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More than 20 incoming college freshmen and high school players have made the U.S. preliminary roster for an upcoming international tournament.
USA Volleyball announced on Tuesday the 23 players that will compete to make the final 12-player U.S. roster for the 2017 FIVB U19 World Championship.
Among the players making the U.S. Boys’ Youth National Training Team includes 19 players who have committed to a college men’s volleyball program.
UCLA and USC lead all schools with three incoming recruits on the U.S. roster. Stanford and UC Irvine also each had multiple commitments make the training team.
Along with these schools, Charleston, Long Beach State, Loyola, Ohio State, Pepperdine, Princeton and UC Irvine all have one recruit on the team.
MIT libero Thomas Nelson also joins the U.S. roster after finishing his freshman season with a 1.97 digs per game average. Nelson had five matches with double-digit digs, including 10 digs in MIT’s upset victory against No. 1 Springfield in April.
The United States under Princeton coach Sam Shweisky won the silver medal at the 2016 NORCECA U19 Continental Championship to qualify for the World Championship. Six starters return from that silver-medal team, including Stanford opposite Jaylen Jasper who led the United States and was among the tournament leaders last year with both 49 kills and a 41.53 percent offensive efficiency.
Shweisky and his coaching staff will determine the final roster following a training camp in August in Lake Placid, New York. The 23-player U.S. training ream will also participate this week at the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships.
The World Championship is a tournament comprised of 20 nations that will begin Aug. 18 in Bahrain.
The United States, which is ranked No. 7 in the FIVB World Rankings, is the highest ranked team in its World Championship pool. The top-four teams from the five-team pool will advance to the Round of 16.
2017 U.S. Boys’ Youth National Training Team
Setter: Chris Hall, USC
Setter: Chase Johnson, Charleston
Setter: Joe Kelly, Princeton
Setter: Kyle Merchen
Opposite: Jonny Bowles, UC Irvine
Opposite: Jaylen Jasper, Stanford
Opposite: Kevin Kobrine, UCLA
Opposite: James Ryan Norris, UCLA
Outside attacker: Brandon Browning, USC
Outside attacker: Sam Burgi, UCLA
Outside attacker: Dev Joslyn, Loyola
Outside attacker: Jerod Nelsen
Outside attacker: Kyler Presho, Stanford
Outside attacker: Joel Schneidmiller, UC Irvine
Outside attacker: Jacob Steele, Pepperdine
Outside attacker: Brett Wildman
Middle attacker: Samuel Lewis, USC
Middle attacker: James Martin, Pepperdine
Middle attacker: Daniel Matheney
Middle attacker: Marc Moody, Long Beach State
Middle attacker: Canyon Tuman
Libero: Parker Mikesch, Ohio State
Libero: Thomas Nelson, MIT