Sanctioned by the USAV and organized by Bring It Promotions, the USA Select Team is participating from May 6 to 16, 2004 in the European Spring Cup for the 5th consecutive year. This year's competition is again in Brno, Czech Republic and has a field of 15 other European National Teams including: Czech Republic (A and B Teams), *Slovakia, Slovenia (recently added when Romania dropped out), Estonia, Turkey, *Denmark, England, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, *Azerbijan, Belarus, and Sweden. The "*" teams are in the USA Select Team's pool to start the tournament. Azerbijan recently beat the USA National Team in the Yeltsin Tournament in Russia and is the Spring Cup favorite entering competition. Turkey won the European Championships last summer and is another threat to this summer's title.
The USA Select Team comprises top collegiate players, including many women that are considered part of the USAV "pipeline" of potential National Team atheltes. Coaching the team are veteran Spring Cup Gurus Reed Sunahara (University of Cincinnati) and Matt Darling (Auburn University), and former USA National Team Coach and Player Greg Giovanazzi (UMBC). "This is a much needed experience for these collegiate women atheltes to play at the international level.", says Sunahara. |
