Volleyball's Bowers & Rivers Help USA A2 Red Team Win Gold; McGinnis Named to Pan Am Cup Team
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | Volleyball
University of Florida rising senior Kelsey Bowers (Gainesville, Fla.) and rising sophomore Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) helped the U.S. Women's National A2 Red Team capture the Open Division of the USA Adult Open Volleyball Championships on Tuesday at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
The USA A2 Red Team defeated Huskies VBC, University of Washington's collegiate team, in the gold medal match. The U.S. won the first two sets before the Huskies rallied to win the third set.
Rivers, who was named to the Women's Open Division All-Tournament Team, contributed a team-leading 17 points the championship match, including 16 kills on 31 attacks and one block.
UF's Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.), who will be a redshirt freshman in 2008, played on the USA A2 Blue Team that claimed the bronze medal.
The USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline A2 Teams have been competing in the Open Division since 2003. Its only other championship in the event was in 2004. The USA A2 Program is the only team with more than one Women's Open Division title in the last eight years.
Also, recent Gator graduate Angie McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) was named to the USA's Pan American Cup roster for the 2008 season-opening event for Team USA, held May 30-June 7 at Mexicali and Tijuana, Mexico.
While the future will be displayed, some of the American players will also be evaluated for one of 12 roster spots at the 2008 Olympic Games.
“We will use the Pan American Cup Tournament for evaluation,” U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach 'Jenny' Lang Ping said. “For our veterans, we will decide later as they are not in their best physical condition to play in this event. Also, some of them came in really late from their professional teams.”
“These players are going to be the future of USA Volleyball, but is it 2008 at Beijing or 2012 at London,” said Tom Hogan, the U.S. Women's National Team Assistant Coach who will serve as the head coach for the Pan American Cup squad. “We already know they are the future, the question is when. It is exciting because we are developing the future of USA Volleyball. But yet, we are throwing a bunch of them into the swimming pool and saying to swim and they never have been to a pool.”
The U.S. plays pool play matches at Mexicali with five days of consecutive matches. Team USA opens against Dominican Republic on May 30, followed by Costa Rica on May 31, Argentina on June 1, host Mexico on June 2 and Trinidad & Tobago on June 3. After an off-day for all 12 teams on June 4 to relocate all teams to Mexicali, classification round starts on June 5 with the quarterfinals or crossover matches for places five through eight. The semifinal round follows on June 6 and the championship match and final classification contests on June 7.
The Pan American Cup will yield four berths into the 2009 World Grand Prix. The top three teams from NORCECA and the top South American team will advance to next year's annual FIVB tournament.
Several of the players on the Pan American Cup recently returned from a three-week, eight-match tour of China, including McGinnis.
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