Carlton To Compete At FIVB U20 World Championship
July 12, 2017 | Volleyball
COLORADO SPRINGS – USA Volleyball has selected Tar Heel redshirt freshman Holly Carlton to the 12-player U.S. Women's Junior National Team (WJNT) roster which will compete in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship. The event will be held July 14-23 in Boca del Rio and Cordoba, Mexico. Carlton was also a part of the WJNT team that won gold at the 2017 Women's U20 Pan American Cup in May, which served as a qualifying event for the FIVB World Championship.
The World Championship roster was chosen from a 16-player training group who was evaluated July 2-11 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. During the training camp, the coaching staff keyed on three areas that it felt will impact the squad the most during the World Championship.
"We are offensively dominant, so we spent a lot of time serving, passing and blocking," said WJNT Head Coach Laurie Corbelli of Texas A&M. "These are the areas we thought needed the most attention as they will help us win and cause us to lose."
The FIVB Women's U20 World Championship is a 16-team event with four pools of four teams playing a round-robin format in the first round. The top two teams in each pool advance to the gold bracket, while the bottom two teams in each pool will battle for positions 9-16.
Team USA, which is part of Pool C in Boca del Rio, opens the competition against Brazil on July 14, followed by NORCECA rival Cuba on July 15 and Serbia on July 16. Brazil qualified for the World Championship by winning the 2016 South American Women's U20 Championship.
Carlton is one of seven players on the roster who were also part of the U20 Pan Am Cup gold-medal team, including most valuable player Thayer Hall.
"We had a number of athletes participate in the U20 Pan American Cup, and the chemistry those athletes already had helped jumpstart the chemistry with the group training here in Colorado Springs," Corbelli said. "That has been a benefit to the development of this team."
Carlton appeared in three matches at the U20 Pan Am Cup, held May 9-13 in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Sterling, Virginia, native totaled six kills over six sets, hitting .333. She saw the most significant action in the Quarterfinals against Uruguay, tying for second on the team with five kills on eight attacks in the 3-0 victory.
Carlton, who used 2016 as a redshirt season as a true freshman, was selected as one of two opposite hitters on the WJNT team. Standing at 6-foot-7, Carlton is expected to play both setter and opposite hitter for the Tar Heels this fall.
U.S. Women's Junior National Team
# - Name (Position, 2017 Club/College, Height, Hometown, Region)
1 – Brionne Butler (M, University of Texas, 6-4, Kendleton, Texas, Lone Star)
2 – Tiffany Clark (L, University of Wisconsin, 5-11, Naperville, Illinois, Great Lakes)
3 – Thayer Hall (OH, Upward Stars, 6-3, Moore, South Carolina, Palmetto)
4 – Paige Hammons (OH, University of Florida, 6-2, Louisville, Kentucky, Pioneer)
5 – Regan Pittman (M, University of Minnesota, 6-5, Spring Hill, Kansas, Heart of America)
6 – Holly Carlton (OPP, University of North Carolina, 6-7, Sterling, Virginia, Chesapeake)
8 – Ronika Stone (OPP, University of Oregon, 6-2, San Jose, California, Northern California)
11 – Norene Iosia (S, University of Hawaii, 5-11, Torrance, California, Southern California)
12 – MacKenzi Welsh (S, University of Michigan, 6-1, Bolingbrook, Illinois, Great Lakes)
14 – Gabby Curry (L, University of Kentucky, 5-9, Buford, Georgia, Southern)
15 – Rachael Kramer (M, University of Florida, 6-8, Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona)
17 – Leah Edmond (OH, University of Kentucky, 6-2, Lexington, Kentucky, Pioneer)
Head Coach: Laurie Corbelli (head coach at Texas A&M University)
Assistant Coach: Blake Rawlins (head trainer at Top Select Volleyball Academy)
Assistant Coach: Jay Van Vark (assistant coach at Grand Canyon University)
Team Leader: Tom Pingel (USA Volleyball High Performance)
Athletic Trainer: Ronni Beatty-Kollasch (University of Minnesota)
2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship
Pool C at Boca del Rio, Mexico
July 14: USA vs. Brazil, 10 p.m. ET
July 15: USA vs. Cuba, 9 p.m. ET
July 16: USA vs. Serbia, 7 p.m. ET
Pool A: Mexico, Bulgaria, Egypt, Russia
Pool B: China, Dominican Republic, Peru, Poland
Pool D: Argentina, Italy, Japan, Turkey
