Former Minnesota volleyball standouts Cassie Busse and Charnette Fair were part of the U.S. National Women’s Volleyball team that claimed the bronze medal at the Pan American Games on July 19. Minnesota joined Stanford and Long Beach State as the only two schools to have a pair of members on U.S. National team roster for the Pan American Games.

Busse is one of six members to have competed in both U.S. National Team international competitions (Pan American Cup in Colima, Mexico & Pan American Games) this summer. She has started in 11 of the 12 matches that the U.S. National Team has played. The U.S. National Team has gone 8-4 in its 12 matches this summer, finishing fourth at the Pan American Cup and claiming the bronze in the Pan American Games on July 19.

Most of Busse’s top performances this summer came at the Pan American Cup. Busse had 14 kills and one block and helped lead a rally in the fifth game against Dominican Republic on June 23. Busse scored three straight points during the crucial point of a rally in the fifth game. She also delivered a back-row kill at match point to give the U.S. National Team the five-game victory over the Dominican Republic.

In the semifinals of the Pan American Cup, Busse led the team with 10 points (on nine kills and one block) in a three-game loss to Brazil on June 28. She also had 10 kills and a block in the U.S. National Team’s loss in the third-place match to the Dominican Republic on June 29.

Busse has been on the roster for just about every major international event the U.S. National Team has competed in the last two years. Her first appearance on the U.S. National Team roster was in the FIVB Grand Champions Cup in Japan in November of 2005. Since then she has been on the roster for the World Championships, the World Grand Prix Tournament, the Pan American Cup (in 2006), the U.S. National Team’s match against Poland in Chicago last summer and this year’s two major events.

Fair was added to the U.S. National Team earlier this year, and was on the roster for the first time during international competition at the Pan American Games this past week. She joins 2004 Olympian Lindsey Berg, Nicole Branagh and Busse, as players who have competed internationally for the U.S. National Team since 2003. Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert was the head coach for the Pan American Games bronze-medal team that Branagh competed on for the U.S. National Team in 2003.