Bendigo volleyballer to tour Thailand with Volleyroos

The 19-year-old Bendigo Academy of Sport graduate was named in the Volleyroos' squad of 14 for the 10-day tour.

The 191cm middle-blocker is based in the United States where she plays volleyball and studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

"It's great for the Academy of Sport to have athletes advance to the world stage,'' Bendigo Academy of Sport executive officer Graham Gordon said.

"It fosters the enthusiasm with the current crop of athletes that people have gone through the program and represented Australia.

"We've had lots of kids over the years in state and national teams going back to when we started in 1995.

"For a town of Bendigo's size, with a small volleyball population, it's a credit to the coaches and the program."

Cox is not the only Bendigo volleyball product in national colours - Scott Johnson is in the under-21 Australian men's squad.

"They (Cox and Johnson) are wonderful kids who have grown into wonderful young adults,'' Gordon said.

"It's great to see Bendigo kids doing well on the world stage."

Cox's first tour with the Volleyroos will be a testing tour of Thailand, where the team will train and play each day at the FIVB Training Centre in Bangkok.

"Thailand is an opportunity to train and play, develop our connections and give a lot of new players an opportunity to step up to the senior international level," coach Russell Borgeaud said.

"We'll be playing some matches against some of the local Thai teams, and training at the FIVB Training Centre in Bangkok.

"Teamwork is vital in volleyball and while this is an opportunity to improve our individual skills, we will also learn how our skills support the team.

"We're working on building our understanding and expectations of each other and the team, and the best way to do this is to train and then test ourselves in real games."

Australia is ranked 59th in the world in the official FIVB women's rankings. Thailand is ranked 14th.

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