Posted online: Jan 12th, 2012

THE IRISH JUNIOR Women’s Volleyball Squad will represent Ireland in a European Championships for Small Nations qualification tournament in the Faroe Islands today (Jan 10th) with a large representation from Kildare.
The Junior Squad has an amazing seven players of the 12 player squad from Naas. The team is also coached by Naas Cobras Head Coach Marie Sheridan, assistant coached by Naas Cobras Premier League player Claire Walsh and managed by Naas Cobras Division 2 coach Crona Byrne.
In fact the Junior Irish team is captained by St Mary’s College and Naas Cobras player Katie Nolan who was recently selected as the Evening Herald Sports Star of the Month, a very big achievement for Katie. The other members selected for the squad are Aebhín Nugent, Aisling Clance, Heather Clancy, Orla Lynch, Sarah Benn and Karen Benn.
Ms Sheridan remarked: “Naas have been heavily involved in volleyball for years now and it is a very proud time for both the school and the club to have so many Naas players involved. A lot of hard work has gone in to coaching these girls both in school and the club and it is great to have so many reach the highest accolade in Junior Volleyball.”
Coach Sheridan also went on to say: “It is going to a tough week in the Faroe Islands as we face some serious opposition in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and hosts the Faroe’s. There are two qualification spots up for grabs and we are definitely in with a big chance of stealing one of them.”

Tournament kicks off
The tournament begins this Thursday (Jan 12th) when the Junior Squad take on the hosts at 7.30pm and the action continues the following day when the Irish girls will play Liechtenstein at 5.30pm. Their final match will be against Luxembourg on January 14th at 1.30pm.
The top two teams will win a place in the European Championships for Small Nations Finals, which will be held in Cyprus next April.
The remainder of the Irish team is made up of players from Galway, Mayo and Kilkenny, and together with the coaching staff they have been working hard for the last two years preparing for this event.
“The girls have been working very hard for two years now, and especially over the last few weeks, where they had to leave the Christmas cheer and join the training camp in Naas on St. Stephen’s Day for almost two weeks! Now the training is over we are looking forward to hopefully playing some great volleyball in the Faroes,” the coach added.