Through the first three years of her collegiate career, Kelly Lamberti has racked up many accomplishments as a Bobcat, and as of Tuesday she can add Team USA experience to her volleyball resume.
Lamberti, an outside hitter who will play her senior season in the fall, was named to the U.S. Collegiate National Team and is set to compete in a European tour this summer from July 8-19. Lamberti is one of just 12 athletes nationwide who will participate on the team this summer and is the only one from a non-Bowl Championship Series team.
The trip will mark Lamberti’s second time playing with a national team, as she played six matches in China in 2012 as part of the Bring It Promotions/USA Volleyball Global Challenge.
“It’s an honor to see that one of our players is viewed at that elite level,” first-year coach Deane Webb told Ohio Athletics. “Kelly is very much about the team first and this experience will help her play at an even higher level for our program this fall.”
The players will leave for Venice, Italy on July 8 and will then travel to a four-day training camp in Maribor, Slovenia. The team will compete in scrimmages with Slovenia’s national and under-20 teams, along with other countries’ under-20 national teams.
Team USA will then travel to Pula, Croatia to compete in the Global Challenge from July 13-18. The tour is being organized in conjunction with Bring It Promotions.
“Volleyball is completely different overseas in the way that they play,” Lamberti said. “(Playing there) will help me in all aspects of the game.”
The European tour will be considered as a tryout for the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team.
“This time I’m so excited to go (play with Team USA),” Lamberti said. “I think I’m more excited to go compared to when I went to China because for the China team they just asked us if we wanted to go and this time I actually worked hard and made the team.”
The selections for all U.S. Collegiate National Team programs were based on the evaluations from the U.S. Women’s National Team tryouts that were held from Feb. 21-23 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Lamberti has the opportunity to compete for the USA Volleyball National Team in the future, depending on how she performs.
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