a series of tryouts nationwide earlier this year.
The Girls' Youth National Team finished with a silver medal both at the 2015 FIVB Girls' U18 World Championship in Lima, Peru and at the 2014 NORCECA Women's U18 Continental Championships in Costa Rica.