Five of Six USAV HP Championships Divisions Titles Settled

Bill Kauffman
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bill.kauffman@usav.org

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. (July 29, 2010) – Home court proved to be an advantage at the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships (HPC) as five of the six division championships were decided on Thursday at the Chula Vista Resorts in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. The international-style tournament with 87 teams, including foreign teams from Chile, Puerto Rico and Peru, started competition on July 26 and concludes on July 30.

The Badger Region, the host region for the event, collected two of the five titles decided on Thursday. Meanwhile, the 2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team continued to pull in gold medals from earlier this year.

Gold-medal matches were played in the Girls’ International Youth Division, Women’s International Youth Division, Boys’ International Youth Division, Girls’ National Select Division and Boys’ National Youth Division on the second-to-last day of the event. Girls’ National Youth Division wraps up the tournament on Friday with its gold-and bronze-medal matches at 8 a.m., along with the bronze-medal match and other final classification matches in Girls’ National Select Division.

In the Women’s International Junior Division, the 2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team defeated USA Women’s Junior A2 Red 25-20, 25-19, 25-27, 20-25, 15-9 to claim the gold medal. Both teams entered the gold-medal match with a loss. The 2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team lost just six sets during the tournament out of seven matches despite playing up an age division. Earlier this year, the core group of the team also won the 2010 NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship to qualify the U.S. into the 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship. The U.S. Girls’ Youth A2 Red Team beat USA Women’s Junior A2 White 30-28, 25-20, 13-25, 25-22 in the division’s bronze-medal match.

The most valuable player of the Women’s International Junior Division was Jordan Burgess of the 2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team. Other selections to the all-tournament team were Caitlin De Witt (USA Women’s Junior A2 White) as Best Attacker, Andie Malloy (2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team) as Best Server, Micha Hancock (USA Women’s Junior A2 Red) as Best Setter, Alyssa Warren (USA Women’s Junior A2 Red) as Best Passer, Shelby Sullivan (2010 USA Girls’ Youth National Team) as Best Blocker and Chelsea Keoho (USA Girls’ Youth A2 Red) as Best Digger. For pictures of the team medalist and all-tournament team, click here.

In the Girls’ International Youth Division, Team Florida Region Girls’ Youth National Team slipped past Badger Region Girls’ International Youth Team 25-17, 20-25, 26-24, 25-22 to win the gold medal. Team Florida won its final five matches of the tournament after losing a first-round match to Aloha Region HP Girls’ Youth Team. Meanwhile, Badger Region lost for the first time during the tournament and ended with a 6-1 overall record and just three set losses. Intermountain Region topped USA Girls’ Youth Continental White Team 25-20, 23-25, 25-20, 16-25, 15-10 in the bronze-medal match.

The most valuable player in the Girls’ International Youth Division was Leigh Andrew from Team Florida. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Caitlyn Donahoe (Team Florida) as Best Setter, Marissa Lisenbee (Team Florida) as Best Blocker, Ciera Parker (Intermountain) as Best Passer, Kaitlyn Hastings (Badger) as Best Digger, Jenni Fessbender (Badger) as Best Attacker) and Jessica Brezwyn (USA Youth Continental White) as Best Server. For pictures of the team medalists and all-tournament team, click here.

In the Boys’ International Youth Division, USA Boys’ Youth A2 Red rallied to defeat Chile Boys’ Youth 24-26, 25-22, 27-25, 25-15 in an international gold-medal match. USA Boys’ Youth A2 Red, which also defeated Chile 3-0 in the second round, lost just three sets during the tournament. During the bronze-medal match, USA Boys’ Youth A2 White slipped past USA Boys’ Youth A2 Gold 25-22, 27-29, 25-16, 26-24 to reach the podium.

Aaron Russell (USA Youth A2 Red) was named the Boys’ International Youth Division most valuable player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Sebastian Meneses (Chile Boys’ Youth) as Best Passer, Ian Sequeira (USA Youth A2 White) as Best Digger, Nikola Antonijevic (USA Youth A2 White) as Best Blocker, Roberto Frazzoni (Chile Boys’ Youth) as Best Setter, Ryan Baine (USA Youth A2 Red) as Best Server and Scott Rhein (USA Youth A2 Red) as Best Attacker. For pictures of the team medalists and all-tournament team, click here.

In the Boys’ National Youth Division, the Badger Region Boys’ National Youth Team defeated Ohio Valley Region Boys’ National Youth Team 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-19 in the gold medal match. The squad from the host region lost only four sets in nine matches during the tournament. Aloha Region HP Boys’ National Youth swept Team Florida Boys’ Youth National Team 25-22, 25-17, 25-17 in the bronze-medal match. For pictures of the team medalists, click here.

Badger Region Girls National Select captured the gold medal in the Girls’ National Select Division with a 25-18, 25-22, 19-25, 22-25, 16-14 marathon victory over Southern California Region Red Team. Badger won all seven of its matches during the tournament. In the bronze-medal match for the Girls’ National Select Division, Iowa Region Girls’ Select topped Puerto Rico Girls’ 25-17, 25-18, 25-20. For pictures of the team medalists, click here.

In the Girls' Youth National Division gold-medal match at 8 a.m. on Friday, Lone Star HP Youth Blue will face Chesapeake Youth. Lone Star, which has won its last seven matches of the tournament, won the head-to-head match in pool play with a five-set thriller. The division's bronze-medal match has Keystone HP Girls' challenging Oklahoma Youth Girls at 8 a.m.

The HPC features an international theme with some variations of FIVB rules. Matches are best-of-five sets format with most teams playing eight matches during the event. The tournament will utilize some new FIVB rules such as the primary and secondary libero.

A total of 87 teams are competing in the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships’ six different age and gender championship brackets taking place on 14 courts at the Chula Vista Resort. The USA Volleyball High Performance Championships, which featured a tournament-record 92 teams in 2009, combines the best teams from USAV High Performance Pipeline teams, USAV Region High Performance Teams and international squads in the marquee event.

For more information on the 2010 USA Volleyball High Performance Championships, click here. To view the match schedule/brackets and live results, click here.

Event photos taken by OSIR/Debbie Reber can be viewed and purchased by clicking here.

Tags: 2010 U.S. Girls' Youth National Team, Aaron Russell, Andie Malloy, Chelsey Keoho, High Performance, High Performance Championships, High Performance Tryouts, Jordan Burgess, Nikola Antonijevic, Shelby Sullivan, USA Volleyball High Performance, USA Volleyball High Performance Championships