They knew what they were getting into when they showed up last fall for tryouts with the Roanoke Juniors volleyball club.

This was the 15-National team, which meant they would work harder and longer than most. This team, by definition, had national aspirations.

"They knew from the beginning it was going to be three practices a week," coach Tom Houser said of his nine players. "They knew from the beginning it was going to be 10 tournaments. They saw from the beginning that we might be playing in May, in June, in July, and they accepted that."

That hard work paid off with a state title two months ago in Richmond. In two weeks, the 15-Nationals will play at the national championships in Atlanta.

In that, they are following the lead of last year's 17-Nationals, the first Roanoke Juniors team to qualify for nationals.

"We looked at the 17-Nationals as inspiration," said middle blocker Laura Jessee, a freshman at Patrick Henry High School.

The team includes seven other freshmen: Meredith Walker and Emily White of Cave Spring High School, Jessica Church, Eva Delaney and Tori Hodges of Hidden Valley High School, Lindsey Campbell of Franklin County High School and MacKenzie Tyree of Lord Botetourt High School. Piper Hagan is an eighth-grader at Cave Spring Middle School.

Their enthusiastic, excitable leader is Houser, a Staunton River High School algebra teacher who has coached volleyball for 22 years.

In 2000, after 16 seasons as head coach at Bassett High School, Houser got married, moved to Roanoke and began coaching with the Roanoke Juniors organization.

Eva, Lindsey, Jessica and MacKenzie played for him last year on the 15-Regionals team, which, as the name suggests, had more modest goals.

"He's really peppy," Eva said, adding, "I don't think I've ever seen him in a bad mood."

Houser, 48, is as passionate and knowledgeable a coach as you will find, as shown not only by his players' testimonials but also by the comprehensive volleyball Web site he maintains, www.coachhouser.com.

Adjusting his training methods to suit the team's ambitious goals for this season, Houser dipped into his reservoir of volleyball knowledge and worked with the girls on a higher level.

The time commitment was significant, with 10 weekend tournaments and practices Saturday morning and Sunday and Wednesday nights.

Houser insisted that his players make up any training time they missed for family commitments or other sports or extracurricular obligations.

"Right now I have no girl on my team that is one minute behind on practice time," he said.

Meredith, for instance, trained on her own frequently this spring because she also played soccer for Cave Spring. Others put other sports aside.

"I played basketball and softball and volleyball for Franklin County, and I gave both of [the other sports] up this year to commit to this team solely," Lindsey said.

They traveled to tournaments in Richmond, Charlottesville, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio, before returning to the Richmond Convention Center for the April 8-9 state tournament.

In nine matches, they won 18 of 21 games, beating teams from bigger clubs in Richmond and the Tidewater area. In the final, Roanoke beat a top-seeded team from Williamsburg in three sets.

"It was pretty exciting," Houser said. "People crying, people hugging. ... For some of these kids, that may be the only big championship they win in their lives. It's my first."

No matter the result at nationals June 29-July 2, the team has accomplished its primary goal.

"Getting beat's no big deal," Houser said. "But not being prepared is a big deal. We plan on being prepared. We plan on doing everything we can to be the best we can be."