COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 6, 2019) – The U.S. Women’s National Team, ranked No. 2 in the world, has set its roster for the biennial NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship scheduled for Oct. 8-13 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The NORCECA event crowns the best team from North American, Central America and the Caribbean every two years.
U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff have selected the same 14 players who just won silver at the FIVB World Cup in Japan a week ago.
- Outsides (4): Michelle Bartsch-Hackley, Kim Hill, Jordan Larson, Kelsey Robinson
- Opposites (2): Annie Drews, Karsta Lowe
- Middles (4): Tori Dixon, Chiaka Ogbogu, Hannah Tapp, Haleigh Washington
- Setters (2): Lauren Carlini, Jordyn Poulter
- Liberos (2): Megan Courtney, Justine Wong-Orantes
The U.S. is grouped in the four-team Pool B. The Americans face Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 8 at 4 p.m. ET, followed by Mexico on Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. ET. Team USA faces rival Dominican Republic to conclude pool play on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. ET. The winner of the four-team pool advances directly to the semifinals on Oct. 12, while the second- and- third-place teams of both Pools A and B compete in the quarterfinals on Oct. 11. The medal-round matches are scheduled for Oct. 13.
All U.S. matches at the NORCECA Championship will be streamed on FloVolleyball.tv.
Team USA is coming off a silver-medal finish at the World Cup with a 10-1 record, its sole loss being to gold-medalist China earlier in the round robin format.
“We have a lot to be proud of,” Kiraly said after earning the World Cup silver medal. “We played a great tournament. All 14 of our players made critical contributions to that effort. We had one disappointing loss to China – they played a very strong tournament. We can’t wait to come back here in less than 10 months for the 2020 Olympics.”
Following its World Cup performance, the Americans are 40-6 in tournament play in 2019, including gold medals in the FIVB Volleyball Nations Leagues (premier annual international competition) and Pan American Cup (North and South America yearly competition). The U.S. also qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games by winning its four-team Tokyo Qualification Tournament pool on home soil in August.
“I think this summer has been really exciting for our team with new and younger faces getting an opportunity to play at a high level,” Robinson said. “I think we have a lot of potential and room for growth. We have NORCECA to go back to and I think we can be a great team come 2020.”
Kiraly said the team will continue to work to improve its reception game heading toward the Olympic Games next summer in Tokyo.
“We need to keep getting better in our receive-set-attack game when the other team is serving,” Kiraly said. “That is a big part of who we are and we’ll continue to improve our service pressure. We are doing well at those things, but we need to get even better.”