PULLMAN, Wash. -- A trio from the Washington State University volleyball team are sporting gold medals after claiming the championship of the 12th Annual Global Challenge Tournament in Pula, Croatia last week.
All three Cougars were members of the U.S. Collegiate National Team - Europe Tour (CNT-Europe) with WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny serving as an assistant coach, while current players Casey Schoenlein and McKenna Woodford were among the 12-players on the undefeated U22 team.
"The experience overall was tremendous," Greeny said. "Any time you can coach a team for USA Volleyball it is such a great honor. To have two Washington State players on this team was fantastic. They tried out and made this team and we were very, very proud of them. It was a cherry on top for me to be one of the coaches on this team and have this experience with them. It definitely was something special."
WSU outside hitters Schoenlein, a 6-5 rising junior, and Woodford, a 6-4 rising sophomore were selected for the CNT-Europe squad through the U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryouts held in February at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
The CNT-Europe team had two days of training matches against an Italian Federation Team near Milan, Italy, before competing in the 12th Annual Global Challenge July 11-14, in Pula, Croatia. Playing in the U22 tournament, CNT captured wins on the first day against Russia (3-0) and England (2-1), and then triumphed over China (2-1) and Falconara, Italy (3-0) the second day. During day three, in championship matches, the CNT squad defeated England 3-0, and NKBM, Maribor (Slovenia) 3-2. The gold medal match pitted CNT against China with the US collegians taking the 3-1 victory. Woodford, a 2015 Pac-12 All-Freshman team honoree, contributed 14 points, the second-highest total for the CNT team in the gold medal match.
"This was an indescribable experience for me," Woodford said. "Being in different countries with new cultural experiences was awesome. Getting the chance to be around 11 different girls from different colleges around the country, seeing everyone's playing styles and put a team together was really cool. My goal was to learn as much as I could from the other players as far as technical skills and leadership qualities. This gold medal is a memory of my first international trip and something I'll never forget."
"This was my first time in Europe and it (the experience) was beyond what I was hoping for," Schoenlein said. "I wanted to see if I could play at a higher level and to bring that back to WSU volleyball. Now that I've seen what it takes to play at that next level, McKenna and I have both done it and we can get the team to do it too."
All three Cougars were members of the U.S. Collegiate National Team - Europe Tour (CNT-Europe) with WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny serving as an assistant coach, while current players Casey Schoenlein and McKenna Woodford were among the 12-players on the undefeated U22 team.
"The experience overall was tremendous," Greeny said. "Any time you can coach a team for USA Volleyball it is such a great honor. To have two Washington State players on this team was fantastic. They tried out and made this team and we were very, very proud of them. It was a cherry on top for me to be one of the coaches on this team and have this experience with them. It definitely was something special."
WSU outside hitters Schoenlein, a 6-5 rising junior, and Woodford, a 6-4 rising sophomore were selected for the CNT-Europe squad through the U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryouts held in February at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
The CNT-Europe team had two days of training matches against an Italian Federation Team near Milan, Italy, before competing in the 12th Annual Global Challenge July 11-14, in Pula, Croatia. Playing in the U22 tournament, CNT captured wins on the first day against Russia (3-0) and England (2-1), and then triumphed over China (2-1) and Falconara, Italy (3-0) the second day. During day three, in championship matches, the CNT squad defeated England 3-0, and NKBM, Maribor (Slovenia) 3-2. The gold medal match pitted CNT against China with the US collegians taking the 3-1 victory. Woodford, a 2015 Pac-12 All-Freshman team honoree, contributed 14 points, the second-highest total for the CNT team in the gold medal match.
"This was an indescribable experience for me," Woodford said. "Being in different countries with new cultural experiences was awesome. Getting the chance to be around 11 different girls from different colleges around the country, seeing everyone's playing styles and put a team together was really cool. My goal was to learn as much as I could from the other players as far as technical skills and leadership qualities. This gold medal is a memory of my first international trip and something I'll never forget."
"This was my first time in Europe and it (the experience) was beyond what I was hoping for," Schoenlein said. "I wanted to see if I could play at a higher level and to bring that back to WSU volleyball. Now that I've seen what it takes to play at that next level, McKenna and I have both done it and we can get the team to do it too."