Four volleyball players headed to USWNT open tryouts

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From SMUMustangs.com:

Four Mustangs To Participate In U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryouts
Acker, Giordano, Hegarty and Heise will attend tryout in Colorado Springs

Feb. 11, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (SMU/USA Volleyball) - Four Mustangs will attend the USA Volleyball Women's National Team Open Tryouts Feb. 20-22. Avery Acker, Morgan Heise, Katie Hegarty and Janelle Giordano, who was selected to compete on the U.S. National Collegiate Team in Europe last summer, will all attend the tryout.

In all, 232 student-athletes representing 90 colleges and universities across the country will be competing for spots on the U.S. Women's National Team, the U.S. Collegiate National Team program and for the U.S. Women's Junior National Team for athletes born in 1996 or 1997.

U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff will direct the entire tryout process, which can be viewed with an online video stream by clicking here. The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday's first session goes from 2-8 p.m. MT with Queen of the Court competitions, while Saturday's sessions are at 8 a.m. (focus on serve/receive and individual work) and 2 p.m. (middle-centered and out-of-system focus). The tryout concludes on Sunday at 8 a.m. with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the staff to participate in a "USA" training session.

Acker earned All-America accolades for the second straight season after setting American Athletic Conference records with 1,413 assists, third most in a season at SMU, and 11.68 assists per set, seventh in a season at SMU and the most since 2004. The junior setter, who was the 2013 Setter of the Year in the conference, also led the league with 26 double-doubles, finishing the season with 403 digs. She also had 64 kills and 24 service aces.

Giordano earned the first all-region award of her career after leading The American with 160.0 blocks as a sophomore, third most in a season at SMU, and was 36th in the NCAA with 1.31 blocks per set. She hit .314, 10th in the conference, with 261 kills. The Keller, Texas, native scored a career-high 13.0 blocks in four sets against Connecticut, which is third most in a match at SMU. The sophomore was named to the All-American Athletic Conference Second Team, after winning first team accolades a season ago.

Morgan Heise was named Libero of the Year in the American Athletic Conference. The sophomore averaged 5.13 digs per set overall, 27th in the NCAA. Heise recorded a career-high 38 digs at Arkansas, third most in a match all-time at SMU, and finished with at least 20 in 14 matches, including 11 conference matches. Heise was named Defensive Player of the Week four times, matching conference Player of the Year, DeLaina Sarden, for most weekly awards. Both earned their fourth award in the final week of the regular season.

Hegarty played in 20 sets, backing up senior opposite hitter Caroline Young. The freshman has 29 kills, nine digs and 19 blocks. She was redshirted in 2013.

The Mustangs finished the season with a program record 26 wins and six losses, including a record 11-match win streak. SMU also defeated a ranked opponent for the first time with a 3-2 upset of then-No. 24 Oklahoma in Moody Coliseum.

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Exciting news!!!