Bella Benoit
Ryan Palmieri
By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
Three local volleyball players have had some impressive success at the 2017 Girls Junior National Volleyball Championship this year. Two graduated from Vandegrift and one is a rising senior.
The divisions from highest on down are: open, national, USA and American. Playing at this level and to medal in any division is challenging.
Recent Vandegrift graduate and four-year varsity member Katarina Mendez’s club team won the 18 USA Division on April 23 in Dallas.
“It was my proudest moment so far,” said Mendez, 5’10”. She started her volleyball career in Steiner Ranch with YMCA community sports at age 10 and she never stopped playing.
She was 2nd team all district and will continue her volleyball career at St. Edward’s University in the fall as an outside hitter.
“We are very proud of the 18 Austin Juniors Volleyball team Mizuno,” said Anthony Mendez, Katarina’s dad. “This age group has won this very prestigious National Championship twice and have also won many other tournaments. The entire team will be playing collegiate volleyball at various universities around the country.”
Another recent VHS graduate and Viper varsity letterman, Bella Benoit, won silver in the 18 USA division April in Dallas. She played on Austin Performance and left to join the West Point (U.S. Military Academy) volleyball team as a 6’3″ middle blocker.
“She loved her team and it was one of the best seasons of her career,” said her dad, Peter Benoit. “The club, her teammates and high profile tournament wins were so memorable.”
Benoit was 1st team all district at VHS and wasn’t available for comment since she was in boot camp.
Rising senior Ryan Palmieri’s team won silver in the 17 Open Division on July 3rd in Minneapolis.
“I think that getting silver medal is a big accomplishment, especially being in the open division,” said Palmieri, 6’1″. “Just playing in the National Championship match was such an amazing experience and hopefully next year we are in that situation again and we will win it all.”
The open division consists of the top 24 most competitive teams in the country. Palmieri, right side, is a third-year VHS varsity starter, 1st team all district, was a 2016 season captain and a VHS Second to None award recipient. She is #15 on Austin Junior Volleyball, 17 Mizuno. She will continue her volleyball career in Division 1 college volleyball and has committed to Southern Methodist University after graduation in 2018.
The head coach of AJV 17 Mizuno is a former Vandegrift parent and a current Four Points resident, Ted Wade.
Jenny Palmieri contributed to this article.