Jessica Fine (red) was one of three Bruins to compete at the open tryout. |
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Fine, Mills and Sather Compete at U.S. National Team Open Tryouts
Feb. 26, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - UCLA women's volleyball players Jessica Fine, Katie Mills and Kaitlin Sather each competed at the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team Open Tryouts, which ran from Feb. 22-24 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Of 113 athletes competing, the Bruin trio were trying out for spots on the U.S. Women's National and Olympic Teams, along with the Senior A2 Team. The USA A2 Team, which will tentatively be two teams of 10 members each, will train and compete in the USA Open Championships in Atlanta (May 18-28).
The athletes started the weekend tryouts on Friday evening with physical testing, along with drills using three and four athletes per side. On Saturday, each wave participated in a morning and afternoon training session. In addition, setters, liberos and attackers participated in an extra session after lunch on Saturday with setters concentrating on setting techniques and outside attackers working on serve reception. Sunday's final training session was broken up into two waves with each competing in a tournament-style format for the panel of evaluators to judge the participants in volleyball situations.
Tryout participants will be notified by March 11 whether they have been invited to train with the U.S. Women's National Team or compete as part of the A2 Team program. USA Volleyball will release the A2 Teams and any players selected to train with the U.S. National Team by the end of March upon confirming the roster.