How a Wisconsin volleyball recruit dominated for Team USA at international tourney

But no amount of telling them could fully prepare them for the feeling when it became a reality.

Flanagan and Thompson, two of the University of Wisconsin’s 2026 recruiting class, were among the 12 players who played for the U.S. Girls U19 Team that won the gold medal in the 2024 NORCECA Continental Championship in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

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Both players said that U.S. coach Jamie Morrison, the Texas A&M coach, tried his best to prepare his team for how it would feel.

“The whole time Jamie was talking about how different it was going to be playing for USA,” said Flanagan, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter from Redondo Beach, California. “It was really cool hearing our national anthem before the game because we became like one. We weren’t individual players, we were USA.

“It was really cool representing our country. No matter who was on the court, we all supported each other because we all had the same goal, to win for USA. I didn’t realize how I would actually feel. He was trying to explain it to us, but you can’t actually know until you’re there playing.”

Thompson said that feeling started to hit her after the tryouts a couple weeks earlier when she made the team.

“After the end of the tryouts, Jamie made us write down what our favorite thing was,” said Thompson, a 6-1 outside hitter from Spring, Texas. “Some people put down things like playing with my friends or going to eat. Mine personally was putting on the USA jersey and playing in it. It’s something that is so surreal and such a crazy feeling. It’s such an honor. It’s unmatched.

“Jamie would say that people don’t get the opportunity every day to go out and play in the USA jersey, and I 100% agree with that. It’s so amazing and so fun and so much different from club. My club is very high level, but USA is very different. The competition level is higher and there’s more drive and more honor. If you’re wearing the USA jersey, you know you’re there for a reason. It’s completely different and such an honor.”

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The U.S. team wore that jersey well as it dominated the competition. The U.S. swept all three of its preliminary round matches against Cuba, Canada and Puerto Rico, earning a bye into the semifinals.

The Americans again swept Puerto Rico in that round to advance to the finals with a rematch against Canada.

After breezing to an easy victory in the first set, the U.S. suffered its first lost set 25-20 in the second. It was an unsettling experience, but a valuable one.

“We had kind of coasted,” Flanagan said. “Coming into the final, we had the same intensity but when we dropped that set, it definitely was a different feeling because we hadn’t lost before. And Canada had gotten a lot better from the first time we played them. That was definitely an oh-no moment, we can’t just coast, we have to keep pushing as hard as we can.”

Canada threatened to take the lead in the match, rallying from a 13-4 deficit to take a 24-22 lead with a 7-0 run. But after a service error on set point by Canada, Flanagan put away three consecutive kills to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead in the match.

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The U.S. dominated the fourth set 25-14 to capture the gold.

Flanagan led all scorers with 18 points on 14 kills, a block and three service aces. She was named the tournament’s Best Outside Hitter, Best Server and Best Receiver.

Receiving all those individual accolades caught Flanagan off guard, to say the least.

“Honestly, I was overwhelmed and shocked,” she said. “I was just happy to be on the team, and starting in the final match was a huge accomplishment for me. There were so many good players there and our team was so amazing. I was just like, wow, really? Me?

“My serve was something I was working on coming into it, so it felt really good to get the serving award. That wasn’t always my strongest suit. Also, the passing was tough because the serving was a lot harder. So getting best receiver was kind of crazy. The best spiker, that was just crazy because there were just so many good hitters there. I was kind of shocked by that.”

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Flanagan’s flashy performance in Honduras capped a memorable month for her as she led her SCVC 16 Roxy team to the championship in the USA Junior Nationals in Las Vegas just before the NORCECA tournament.

Flanagan was named to the All-Tournament team and capped the tournament with a service ace for match point in the championship against 1st Alliance, a Chicago area club that featured another future Badger, middle blocker Lynney Tarnow.

“Winning Nationals was crazy,” Flanagan said. “I still can’t believe we did that.”

SCVC went on a revenge run in the tournament, sweeping Pohaku (Kansas City), the team that knocked it out the year before, in the quarterfinals; upsetting powerful Legacy (Michigan) in the semifinals then taking down 1st Alliance, which had won an earlier confrontation in Salt Lake City.

Flanagan said that playing against Tarnow gave her some additional motivation in terms of bragging rights down the line.

“I wanted to win just because I wanted to win,” she said. “But I really didn’t want to lose just because of that reason. I’m a competitive person, so I really didn’t want to lose to her. But afterwards, it was great and we congratulated each other.”

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While Flanagan, ranked No. 8 by PrepDig, was having a breakout July, things were a little quieter for Thompson, No. 2 according to PrepDig. First, her Houston Skyline team, one of the favorites at Nationals, finished a disappointing 10th. Then she was largely a reserve with the USA team, playing sporadically.

And although that may not have been her Plan A, she’s not troubled by any of that. In fact, she was fired up about it.

“It definitely was different,” Thompson said about her reserve role. “But every opportunity you have just to be in the jersey and get on the court is awesome. I just tried to make the best of it.

“It’s also refreshing because it lets you know that you didn’t peak when you’re 16. I didn’t want to be sitting here when I’m 20 years old and thinking that I peaked when I was 16. It’s really good to know that I still have stuff to work on. It’s exciting because I know I can go to the gym and pinpoint, I need to do this better, I need to do that better. I’m not plateauing. I still have a lot of room to grow, and that’s really exciting.”

Thompson said she is pleased with her passing and defense but knows she has to work on her blocking and hitting. She knows she’s somewhat undersized for an outside at 6-1, but she is confident that she can use her other assets to compensate for that and is thankful that Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield didn’t just measure her by her height.

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“I wouldn’t say I’m short, but I’m definitely not 6-4,” Thompson said. “Making up for the height would be a harsh statement, but just finding other ways to score and things like that. I know my vertical, how high I jump really helps me, so it’s just taking advantage of that and fine-tuning a lot of little things.

“It’s really easy to get put to the side because of my height. Something I’m really happy about is that Kelly didn’t do that because I’m not 6-4. I think that shows that he trusts in me and my ability, which is really exciting to know. People like Jordan Larson are people I look up to because they might not be the biggest and baddest, tallest outside in the world. She’s in her fourth Olympics, and that’s something I want to do, so she’s a big inspiration of mine.”

Both Flanagan and Thompson said they were amazed at how close the USA team became with just four days of practice in Colorado Springs before heading to Honduras. The future Badgers also formed a deep bond as roommates throughout the process. They already are talking about getting together sometime in Texas, then becoming roommates in two years when they get to Wisconsin.

“She was my best friend on the team,” Flanagan said about Thompson. “She was always the person I went to whenever I had something I was worrying about. She’s such a fun person to be around, so it’s hard not to like her. We just bonded so much over this and made me that much more excited that we’re going to school together.”

The Wisconsin commits were among four sets of future college teammates on the USA squad, along with Kelly Kinney and Elena Hoecke (Minnesota), Manaia Ogbechie and Jayden Robinson (Nebraska) and Henley Anderson and Genevieve Harris (Texas).

Thompson said the prospect of their future rivalries came up on occasion but didn’t get in the way of any friendships.

“I don’t think we brought it up as much as people might think we would,” Thompson said. “But I would be sitting in a room with Audrey, Henley and Genevieve and we’d go like, wow, in years to come we might be looking across the net at each other for a national championship. It’s kind of crazy.

“When we’re together, it’s more like we’re friends and volleyball is just something we end up doing. It’s so strange. All 12 of us are so close. We’re all best friends and it’s really cool to think about how we’re going to be playing at such amazing programs. It’s a little sad because I wish we could all play on the same team. But it’s really cool to see everyone and know they’re all going to have their own journeys in volleyball and be successful in their own ways.”