Aug. 1, 2005
Notre Dame assistant coach Louella Lovely recently returned from a week-long stint in Colorado Springs as one of the coaches of the United States Women’s Junior A2 Team, a squad comprised of 14 top young players who did not earn spots on the U.S. national teams. The program, which was implemented to expand top-level training to more athletes and to track players who have future potential to make the national teams, culminated with the team playing scrimmages vs. the U.S. Youth National Team and the Canadian Junior Provincial Team from Ontario.
Lovely was one of three collegiate assistants (also Texas’ Brian Hosfeld and Ken Ko of Washington State) selected to participate in the camp, which took place at the U.S. Olympic Training Center from July 13-18. The players, who are either entering their first or second collegiate seasons this fall, are among the elite women’s players born since 1986 that are not currently on a U.S. national team. The participants included four players judged by PrepVolleyball.com as among the top 31 players entering college this fall.
The camp was part of USA Volleyball’s High Performance Program, which operates the junior national team, made up of women born in 1986 or later. The A2 program consists of camps where top players who did not make the national teams in a given age group are brought together to train.
Lovely, an All-America setter during her collegiate days at the Air Force Academy (she also played for California and Cal Poly), is entering her third season as a Notre Dame assistant. She has helped the Irish to a 44-16 (.733) record over the past two seasons, including a pair of BIG EAST titles and two trips to the NCAA tournament. In her initial season, she worked closely with then-senior setter Kristen Kinder, who was tabbed honorable mention All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Last year, she worked with two setters who came into the season with a combined total of two career starts, but helped Notre Dame lead the BIG EAST in hitting percentage in conference matches (.254) for the second time in as many years.
Lovely and the Irish, who return nine of their top 10 players from last year’s team that was 21-9 and finished listed 33rd in the AVCA poll, will open the 2005 season on Saturday, Aug. 27 by playing host to rival Michigan at 7 p.m. (EST/CDT) in the Joyce Center.