Texas Tech University Athletics
DOWDY REPRESENTS TECH AT INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT
July 14, 2009 | Women's Volleyball
July 14, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - When the USA 2009 Women's Junior National Team (WJNT) begins play at the World Championships in Tijuana, Mexico on July 16, Amanda Dowdy will represent Texas Tech Volleyball and the Big 12 in international play as she begins her quest to become a more permanent fixture on the international scene. The U.S. team will compete against Bulgaria, Cuba and Turkey as part of the opening round, Pool D, at the FIVB Women's Junior World Championship from July 16-25 at venues in Tijuana and Mexicali.
"My goal is to try out for the Olympic Games in 2012, so I will continue to tryout each year to work toward that goal and to gain the experience and competitiveness I need to compete at that level," said Dowdy recently before leaving to join the team. "The opportunity to play for this team at this time is really amazing and I'm honored to be a part of it."
After tryouts in February at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., landed Dowdy a spot on the team, the Thrall native, who graduated from Lexington High School in 2008 and who earned All Big 12 Freshman team accolades as a middle blocker for Tech, found herself surrounded by some of the nation's elite junior players and coaches representing our country and now is poised to help the team in international competition.
The U.S. WJNT squad qualified for the FIVB World Championship by winning the NORCECA Women's Junior Continental Championship last summer at Saltillo, Mexico. Paula Weishoff-Hanold (head coach at UC Irvine) returns as head coach and is assisted by John Corbelli (associate head coach at Texas A&M University) and Jim Stone (U.S. Girls' Youth National Team Head Coach/retired Ohio State head coach). Denise Corlett (associate head coach at Stanford University) will serve as the team leader on the trip.
This year's U.S. Women's Junior National Team includes setters Kendall Bateman (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Karissa Cook (Santa Cruz, Calif.), while Morgan Broekhuis (Colorado Springs, Colo.) will compete for time at setter and opposite. Kelsey Black (Amarillo, Texas - who completes for Texas A&M) and Lilla Frederick (Huntington Beach, Calif.) will battle for the libero position. At outside hitter, the team will have Alex Hunt (Granger, Ind.), Ashleigh McCord (Wylie, Texas - who competes for Rice) and Sarah Shaw (Austin, Texas) vying for playing time. Hayley Spelman (Las Vegas, Nev.) will compete for the starting opposite position. Dowdy, Alexis Olgard (Spokane, Wash.) and Mallory Woolridge (Henrico, Va.) will be the team's middle blockers.
"Amanda is going get great training and international experience," said Tech head volleyball coach Trish Knight. "She will excel in the program and it will help her bring her game to the next level which will ultimately help our team as well."
Frederick and Spelman competed on the 2008 U.S. Women's Junior National Team which captured the NORCECA gold medal. McCord will be pulling double duty this summer as she also competed on one of the U.S. Women's National A2 Teams at the USA Adult Open Championships at Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Bateman is the only player with past FIVB World Championship experience as she competed in the 2007 FIVB Girls' Youth World Championship. But, for Dowdy and the others, this will be the first step on the road to what they hope is many more international competitions to come.
