TORONTO — BYU women’s volleyball head coach Heather Olmstead led the U.S. Women’s U21 National Team to a gold medal finish at the 2024 NORCECA Women’s U21 Continental Championship on Sunday.
With the title match win, the U.S. earned automatic qualification for the 2025 Women’s U21 World Championship.
“What a great tournament,” Olmstead said. “NORCECA has done a great job and Canada was a wonderful host. We couldn’t be happier about the event this whole week. Everything was unbelievably professional and we had a great time. It was very classy.”
The U.S. cruised to the Gold Medal match after going 3-0 in preliminary round action to earn a quarterfinal bye before sweeping the Dominican Republic in the seminal and Puerto Rico in the title match, winning all five of its matches in 3-0 sweeps.
“I think our team did a great job,” Olmstead said. “Everyone was ready to play at any time. I thought our offense has been great all tournament and it was exciting to see us play well. All our players are eligible for next year’s U21 and I think they just set a great tone for the U21 age group. They worked hard and did everything we asked them to. I couldn’t be happier with their performance and how they were all in for the team all the time.”
This is the third gold medal that Olmstead has won with the United States. She previously won gold as an assistant coach with the U21 team at the 2022 Pan American Cup and as an assistant with the U.S. national team at the 2015 Pan American Games.