COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 21, 2016) — The USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships begin this Friday at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis with over 1,250 teams competing on 75 courts, June 24 – July 3.
The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association and the Hoosier Region are hosting this event.
The city of Indianapolis has a long history of hosting first-class major events like the Super Bowl, NCAA Basketball’s Final Four and now the USAV GJNC.
With the 18 Open, National and USA Divisions moved to the Spring GJNCs for the first time in Milwaukee in late April, this year’s Girls’ Junior Nationals had room to accommodate 36 teams in the USA Division, up from 32, and 64 teams in the American division, up from 48.
The field includes 1,263 teams, which is the second largest in event history (only last year’s 1,278 in New Orleans surpasses this year’s total).
For the fifth straight year, the USAV Collegiate National Team will conduct a training camp in conjunction with the GJNCs. This year the roster that features 36 of the nation’s top, up-and-coming college players will train together from June 21-30. They will also split into three squads for a round-robin series of exhibition matches in the convention center on Court 1 from June 26-29.
Indianapolis’ own Danielle Cuttino is on the CNT roster. Cuttino, who attends Purdue, was a member of the silver-medal winning USAV Youth National Team at the U18 FIVB World Championships in 2013 as well as the USAV Junior National Team that competed at the NORCECA U20 Championships in Guatemala in 2014.
This squad is a part of the USAV High Performance pipeline and this program in Indianapolis is considered a second tryout for the U.S. Women’s National Team.