WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Outside hitter Azariah Stahl brought home lots of lessons and the Collegiate National Team title from Indianapolis last week as her USA Blue team went 3-0 en route to the championship.
Stahl's team went 2-0 in pool play, defeating USA Red 3-2 (17-25, 25-20, 25-22, 21-25, 15-13) on June 26 and Boilermaker teammate Danielle Cuttino 's USA White 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 25-14) on June 27. By virtue of winning the pool play portion of competition, team Blue receive a bye to the championship match.
Cuttino's team White went on to play a pair of matches against USA Red, falling 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-12, 15-10) in pool play June 28 and 3-0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-13) in the first round of bracket play June 29.
The three collegiate national teams, consisting of 36 of the nation's top college volleyball players, spent nine days training and competing in Indianapolis as part of the USA Volleyball Girls' Junior Volleyball Championship. The program is part of USA Volleyball's High Performance pipeline and the time in Indianapolis is considered a second tryout for the U.S. women's national team. The CNT is designed to show players how a USA gym operates, introduce national team terminology and identify athletes to move up the pipeline.
Stahl, who had previously competed as part of the 2012 Junior National Team, took a lot from her time over the last two weeks.
"It was an amazing experience," she told USA Volleyball. "It was really good to come in and play with girls from all over the country who are at the top level at their school and to be able to develop in the nine days that we've been here. I think having fun, being able to create these friendships, being able to be dynamic and being able to play with different players and being able to win it all was pretty awesome."
The full article from USA volleyball is here.
Stahl and Cuttino are two of four juniors on the 2016 Boilermaker team. Cuttino is a returning honorable mention All-America selection and member of the 2014 Junior National Team and 2013 Youth National Team, who led Purdue in blocks in 2015, while Stahl is back at outside hitter after posting 1.80 kills per set last season.
The Boilermakers begin camp in early August and kick off their fall campaign on August 26-27 at the Mortar Board Premier in Holloway Gymnasium.