Auburn's Bosler and Darling Headed to European Spring Cup

May 5, 2004

AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn freshman middle Julie Bosler and assistant volleyball coach Matt Darling have been selected to represent the United States at the 2004 European Spring Cup.

Recognized by the USAV as part of their National team pipeline and organized by Bring It Promotions, the USA Select Team is participating from May 6 to 16 in the European Spring Cup for the 5th consecutive year.

This is the second consecutive year that Darling will be a part of the coaching staff as he and Auburn's Ashlee Johns participated in 2003.

This year's competition is again in Brno, Czech Republic and has a field of 15 other European National Teams including: Czech Republic (A and B Teams), Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Turkey, Denmark, England, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Sweden.

Playing in the United States' pool will be Slovakia, Denmark and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan recently beat the USA National Team in the Yeltsin Tournament in Russia and is the Spring Cup favorite entering competition. Turkey won the European Championships last summer and is another threat to this summer's title.

The USA Select Team comprises top collegiate players, including many women that are considered part of the USAV "pipeline" of potential National Team athletes. Coaching the team are veteran Spring Cup gurus Reed Sunahara (University of Cincinnati) and Darling as well as former USA National Team Coach and player Greg Giovanazzi (UMBC).

"This is a much needed experience for these collegiate women athletes to play at the international level," Sunahara said.

A full roster and schedule is available on the news page of www.bringitusa.com. Daily journals, photos and statistics will be posted as a Feature Article on www.volleycentral.com starting on Thursday.