ODU Sophomore Selected for Under-21 National Beach Volleyball Team

August 04, 2016

Mario Raden

Mario Raden, a sophomore at Old Dominion University, has been selected to play for the U21 (Under-21) USA Beach Volleyball National Team. Mario played volleyball at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, helping the school win the state championship in his senior year.

He serves as the coach for the Coastal Virginia Volleyball Club and coached the team to a 15th place finish at the 14U (Under-14) Open Division at the National Championship. This year, Coastal Virginia finished the season 18-1, and three members accepted offers to play volleyball at Division 1 schools.

To achieve a spot on the U21 team, Mario competed in one of 15 regional tryouts. At each regional tryout, only one player was selected to advance to the national tryout in Manhattan Beach, Calif., where he was selected for the team. Raden is now training for a spot on the 2020 or 2024 USA Olympic Beach Volleyball Team. With the 2016 Summer Olympics around the corner, he got to meet this year's U.S. Olympic team in California.

Raden, who is majoring in exercise science, hopes to become a physical therapist. In addition to serving as president of Old Dominion's club volleyball team, he is an active member of the Theta-Eta Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity. He credits his success to the support he's received not only from his fraternity, but also from the university.

"ODU has given me valuable characteristics to succeed in life," Raden said. "Professionalism and a hard-working demeanor are just two that have translated into my beach volleyball career. I truly believe anything is achievable, and being around a community of like-minded individuals is only going to benefit you."