United States debuts with easy win over French St. Martin

FORT LAUDERDAL, United States, July 26, 2016.- United States made their debut at the NORCECA Women’s U-20 Continental Championship with an easy win over French St. Martin 3-0 (25-2, 25-4, 25-5) at the Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

United States was able to use all their players while dominating French St. Martin with superiority in spikes (33-5), blocking (2-0) and serves (15-0). United States limited their mistakes to six.

Middle blocker Taryn Knuth led all scorers with eleven points, 10 on kills and one block. Outside hitters Dawn Sun, Machenzie May and Elizabeth Hall scored 9, 8 and 7 points respectively.

On Wedenesday, United States (1-0) faces Puerto Rico (1-0) and Mexico (0-1) will play French St. Martin (0-1).

“It feels good to have a first win under your belt. USA will have some momentum going into the next few games; I’m proud of how we played. We will fight every match and I think we have a good chance of winning the gold” said USA captain Sydney Hilley.

Coach Laurie Corbelli said “we would like to use all our players in every single match because they are all really strong players. Part of last week’s tournament was trying and get a rhythm with the line-up and we are struggling to decide who should be our starting group.

This was a match with a different pace that we are used to. The group handled themselves pretty well in serving and it’s becoming one of our biggest strengths”.

Captain Lauriane Ternon of French St. Martin indicated that this is a learning experience “we are sad which is natural, but it was a hard game with a lot of mistakes from our side; we will try to do better the next time”.

Coach Lezin Jean-Luc said “facing the champion was really complicated. We are taking this opportunity to learn. Solutions will not be easy, what happened today was expected”.