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LINCOLN, Neb. (Jan. 7, 2016) – The host United States defeated
its neighbors to the north Canada 25-18, 25-18, 25-15 Thursday
evening to start the 2016 Women’s NORCECA Olympic Qualification
Tournament strong in front of a heavily partisan crowd at the
Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb, USA.
USA had seven players with at least five points. Nicole Fawcett
scored a team match-high 14 points, while Karsta Lowe totaled 10
points as a sub in all three sets. Jordan Larson and Kelsey
Robinson, who both played collegiate volleyball at the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln, added 10 and nine points
respectively. Tori Dixon punched in seven points.
Canada was led by Tabitha Love and Lucille Charuk chipped in
eight points each.
The U.S. offense overwhelmed Canada with a 57-30 kill advantage.
Canada held a 7-3 margin in blocks, while the Americans had a
2-0 edge in aces.
USA’s Larson, Robinson and Kayla Banwarth all played
collegiately at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and got
the start in front of the hometown fans.
USA will face Puerto Rico (0-1) on Friday on the second of three
round-robin competition days, while Canada looks to stay alive
for the Olympic Games bid to the winner on Friday versus
Dominican Republic (1-0). The second- and third-place teams in
the final standings move into the last chance Olympic Games
qualification tournaments in May.
USA Head Coach Karch Kiraly: “We used a little different
substitution patterns that many other international teams use.
We look for little fractions of points of advantage. So we will
often use all six of our available subs. Four of those six are
used in what we call the double-sub where we bring in Courtney
Thompson and Karsta Lowe, and they did a very nice job. We also
brought Megan Easy in as she has had a good training camp,
particularly good at the net hitting and blocking. We want to
squeeze out a fractional advantage out. Some people talk about
using a defensive specialist across the back row, well we
offensive specialist, or OSed her across the front row.”
USA Captain Christa Dietzen: “First off, hats off to
Canada as they played great defense which is a struggle for a
lot of our opponents. Their defenders did a phenomenal job and
put pressure on us. We talked about throwing a lot of good a
them. I thought we kept our patience in the match. Was it our
best match, no. But I think we have to find ways if we are
operating at a C level or B-minus, we have to find ways to win.”
Canada Head Coach Arnd Ludwig: “We played good, we had a
really good defense. Our serving wasn’t as good as I was hoping
for. Our passing was same thing, we can pass a little bit
better. For us it was a good start to the tournament and there
are some things we can build confidence on for the next two
games… Adjustment number one is to get a tougher serve. And
adjustment number two is to get less aggressive in our passing
because we had a lot of good passes, good positioning, but
overpasses. The U.S. is the top ranked team and they took
advantage of that.”
Canada Captain: Brittney Page: “USA is a very strong
program with a lot of depth. There is a good atmosphere here and
they were excited to come out and play hard. We knew we had to
play solid to catch them at all. They’re a team you can’t afford
to make mistakes with because they’re so solid and they don’t
make mistakes. There were moments where we beat ourselves and
that’s what hurt us. We have to take the good out of this and
keep fighting because it’s just the start of the tournament.” |
