USAV Announces Beach Junior National Team

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 25, 2010) – USA Volleyball has announced the teams that will compete at the 2010 FIVB Beach Volleyball Junior (under-21) World Championships on Sept. 15-19 in Alanya, Turkey.

The team is highlighted by Summer Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) who won gold at the 2010 FIVB Youth World Championships, and Jeff Carlson (Newport Beach, Calif.), who won silver at the 2008 FIVB Youth World Championships.

Players were selected from an initial training team of athletes based on their performance at USAV Beach High Performance tryouts across the country.

Pairing with Ross on the women’s USA-1 team will be Tara Roenicke. Roenicke and Ross also teamed up in January, 2009 for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, where they won the gold medal. Prior to that, Roenicke competed with Caitlin Ledoux at the 2008 FIVB Youth World Championships and with Jazmin Machado at the 2007 Youth Worlds.

Besides winning the gold medal at this year’s Youth World Championships with partner Jane Croson, Ross competed at both the 2009 FIVB Youth and Junior World Championship. In 2008, Ross and Croson comprised the youngest team ever to compete at the FIVB Junior World Championships.

The women’s USA-2 team will include Chelsea Rashoff (Danville, Calif.) and Courtney Trevino (Austin, Texas). Rashoff played indoors for Long Beach State University and has also competed on the AVP tour. Trevino plays indoors for St. Edward’s University in Austin and has been given a two-week break from the team to compete She also won the women’s under-21 title with partner Mary Vaccaro at the USA Volleyball Beach High Performance Championships on July 22-25.

The men’s USA-1 team will be Will Montgomery (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Evan Barry (San Diego, Calif.). Montgomery is entering his second year at UC Irvine, where he was a redshirt freshman outside hitter on the men’s indoor team last year. He competed at the FIVB Youth World Championships in 2008 and was Carlson’s partner at the 2009 Junior World Championships. Barry just completed his first year on Stanford’s men’s volleyball team where he was the backup setter for the team that won the NCAA National Championship.

The men’s USA-2 team will include Carlson and Connor Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.). After winning the silver medal at the 2008 FIVB Youth World Championship with partner Tony Ciarelli, Carlson went to play for USC’s men’s team as the backup setter. He also competed at the 2009 Junior World Championships with Montgomery. Hughes just finished his freshman season as an outside hitter on UC Irvine’s men’s team.

Montgomery and Hughes won the men’s U21 title at the 2010 USA Volleyball Beach High Performance Championships.

Accompanying the team to Alanya will be Eduardo “Anjinho” Bacil (El Segundo, Calif.) as the team’s coach and Ali Wood Lamberson, USA Volleyball director of beach programs, as the team leader.

Tags: Beach, Beach Collegiate Challenge, Beach High Performance Tryouts, Beach Volleyball, FIVB World Championship, Under 21 World Championships