Former Rainbow Wahine Therese Crawford is part of USA Volleyball's senior-level team that will travel to Egypt in April as part of an exchange program involving the United States Olympic Committee and the Egyptian National Olympic Committee.

The USOC and the Egyptian National Olympic Committee exchange program includes a sport component as well as a cultural component. The program is part of an ongoing effort to build good relations between the USOC and African National Olympic Committees and to promote sports in Africa. Women's volleyball was the only sport chosen.

New U.S. women's national team head coach Hugh McCutcheon, who led the U.S. men to a gold medal in Beijing, picked 12 "elite developmental athletes on the verge of being added to the U.S. women's national team." The team will play two matches in Cairo against the Egyptian women's national team.

The U.S. women won silver at the last Olympics. The only Olympians on the team are liberos Nicole Davis and Stacy Sykora. Crawford was an alternate at the last Olympics and traveled to Beijing as a spectator.

In other volleyball news, former Hawai'i All-Americans Heather Bown and Kim Willoughby, who played integral parts on the Olympic team, are thriving in their professional careers in Italy.

Bown recently helped Monte Schiavo Banca Marche Jesi rally to defeat Solo Affitti Tradeco Cesena, 20-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-16, 15-12. Bown scored a match-high 20 points with 18 kills and .536 hitting. Jesi (15-8) is ranked fourth in the Italian Serie A standings.

Willoughby scored a match-high 22 points to help her Despar Perugia team hold off CGF Recycle Florens Castellana Grotte, 25-18, 18-25, 25-13, 22-25, 15-10. Perugia (12-12) is in sixth place.