Herrera, Argentina Readies for FIVB Challenger Cup

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State junior middle blocker Candelaria Herrera and the Argentina women's volleyball senior national team are in action this weekend at the 2019 FIVB Challengers Cup in Lima, Peru. Competition will take place from June 26-30 with Las Panteras slated to face Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at 5 p.m. and Canada on Friday at 5 p.m. The opposite pool see hosts Peru along with the Czech Republic and Croatia.

Should Herrera and the Argentines be one of the top two teams in the three-team pool, they will advance to the elimination bracket on Saturday and Sunday. Semifinals on Saturday will be at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., with Sunday featuring a third-place match at 4 p.m. and the final at 7 p.m. The six teams will be competing for a spot in the 2020 FIVB Volleyball Nations League.

Herrera's summer has been quite a whirlwind. Once the school year finished, Herrera went to Buenos Aires, Argentina to train with the Argentina senior national team. Her time with them went on a brief hiatus when the Cyclones came to South America for their foreign tour at the start of June, with Herrera joining the Cyclones for eight days and six matches in Argentina and Peru.

After the Cyclones' final match in Peru on June 9, Herrera went back to Buenos Aires to continue training with the national team. Her hard work over the past six weeks has given her the opportunity to potentially make her debut this weekend for Las Panteras. The Cyclone junior has not played with her Argentina teammates in any of Argentina's three warm-up matches, two of which were against the ISU team featuring Herrera and a third against Colombia which took place during an Iowa State match in Peru.

Argentina heads into this weekend's tournament as the favorites with its FIVB ranking of No. 11. Las Panteras will be looking to return to the prestigious FIVB Nations League, having been the relegated team following the 2018 edition. The Argentines' pool features the second-highest ranked team at the tournament with Canada at No. 18.

All matches will take place at the Coliseo Manuel Bonilla in Lima, Peru. Any live streaming information will be shared on Iowa State volleyball's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Herrera will be taking over the Iowa State volleyball Instagram account on Wednesday.