COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- High Point University women's volleyball junior Abby Bottomley has been selected to the U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryout (Feb. 21-23) at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.
 
Bottomley was one of the best defensive specialists in the country all season long, ranking eighth in all of D1 in total digs with 673 and ninth in digs per set, averaging 5.52. Her 673 digs were a career-best, and ranked second-most in program history, 15 shy of matching the school record. Bottomley currently sits at 1,799 digs in her career, 88 away from second place in the school record books and 597 from the career lead.
 
The tryout will evaluate 214 athletes from 95 colleges from across the country for spots on the U.S. Women's National Team and the U.S. Collegiate National Team (CNT) program. Plus, four athletes will also be trying out for the 2020 U.S. Women's Junior National Team. The breakdown for the tryout includes 67 outside hitters, 48 liberos, 37 middles, 37 setters and 25 opposites.
 
The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday's first session goes from 2-8 p.m. MT, while Saturday's two sessions are at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The final session on Sunday begins at 7:30 a.m. MT with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the U.S. Women's National Team staff to participate in a "USA" training session. The Sunday session wraps up at 10:30 a.m. MT.
 
All sessions minus the USA training session on Sunday morning will be streamed live by clicking here. USA Volleyball will use #USAVtryout as the event hashtag for photos, notes, quotes and stories posted to its social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram under the handle @usavolleyball.
 
The 2020 U.S. Collegiate National Team program will have 56 athletes selected with 28 each competing in two training time periods. Both programs will train in Anaheim alongside athletes selected for the U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team and its coaching staff. The CNT Gold will train July 5-12 plus have an international competition in the Southern California area, while the CNT Anaheim group will train June 21-27 and have a Red-Blue intrasquad match in the Southern California area.
 
Selections for the U.S. Collegiate National Teams will be made by the end of March.
 
Selected athletes for the U.S. Women's National Team may begin their training in Anaheim, California, as early as the spring of 2020, or when an athlete's scholastic or professional club season has concluded.
 
For additional information on the team and to follow the tryout throughout the weekend, click here.