Rooney Named to U.S. Olympic Team

MALIBU, Calif. Â Former Pepperdine standout Sean Rooney has been named to the 2008 U.S. Olympic volleyball team, USA Volleyball announced today.

Rooney will join Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy as part of the U.S. squad, as Dunphy was previously named the team’s consultant coach.

Additionally, USA Volleyball announced earlier this week that two current Pepperdine student-athletes Â Grant Hilling and Chase Ross Â are part of the training teams for the 2008 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships.

Volleyball will be contested from August 9-24 at the Beijing Games. The USA has been drawn into a group with Italy, Bulgaria, China, Japan and Venezuela. The six teams in the other group are Serbia, Brazil, Poland, Germany, Egypt and Russia.

Rooney (Wheaton, Ill.) was a four-time All-American from 2002-05 for the Waves and was the 2005 National Player of the Year and the MVP of the NCAA Championships as Pepperdine captured the national title. 

Dunphy, who is heading into his 26th season as head coach at Pepperdine and has led the Waves to four national championships, was the head coach of the U.S. team that won a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He is a long-time part of the U.S. staff, having served as an assistant coach in 1976 (although the team didn’t qualify) and at the 2000 Sydney OIympics, and also was the consultant coach at the 1996 Atlanta and 2004 Athens Olympics.

Six other players were named to the beach volleyball Junior World Championships training team besides Hilling (Newport Beach, Calif./Northwood HS) and Ross (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS). A final determination of who will represent the U.S. will be made at a later time. The event will be held on Sept. 3-7 in Brighton, England.

Hilling, who will be a sophomore middle blocker in 2009, appeared in two games for the Waves last season. Ross, who will be a redshirt freshman outside hitter in 2009, did not see any action last season and redshirted.

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