NOTEBOOK Rio bound
U.S. Men’s Sitting Team punches ticket to the 2016 Paralympic Games to join American women’s team
PARAPAN OF VIRTUE: The play of Eric Duda helped the U.S. Men’s Sitting Team earn a berth in the 2016 Paralympic Games, while Katie Holloway (below) led the U.S. women at the Parapan American Games in Toronto. (Photos: USAV/John Kessel)
he U.S. Men’s Sitting Volleyball Team earned their fi rst ticket to the 2016 Para- lympic Games in 12 years by fi nishing second at the Parapan American Games in Toronto in August. The Americans dropped the gold-medal match to Brazil, but posted a 5-2 record in the tournament to earn the silver medal. The other loss was also to powerful Brazil during pool play. For the Americans it was the third consecutive loss to Brazil in the fi nals of the Parapan American Games, but the qualifi cation berth numbed the pain of coming so close to gold. The key victory was a semifi nal triumph over Canada in a diffi cult four-set match in front of a partisan crowd.
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Eric Duda led the U.S. in the semifi nal victory with a team-high 16 points. He added eight digs and six excellent receptions on 12 attempts. Roderick Green notched 15 points. “I and the team are on cloud nine right
now,” Duda said. “The words of pride escape me at this moment as it has been a long time coming for us to get back to the Paralympics.” The next chapter may lead to another showdown with Brazil in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. Parapan Women’s Sitting Volley- ball Team, ranked third in the world, showed
no signs of slowing down, by defeating Brazil in Toronto to claim the fi rst-ever women’s sitting volleyball title at the Parapan American Games.
The U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball
Team, which had already qualifi ed for the 2016 Paralympic Games after fi nishing second at last year’s ParaVolley Sitting World Cham- pionship, went undefeated in fi ve Parapan American Games matches without dropping a single set. The Americans defeated the Brazil- ians 25-20. 25-22, 25-15 in the championship match.
“The women played a wonderful match,”
U.S. Parapan Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team Head Coach Bill Hamiter said. “We had good runs in each set and had to overcome challeng- es as well. It is always good to be tested and triumph. Brazil played a strong match and took advantage of some of our weaknesses. Now we begin training to shore up our weaknesses before Rio.”
Heather Erickson scored a match-high 16 points in the title victory and Katie Holloway added 15 points.
Kaleo Kanahele was credited with 40 run- ning sets on 53 set attempts to lead the Ameri- cans to a 36.5 kill percent and .260 hitting effi ciency (35-10-96). Holloway charted 12
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excellent receptions on 23 attempts. Monique Burkland added 10 digs and fi ve excellent receptions on 16 chances.
“The team likes playing highly competi- tive teams and Brazil was very competitive,” libero Bethany Zummo said. “I had a lot of fun passing their hits and playing good volleyball. We are excited to win this tournament and now our sights are set on gold in Rio.”
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