Credit: volleyball.org.au
The Australian Women’s Volleyroos team to contest the AVC Challenger Cup in Indonesia later this month has been announced.
The team features six players set to make their Volleyroos debut with the tournament marking the first round of qualification for the Volleyball Nations League.
Head Coach Russell Borgeaud said the tournament would provide another significant step forward in building the squads skills and experience at the international level.
“The team’s goal is to improve on our result and our measured skills from last year,” said Borgeaud. “If we can make the top eight then we have the chance to compete in the quarter finals and further into the tournament.
“We still have a very young group selected for this tournament and are continuing to build some depth of squad for the future.”
Captain Mikaela Stevens said the team had benefitted greatly from recent training time together as they look to take their game to another level.
“As always, it is an honour to be selected to play for Australia in any tournament and this tour we have many debutants which is exciting,” said Stevens. “The squad has had a couple solid training camps in Canberra where we have been able to come together and build on our progress from last year as well as individually bring what we learnt from our seasons professionally or in college.
“I’m excited to see how the team gels, and we are going to show the volleyball community the progress we are making towards becoming a competitive team at the international level.”
South Australia’s Tara Maland isn’t looking any further ahead than the pool matches where she hopes the Volleyroos which come out on top.
“We will be up against Kazakhstan and India in our first lot of pool play, so will have different team goals and expectations set for each of these matches,” said Maland. “Overall, we believe both teams will put up a great fight, but we also believe we have an opportunity here to come away with some wins early on in the competition.
“Being that we are a new group, it will be important for us to focus on our side of the court, what we can control and how we play as a team.”
The 2023 AVC Challenger Cup takes place in Gresik in the Indonesian province of East Java, from 18 to 25 June.
Australian Women’s Volleyroos Team
AVC Challenger – East Java INA
18-25 June 2023
1. Tara Maland (SA) S
2. Emily Heintzelman (ACT) L
3. Mikaela Stevens (c) (NSW) S
8. Ella Milne (QLD) OPP
10. Kasey Hogan (QLD) WS
11. Cassandra Dodd (WA) MB
12. Lauren Cox (VIC) MP
13. Lexie Zammit (WA) S
14. Caitlin Whincup (WA) WS
15. Annelies Jones (QLD) WS
16. Emma Burton (QLD) OPP
21. Sarah Burton (WA) Universal
23. Ella Schabort (WA) WS
25. Kara Inskip (QLD) MB
Coach – Russell Borgeaud
Assistant Coach – Kat Chen
Stats – Josh Cowan
Physio – Ethan Silk
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