Volleyball Quartet Heading To U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryouts
2/18/2016 1:49:00 PM | Volleyball
Taryn Kloth, Lauren Smith, Jaali Winters and Brittany Witt will try out
OMAHA – Four Creighton Volleyball student-athletes will participate in the 2016 U.S. Women's National Team open tryouts, which are taking place this weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo. Lauren Smith, Jaali Winters, Taryn Kloth and Brittany Witt will each head to the U.S. Olympic Training Center for the tryouts, which will be held Feb. 19-21.
The quartet will be competing for a spot on the U.S. Women's National Team and/or the U.S. Collegiate National Teams program. A total of 231 student-athletes from 88 schools are expected to participate.
Athletes selected to the national teams will be notified by early March. USA Volleyball will announce the selections by the end of March once all the rosters spots are accepted and confirmed.
U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff will direct the entire tryout process. The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday's first session goes from 3-9 p.m. CT, while Saturday's sessions are at 9 a.m. (focus on serve/receive and individual work) and 3 p.m. (middle-centered and out-of-system focus). The tryout concludes on Sunday at 9 a.m. with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the staff to participate in a "USA" training session.
All sessions of the tryout will be streamed live at http://www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/usa-teams/indoor-volleyball/women/national-team-tryouts. USA Volleyball will use #USAVTryout as the tryout hashtag for photos, notes, quotes and stories posted to its social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram under the handle @USAVolleyball. Fans can watch the live stream and follow on Snapchat, as USA Volleyball will be following a couple athletes throughout the entire process for behind the scenes access.
Selected athletes for the U.S. Women's National Team may begin their training in Anaheim, Calif., as early as the spring of 2016, or when an athlete's scholastic or professional club season has concluded.
The U.S. Collegiate National Team program has three competition options:
- Tour of China (12 athletes): June 18-July 1
- Tour of Europe (12 athletes): July 5-16
- USA Volleyball Girls' Junior National Championships (projected 36 athletes): June 21-30 in Indianapolis
A vast majority of the current U.S. Women's National Team athletes have participated in past open tryouts. As an example, Kim Hill (Portland, Ore.), an alum of Pepperdine University, took part in the 2013 open tryout, was asked to train with the team in May 2013, started much of the 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix and by 2014 earned the most valuable player award at the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in which Team USA won for the first time.
Smith and Winters were both named First Team All-BIG EAST, and joined Kloth as key contributors on Creighton's 2015 team that finished 27-9 and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time. Witt is an Omaha Marian product who will enroll at Creighton in August after setting a state record in digs while helping the Crusaders to three state titles.
