Thirty U.S. Women Selected for VNL Long-List Roster

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 24, 2024.– Thirty athletes, including nine Olympic gold medalists, are on the U.S. Women’s National Team long-list roster for the Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

Volleyball Nations League is the world’s premier annual international indoor volleyball tournament. The top 16 teams in the world play four matches a week for three weeks of preliminary competition. The top eight teams at the end of the preliminaries will go to the Final Round.

Coaches will select 14 athletes from the long list to compete at the United States’ VNL stops in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (May 15-19), Arlington, Texas (May 28-June 2) and Fukuoka, Japan (June 11-16). The VNL Final Round is scheduled for June 20-23 in Bangkok, Thailand.

U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly has said that he will use the early VNL matches to help choose the players for his 2024 Paris Olympic Games roster. That team will have 12 players plus an alternate who will travel to Paris.

Nine players on the roster return from the team that won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: setters Micha Hancock and Jordyn Poulter, libero Justine Wong-Orantes, outside hitters Jordan Larson and Kelsey (Robinson) Cook, middle blockers Chiaka Ogbogu and Haleigh Washington, and opposites Annie Drews and Jordan Thompson.

Besides those nine, players on the roster who have competed in previous VNLs include setters Lauren Carlini, Ashley Evans and Jenna Gray, liberos Morgan Hentz and Kendall White, outside hitters Ali Frantti, Khalia Lanier, Kathryn Plummer, Avery Skinner and Sarah Wilhite Parsons, middles Brionne Butler, Anna Hall, Asjia O’Neal and Dana Rettke and opposite Danielle Cuttino.

Those who have not played in prior VNL matches are libero Zoe Fleck, outside hitter Madisen Skinner, opposites Kendall Kipp and Taylor Mims and middles Kayla Haneline and Serena Gray.

Head Coach Karch Kiraly is a three-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist as a player who took over as head coach in 2013.

Kiraly’s first assistant is Tama Miyashiro, who won a silver medal as a libero with the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. The second assistants will be Marv Dunphy, Alfee Reft and Erin Virtue.

The U.S. Women are the reigning Olympic champions and ranked No. 2 in the world. They have won the VNL three times (2018, ’19, ’21) since its inception in 2018. In 2023, they finished fourth overall.