LeCheminant, Dahl compete for National A2 team

DALLAS — Kathryn LeCheminant and Team White achieved gold Wednesday at the 2013 U.S. Women’s National Volleyball A2 Program Tournament following a week of practice and competition with some of the best collegiate volleyball players in the country.

"It was an interesting experience for me," LeCheminant said. "To have such high quality of volleyball competition against top players in the country was a neat experience. I learned a lot about who I was as a player and the kind of player I wanted to be. It was interesting to see different teams and different ways volleyball is played. Each girl brought different things to the table."

Team White defeated Team Gold in the championship match at the Dallas Convention Center, taking down Gold in a four-set (24-26, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21) match.

Fellow Cougar Kimberly Dahl played with Team Blue, which fell to Team Red in the bronze-medal contest Wednesday. Dahl contributed three kills during the 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-14) loss.

Following several days of practice, the four teams played each opponent once in round-robin play, which took place June 29-July 1, before being seeded for the tournament, which took place July 2-3. Volleyball players from schools around the country were selected at tryouts held in February and divided into teams during the first week of the program.

LeCheminant and Team White went 4-1 during the competition portion of the program, collecting two wins and a loss during round-robin play and two wins during the seeded tournament.

Dahl and Team Blue collected one victory during round-robin play, defeating Red 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-11).

Team White received the No. 1 seed going into Tuesday’s bracket play, where it defeated Team Red in four (25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-16) to advance to the championship round.

Team Blue received the No. 3 seed heading into the tournament and fell to Gold 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23) in the semifinals.