A Pair of Volleyballers
Collegiate National Team
Case wrote a wonderful article yesterday covering some Field Hockey and Track & Field athletes working to compete at the International level.
Mere minutes after the article went up, UofL Volleyball announced that Claire Chaussee was embarking on her training stint with USA Volleyball as part of the Women's Collegiate National Team.
In past years, USA Volleyball has selected several different Collegiate National Teams that then would train in Colorado Spring for a period of time, before traveling to various parts of the world to compete with top level teams in that part of the world. Since Covid, the program has shifted to naming a single larger group of athletes that then gather to practice and compete in a more intra-squad approach.
The selection process for the annual Collegiate Team program starts in February when athletes travel to Colorado Springs for the USWNT Open Tryout program. Louisville has sent anywhere from two to six or seven to the tryouts in the past, and typically has one to three players named to the teams.
Volleyball Nations League
Anna Stevenson has been competing with the US Senior National Team as part of the Volleyball Nations Leagues event. This multiple week event allows the participating nations to select a different team, from a larger pool of players for each week of play.
Stevenson played this week in the second week of play after some solid contributions in the first week of play two weeks ago (they alternative weeks of men and women competing).
The team finished a match just hours ago to complete the matches for the week. It was a 3-1 win over Thailand. In the match, Stevenson had seven kills on 17 attempts with three miscues. Add a trio of blocks and chalk up a decent outing for the UofL Alumna.
For the week, team USA did very well, sweeping all of their other opponents; China, Poland, and Bulgaria.
Team USA will play another week of matches starting June 30th for the final week of pool play in the VNL competition. After that week of play, the eight top teams will advance to a tournament format for the final phase of play. With how USA has been doing, I would expect the team to be a part of that tournament.
Again, with the VNL, each national team can switch the players that play each week, so we'll look again the week of the 30th to see if Stevenson continues to get selected to play.
WNBA
No action in the WNBA yesterday, so just about every team is on the court today, but only two matchups with Louisville rooting interests as we have UofL alumnae going head to head in both matches.
Starting at two o'clock, Myisha Hines-Allen with the Washington Mystics host the Connecticut Sun who of course recently picked up Jaz Jones. This game has been picked up to be featured on CBS, kind of a big deal for the WNBA.
The other head to head will start at three o'clock. The Indiana Fever, with Emily Engstler will host the Chicago Sky with Dana Evans. I don't think much of anyone is expecting this game to be terribly competitive with Chicago near the top of the standings, and the Fever near the bottom. I also don't think Engstler and Evans would really get matched up on the court with one defending the other, but wow, wouldn't that matchup be interesting to see!
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
It was a Basketball heavy podcast as we covered the news events of the week. Discussions covered Angel McCoughtry's appearance in Louisville with the official opening of the basketball court that she has renovated and decorated. Also up was Beth Burns heading to the University of Southern California and discussing the role, much larger than her official title suggested. We also turned to the WNBA a bit, celebrating Jaz Jones being picked up by Connecticut, and AD seemingly bouncing back to full competition levels in Atlanta.
Add in some UofL women's soccer news with a new goal keeper transfer announced, and we had plenty to discuss in the show. Check it out at it's anchor.fm home:
JMcA
Hoping both do well in their respective ventures !
ReplyDeleteNick O