Three Razorbacks Headed to US Women’s National Volleyball Team Open Tryouts

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo – The U.S. Women’s National Team Open Tryout takes place March 1-3 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with 218 athletes, including three Razorbacks, Rachel Rippee, Hailey Dirrigl and Gracie Ryan, vying for spots into the elite high-performance pipeline.

“Our program has a deep respect for the coaching staff of the National Team,” said head volleyball coach Jason Watson. “Getting our athletes exposed to such a high level of coaching and competition has some profound benefits. They are able to receive feedback in a different manner, apply that feedback in an extremely competitive environment and gain confidence in their ability to learn and grow as an athlete.”

Dirrigl finished her 2018 campaign named to the AVCA All-South Regional team and teammate Ryan topped the Razorback stat sheet with a .324 attack percentage  in 61 sets played.

The tryout will evaluate athletes from 87 colleges from across the country for spots on the U.S. Women’s National Team and the U.S. Collegiate National Team program. The breakdown for the tryout includes 56 outside hitters, 47 liberos, 43 setters, 41 middles and 31 opposites.

U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly will direct the entire tryout process

The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday’s first session goes from 2-8 p.m. MT, while Saturday’s sessions are at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. The final session on Sunday begins at 7:30 a.m. MT with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the U.S. Women’s National Team staff to participate in a “USA” training session. The Sunday session wraps up at 10:30 a.m. MT.

“The USA Tryouts are way for our athletes to measure themselves against some the best in the college game,” said Watson. “It’s an open tryout, which makes for a broad cross-section of talents. I’m excited to see how each of them does over the three days.”

All sessions minus the USA training session on Sunday morning will be streamed live by clicking here. USA Volleyball will use #USAVtryout as the event hashtag for photos, notes, quotes and stories posted to its social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram under the handle @usavolleyball.

Selected athletes for the U.S. Women’s National Team may begin their training in Anaheim, California, as early as the spring of 2019, or when an athlete’s scholastic or professional club season has concluded.

The U.S. Collegiate National Team program has three competition options:

• U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team – World University Games, Italy, June 30-July 14
• U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team – Japan, May 19-30
• U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team – Anaheim, Calif., June 23-29

Selections for the U.S. Collegiate National Teams will be made by the end of March.

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