May 20, 2008

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Former UC Santa Barbara volleyball player Olivia Waldowski has been selected to represent the United States as a member of one of two beach volleyball teams at the 2008 World University Championships on July 2-7 in Hamburg, Germany it was announced by USA Volleyball last Thursday.

The team was selected after a USAV Beach national team camp and tryout held on May 9-11 in Playa del Rey, Calif.

Waldowski will be partnered with UC Irvine's Kari Pestolesi, the 2007 West Region AVCA Division I Freshman of the Year. The other beach volleyball duo consists of Keegan Featherstone of UC Irvine and Lauren Fendrick of UCLA.

Fifty-nine total athletes (36 women and 23 men) representing 30 different colleges participated in the first of two USAV Beach tryout camps, which was led by USAV youth and junior beach coach Danalee Corso. Other coaches included Ali Wood; AVP veteran athletes and coaches Brian Corso, Cam Green, and Rocky Mayo; retired AVP athlete and national camp director for Sinjin Smith's beach camps Kerri Eich, and South Bay Volleyball Club's Branden Higa.

"This is a great opportunity and I am really looking forward to it. I will get to see some great competition and it is exciting to play on the international level," commented Waldowski.

Waldowski, who graduated from UCSB in 2007, was a 2006 AVCA Division I Honorable Mention All-American and a four-time All-Big West honoree.

In the fall of 2006, the middle blocker set the Gaucho record for a single season hitting percentage with her .394 clip, ranking 13th amongst all Division I players that year. She closed out her career at UCSB ranked third all-time in the Gaucho record books for block assists (371), fourth for total blocks (421), and tied fourth for service aces (137).