2015 Women’s FIVB World Cup Experience
Played in a previous FIVB World Cup Alisha Glass (S, 6-0, Leland, Mich., Penn State University) Jordan Larson-Burbach (OH, 6-2, Hooper, Neb., University of Nebraska) Megan Easy (OH, 6-3, Boston, Mass., Penn State University) Foluke Akinradewo (MB, 6-3, Plantation, Fla., Stanford University)
Played in fi rst FIVB World Cup in 2015 Kayla Banwarth (L, 5-10, Dubuque, Iowa, University of Nebraska) Lauren Gibbemeyer (MB, 6-2, St. Paul, Minn., University of Minnesota) Christa Dietzen (MB, 6-2, Hopewell Township, Pa., Penn State University) Nicole Fawcett (OPP, 6-4, Zanesfi eld, Ohio, Penn State University) Kim Hill (OH, 6-4, Portland, Ore., Pepperdine University) Natalie Hagglund (L, 5-9, Encinitas, Calif., University of Southern California) Molly Kreklow (S, 5-9, Delano, Minn., University of Missouri) Karsta Lowe (OPP, 6-4, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., UCLA) Tori Dixon (MB, 6-3, Burnsville, Minn., University of Minnesota) Kelsey Robinson (OH, 6-2, Bartlett, Ill., University of Nebraska)
But part of our mission statement is doing things that have never been done before. We’ve never won a World Cup. This team was more than capable of doing it, but we didn’t perform at our best.”
Had the U.S. taken gold or silver at the
World Cup, it would have qualifi ed for next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The third-place fi nish, which put the Americans behind China (gold) and Serbia (silver), altered their fall schedule and required the team to compete for a top-four spot in the NORCECA Championships in late Septem- ber/early October. At VolleyballUSA’s deadline, the team was on their way to that tournament. If they take a top-four fi nish there, they’ll qualify for the NORCECA Olympic Qualifi cation Tour- nament in January, where a fi rst-place fi nish will earn them an Olympic berth. Like his players, U.S. Coach Karch Kiraly wasn’t happy with the bronze. But he views the added training time and the oppor- tunity for more competition as a big plus. “Our fi nish was disappointing,” he said. “But to tell you the truth, in a perfect world, I would have loved to have won that tournament and not gotten an Olympic berth. The frustrating part is that we were clearly capable of winning that tournament, and we did not. But the good part is, we got more time together [in September] and at the NORCECA championships, and we’ll also get two weeks of training in late December and early January before our zone Olympic qualifi er. That is actually really good for us. It will be the fi rst time in quite a number of years where, when we get back together in May, we won’t have gone eight months without getting together.”
The added gym time was embraced by the players, too.
“I think we’re almost looking at the (World Cup result) as a positive now,” said
Larson-Burbach, a little over a week after the team returned from Japan. “It gives us two more weeks in the gym together to train and another tournament under our belt, and it allows us to work on stuff that might have gone unseen if we would have qualifi ed.” Akinradewo agreed. “We’re trying to channel it into positiv- ity and getting after it in the gym and getting better,” she said. “It
makes us hungrier. This adversity will ulti- mately help us next year in the Olympics.”
RESETTING AFTER A LOSS The Americans fi nished the World Cup with a 9-2 match record that included a win over eventual champion China (10-1) against a fi ve-set loss to Serbia (10-1) and a three-set loss to Russia (fourth place, 9-2 record). After both defeats, the team bounced back quickly. The win over China, a three-set sweep, came one day after the Serbia loss. The loss to Russia was followed by a solid victory over host Japan in which the U.S. closed out the match with an exceptionally strong 25-10 fourth set.
“Now we have to work on making those adjustments sooner and respond within a match, not at the conclusion of it,” Dietzen said. “We did that at a great level last year at the World Championships; we’d be down fi ve, six, seven points and still continue to impose our will on other teams, and that didn’t happen quite at the same level at the World Cup. Teams love playing the U.S., and we have to be ready for that and adapt on the fl y within a match.”
BIG ROCKS
The U.S. team uses the term “big rocks” to describe specifi c areas that will require major attention during each training block. Kiraly explains it this way: “When you’re trying to fi ll a jar and you have sand and you have pebbles and you have bigger rocks, you don’t put the grains of sand in fi rst. You put in the most signifi cant things. First you put the rocks, then the pebbles, then the sand. That gives you the most value for the work you put in. I think it helps us make the training more effective when we can tell the players exactly what we need to get better at and explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
EXPERIENCED: Jordan Larson-Burbach was a steady presence at the FIVB World Cup.
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