Rebels to Compete in National Team Tryouts

Aubrey Edie
Photo courtesy of Joshua McCoy /Ole Miss Athletics

Melanie Crow and Aubrey Edie of the Ole Miss volleyball team, will match their skills with many of the nation’s top players at the USA Volleyball Tryouts (#USAVTryout) this weekend at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

The tryout will evaluate approximately 231 athletes from 88 colleges from across the country for spots on the U.S. Women’s National Team and the U.S. Collegiate National Team program.

Crow, who will be making her third appearance at the tryouts, made the Collegiate National Team last year. She missed the majority of the 2015 season due to injury and has applied for a medical redshirt. In 2014, Crow set the school record for aces in a season (42) and finished second for kills in a season with 352.

Edie earned a spot on the team in 2014, but was unable to go to the tryouts last year due to having mono.  This past season, she helped lead the Rebels to consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in three decades and a school-record 13 home wins.  With 3,527 assists Edie will enter her final campaign needing just 275 assists to set the school record.

“Mel and Aubrey always do such a good job of representing our program,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. “We are proud of them. I know that they will both do their best this weekend and they will come back to Oxford and share their experience to help our team.”

Three-time Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Olympic Hall of Famer Karch Kiraly and the U.S. Women’s National Team staff will lead the tryout process.

The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday’s first session goes from 3-9 p.m. CT, while Saturday’s sessions are at 9 a.m. (focus on serve/receive and individual work) and 3 p.m. (middle-centered and out-of-system focus). The tryout concludes on Sunday at 9 a.m. with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the staff to participate in a “USA” training session.

All sessions of the tryout will be streamed live by clicking here. USA Volleyball will use #USAVTryout as the hashtag for photos, notes, quotes and stories posted to its social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram under the handle @usavolleyball.

For more information on Ole Miss Volleyball, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissVB, on Facebook at OleMissVolleyballand on Instagram at OleMissVB. Also follow Coach McRoberts on Twitter, @CoachMcRoberts.