Hopewell’s Jordan Sirianni Competing in National Volleyball Tournament

Some big news from the Hopewell volleyball world is occurring this week!

Hopewell student Jordan Sirianni has been selected to play for a travel organization called Sky Elite. That organization, which is headed by former Hopewell graduate and volleyball champion McKenzie Greene, has qualified for a national tournament this week in Las Vegas!

I had some time to catch up with both Jordan and Coach Greene to get their takes on the huge happenings this week.

Coach Greene provided some background and experiences of her 5 years as coach for Sky Elite.

“I have been coaching at Sky Elite for 5 years and have been the director of the club for the last 4 years,” said Greene. “Qualifying for Nationals is difficult, only teams that have won tournaments receive bids. This will be my first-time experiencing Nationals as a coach. I’ve been to Nationals in my high school career and I’m excited for my team to experience the high level of competition.”

Greene went on to explain to me the experiences she had as a player and tried to give an idea of what her team will be going through.

“Being from Hopewell and experiencing WPIAL and States during my time as a player does help me immensely in preparing for this process,” said Greene. “Nationals are highly competitive and every team has earned their bid. Managing nerves and dealing with pressure can be an issue at this type of tournament. The team has to focus on keeping their intensity and playing to full potential on every point. I expect close games with hard fought points.”

Having the opportunity to coach in a tournament such as this is special and so is having a player from her hometown on the team.

“It has been a pleasure coaching Jordan this season,” said Greene. “Jordan is not the most vocal on the court but she leads by example. Her calm demeanor makes her consistent and is someone her teammates and I can always count on. I think she is going to have a great season at Hopewell this fall and lead her team to a successful season.”

I also spoke with Jordan about this tremendous opportunity.

“I heard about Sky Elite about five years ago,” said Sirianni. “The old director of the club was my sisters club coach. I also thought he was a good coach, so I decided to go and tryout and play for him. Club volleyball is very similar to AAU basketball. We have about 7-8 tournaments in the span of six months. I’m on a national team so we can travel pretty far. I think the farthest we traveled this year besides Vegas was Louisville.”

“It feels unreal that my team gets to go to nationals! I never thought I would be able to experience something like this. It’s every team’s goal to qualify for nationals and I am so grateful that my team was able to do it.!”

I finished my interview with Jordan by asking her about Coach Greene and how this experience would impact her upcoming high school season.

“Being coached by a Hopewell graduate is really cool,” said Sirianni. “I can talk to her about stuff that other people can’t. She is definitely my favorite coach that I’ve ever had, and I will really miss having her as my coach next season.”

“I think my experience at Nationals will make me a better player for this upcoming high school season. I will be playing against the best players in the nation this weekend and they will only push me to be better.”

On behalf of myself and HSN, we wish Jordan and her team nothing but the best in this weeks, huge event.”