But that’s obviously no guarantee. In 1996, the U.S. women’s team was a solid second in its pool with a 4-1 record but crossed over to face No. 1 Cuba, lost and ended up finishing seventh while Cuba went on to win its second consecutive Olympic gold medal.
Winning is the best strategy
Because of the unpredict- ability of who might face whom in the medal rounds and what might happen when they do, McCutcheon and Kiraly aren’t spending any time chewing on what ifs.
“Control what you can control,” Kiraly says. “We can’t worry about who’s doing what over on the oth- er side. All we can worry
about is trying hard to win the next point on our side. It’s not going to be, ‘Oh, that team is there, this team is here.’ I hate that type of thinking – trying to position for this and position for that. It’s so reactive instead of proactive. Let’s just go out and win the next point a lot and not care who we play. In the course of any given match, there are going to be times when it’s not going to look so great. A team is going to go on a run against us and we’re going to have to absorb those punches, and then we’ve got to push back.” Every indication is that the U.S. Women have the personnel to deal more pushes than they receive. It’s possible the starting lineup that was used in last year’s silver- medal finish at the FIVB World Cup will be the same one that McCutcheon uses in London, although he says a number of the younger players are pushing hard for playing time. Running the offense will probably be setter Lindsey Berg, a two-time Olympic veteran from Honolulu who played col- lege ball at University of Minnesota. Berg is excited about a possible third trip to the Games and confident that this team is better positioned to win the Olympics than any team she has been on in the past. “In Beijing, it wasn’t the same feeling,” she says. “We knew we were good, but we came in as the underdogs and weren’t ex- pected to get a silver or have an opportu- nity to get gold. But it’s a different feeling on this team. There’s a lot of depth. I have
SOUND BITE: Hugh McCutcheon has been through the Olympic battle. (Photo: FIVB) 2012 U.S. Women’s Name
Foluke Akinradewo Cynthia Barboza Lindsey Berg Heather Bown Nicole Davis
Nicole Fawcett
Lauren Gibbemeyer Alisha Glass Kim Glass
Tayyiba Haneef-Park Christa Harmotto Megan Hodge
Destinee Hooker Alix Klineman Jordan Larson Carli Lloyd
Nancy Metcalf
Tamari Miyashiro Kristin Richards
Danielle Scott-Arruda Mary ‘Nellie’ Spicer Stacy Sykora
Jennifer Tamas
Courtney Thompson Logan Tom
National Volleyball Team roster 6-3
Pos. MB OH S
MB L
Opp MB S
OH
Opp MB OH
Opp OH OH S
Opp L
OH MB S L
MB S
OH Ht.
6-0 5-8 6-3 5-4 6-4 6-2 6-0 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-3 6-4 6-4 6-2
Hometown Plantation Fla.
Long Beach Calif. Honolulu Hawaii Yorba Linda Calif. Stockton Calif. Zanesfield Ohio St. Paul Minn. Leland Mich. Lancaster Pa.
Laguna Hills Calif. Hopewell Pa. Durham N.C.
San Antonio Texas
5-11 Bonsall Calif. 6-1 5-7 6-1 6-2 5-9
Hull Iowa
Kaneohe Hawaii Orem Utah
Baton Rouge La. Barrington Ill.
5-10 Burleson Texas 6-4
Milpitas Calif.
5-8 Kent Wash. 6-1
Salt Lake City Utah College
Stanford Stanford
Minnesota Hawaii
Southern California Penn State Minnesota Penn State Arizona
Long Beach State Penn State Penn State Texas
Manhattan Beach Calif. Stanford Hooper Neb.
Nebraska
California-Berkeley Nebraska
Washington Stanford
Long Beach State UCLA
Texas A&M Pacific
Washington Stanford
Head Coach — Hugh McCutcheon (Christchurch, New Zealand) Assistant Coaches — Karch Kiraly (San Clemente, Calif.), Paula Weishoff (Irvine, Calif.) Assistant Coach/Technical Coordinator — Jamie Morrison (Dana Point, Calif.) Athletic Trainer — Jill Wosmek (Silver Lake, Minn.) • Team Manager — Ken Sullivan (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
USAVOLLEYBALL.ORG | 43
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