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When Cody Dodd tried out for the U.S. national\u00a0volleyball team this summer, she swapped purple and\u00a0gold for red, white and blue. But Tech\u2019s standout player\u00a0still had some purple with her: the ring her mother, who\u00a0died in March, wore always. Dodd wears the ring every\u00a0day on a chain around her neck.<\/p>\n
She is not superstitious, but that small silver ring may\u00a0help Dodd as she pursues the Olympics\u2019 five multicolored\u00a0rings.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was so proud of me, so that\u2019s hard. I know\u00a0she\u2019s still proud of me,\u201d the Cookeville native said. \u201cI\u00a0want to see how far I can make it. My coach always says\u00a0I could go professional, but my ultimate goal is to be an\u00a0Olympian.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tryouts do not qualify athletes for the Olympics.\u00a0They offer chances to play on one of the USA volleyball\u00a0high-performance pipeline teams, from which Olympians\u00a0are selected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I get picked, it helps me because my name is out\u00a0there,\u201d Dodd said before she left. \u201cIt might help me get\u00a0to the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The senior exercise science, physical education and\u00a0wellness major was among 36 women \u2013 of 250 \u2013 to make\u00a0the cut for this summer\u2019s second round of tryouts. The\u00a0first was in Colorado in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cCody has 100 percent of the physical skills. This is\u00a0going to be good for her game IQ. If she can get these\u00a0mental tricks up, I think she stands a good shot of making\u00a0the national team someday,\u201d said Tech volleyball coach\u00a0Dave Zelenock. \u201cShe gets to work with the best coaches\u00a0for a week and play with some of the best players in the\u00a0country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In overall season play at Tech, Dodd led the Ohio\u00a0Valley Conference in points and service aces and was\u00a0second in kills. The season was the team\u2019s best in years;\u00a0the Golden Eagles made it to the second round of the\u00a0OVC tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to surround myself with volleyball,\u201d Dodd\u00a0said. \u201cI love it so much. I love playing and helping people\u00a0get better. I love it all, but the best part is winning.\u201d V<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Update: Dodd was not selected to play on one of the USA high-performance pipeline volleyball teams.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Cody Dodd tried out for the U.S. national\u00a0volleyball team this summer, she swapped purple and\u00a0gold for red, white and blue. But Tech\u2019s standout player\u00a0still had some purple with her: the ring her mother, who\u00a0died in March, wore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fall15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}