TORONTO — Michelle Bartsch remembers her first thought pretty clearly when U.S. coach Karch Kiraly contacted her and told her she was a part of the national team player pool in May.
It was an “Are you sure?” moment, Bartsch said with a laugh.
“I was not really expecting it,” the former Illini outside hitter said. “I was playing in Germany with a couple national team members, and Karch was like, ‘Hey, why don’t you come in the gym? We had a spot that opened up. We’ll see how it goes.’”
Through three months, “how it goes” has been pretty good.