January 4, 2009
USA vs. Italian Youth National Team, Match #2
Road Trip to Tolfa with the Italians...
By Carly Thomas, Southwest Illinois Volleyball Club
We started out the day with breakfast at 8:30am and then we headed off to the gym for practice at 9:30. At practice we did a lot of defense and line digging. Jim decided to kill the setters with a line digging drill that we had to dig 50 perfect ups to get out of the drill. It was a killer.
After practice, and lunch, we had a few hours until we had to leave for our match against Italy. During those hours we all just rested. Ashley, Molly, Jen, Amy, and Jane all watched One Tree Hill. Me and Erica watched the movie Chicago on her Ipod. Tori, Anna, and Stephanie all read books. And Jazzy was sleeping. We had to be at the bus at 2:20 to leave for our match which was in Tolfa. It took an hour to get there. When we arrived to the gym we still had an hour and a half till we started playing. Jim challenged Amy to a game of basketball while we waited. It was fun to watch, but Amy lost! Jim ended the game by setting the ball into the net. LOL.
After that we had a team meeting and then we started to warm up. When the game started we were all pumped up to win because they had bested us the night before. We didn't play very well the first time we played them so we wanted to show them how we could really play. We started off the match very strong. Passing was on and so was serving. Ashley Wittman's shoulder has been hurting her, so we weren't sure if she was going to play. She warmed up well, so she started the first set. But she had to stop playing in the middle of it. We won that first set 25-22.
The second set was just as good. We were passing and serving very well. Which made it tough for the other team. We were also digging very well which is encouraging because that's all we did at practice. We won the second set 25-17 In the third set we started off slow by letting them have at least a four point lead on us. When the score was 8-6 them, Jazzy went back to serve. She Served nine straight points until she Chernobyled and served her 10th ball into the net. She brought the score to 15-8. From there we stayed playing strong and won the third set 25-20. It was a very exciting win for us since it was at there home gym in front of a big crowd.
Then it was back to the Olympic Training Center for dinner and much needed sleep. Tomorrow me meet early to get the day started. We're seeing a bit of Rome and racing up to Venice on the train to get some sightseeing in on our last day!
Coach's Corner with Melissa Wolters, Head Coach at West Florida University
Summing up the Last Few Matches...
After our time in Maribor we had an opportunity to compete against the Slovenian Youth National Team, who won the MEVZA Tournament in which our team had just competed. We had a chance to watch the championship match between Slovenia and Slovakia after we won the 3rd place match and knew that Slovenia would present a challenge for us with our passing game.
Our players welcomed the challenge of a chance to make up for our loss against Slovakia and were able to come away with a 3-0 win. Throughout our time together as a group, our players are getting more and more confident in playing against teams that know how to put a great deal of pressure on their opponent from behind the end-line.
After that match we made our way to the Italian Olympic Training Center in Rome where we had a scrimmage and a more formal match against the Italian Youth National Team. During the scrimmage, our players were able to come away winning game 1 and 5, while only losing games 2 and 3 by 2 points, each. Italy was far and beyond the strongest team that we have played here on this tour and continued to break down different aspects of our game, especially our passing. We learned a lot about our players throughout the scrimmage, but more importantly, they learned a lot about themselves. Anna Dorn played a big roll in the games that we won, and came out as our top point scorer on the night. We finally had a chance to have this team experience tough international travel combined with competition, as we played this scrimmage after taking an all night train from Trieste to Rome the night before.
The next day we traveled a little over an hour in a bus with the Italians to a private venue to play a more formal match against the Italian Youth National Team again. After using a morning practice to prepare and make some adjustments in our defense to compensate for the Italian well-balanced offense, we took the floor in front of the largest crowd this group has seen. We opened up the match with a large lead in game one, only to see it slip away as the Italians tied it up at 18. Taking from all they have learned about competing against tough international teams, our young USA players pulled out a 25-22 first game win. We found ourselves in a similar situation to the previous night and wanting to make the necessary adjustments to continue to improve in game 2 and try to pull out to an early lead. Although game 2 was tight throughout, we were able to earn a 25-17 victory. Game 3 was quite a different story and definitely a story to tell. After going down early in game 3, our team was facing a near certain loss with a 6-8 deficit, when Jazmine Orozco went back to serve. Jazmine, behind a very effective block and determined defense, rattled off 9 straight points with her serve. This is the first time during this trip that our team was able to defend a serve for a series of points. A few times earlier in the trip we found ourselves on the receiving end of just such a serving run. It was great to see our players deliver it to an opponent. We ended up finishing the match with a 25-10 win and a 3-0 victory over a strong opponent. In tonight's match, we passed a 2.22 which is the highest passing percentage of our entire trip. We had quite a few players that stepped up their game including Jane Crosson, Erica Denney and Jennifer Bonilla. The real story of the match, however, is that Stephanie Holthus came in and played a vital outside hitting role in place of Ashley Wittman. Stephanie, having never even traveled out of the country, came up big for team USA just when we needed her.
This young USA Youth National team will leave here having learned a great deal about what it takes to be successful in the international game and will look to improve on all things necessary to be able to carry the tools gained on this experience into this 2009 World Championships.
