*** The Official 2019 Volleyball Nations League Thread ***

[Mavric]

 

 

[Mavric]

 

[Mavric]

Replay just started on NBCSN.

 

Interesting that Robinson was the only former Husker to start and it wasn't at Libero.

[Mavric]

 

[knapplc]

In the realm of "Oh... yeah. This is also a thing..." the US Men's team has also made the VNL Finals.

 

They kicked some fromage-eating butts today.

 

 

[Undertow]

Didn't know a good place to post this, so instead of creating a new thread I stuck it at the end of the VNL thread. The team selected for the Pan Am Cup (of which there are two former Nebraska players K Rolfzen and Wong-Orantes) has made it through pool play undefeated at 4-0 and jumps past the quater-finals to the semi-final round due to being the top team in the pool. In the four matches, they've lost one set (24-26) to Puerto Rico.

 

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/2019/July/10/US-Women-Defeat-Puerto-Rico-Advance-to-Pan-Am-Semis

 

The team consists of a mixture of names from the VNL 25 player roster that didn't make the final round team (Lowe, Kingdon-Rishel), players that were part of the 30 invited for the VNL tryouts but didn't make the cut (Rolfzen, Wong-Orantes), and then some big names from the next tier (Plummer from Stanford, Jones-Perry from BYU, Hannah Tapp from Minnesota). Some of the vets took a pass like Carli Lloyd and Kim Hill. Not quite the USA's 2nd best team, but a solid assemble of talent.

The semis are on the 13th and the medal round is the next day. BTW both Rolfzen and Wong-Orantes are major contributors in the matches thus far.

 

Some thoughts on the VNL final round. Robinson has apparently supplanted Larson on the outside. However, Bartsch-Hackley did not look that impressive in the semis and finals. Poulter and Dixon gave the US a spark in the semis against China (props to Kiraly for having the confidence to put in Poulter, a rookie, at that moment), and Larson and Dixon literally changed the momentum and won the match when they came in the third set down 0-2. And congrats to the opposites as Drews was the final round MVP and of course Thompson went off in the first match against Brazil with 30 kills on 51 attempts.

 

Next is the Olympic qualifier in early August which is on home turf in Louisiana. It wouldn't surprise me to see two Nebraska gals, Larson and Robinson, starting on the outside with Bartsch-Hackley coming off the bench. Dixon was clutch in the middle when it counted so she may get more time. Ogbogu is a definite starter at middle, and Washington had a good final round, so maybe Dixon's role will be similar to what happened in the VNL semis and final matches. Come off the bench and provide a spark. The opposites are set with the dynamic play of Drews and Thompson. Kiraly appears to be sold on Poulter along side the other 6'2" setter Carlini with Lloyd out of the picture for now. And then you have the libero position........Kiraly seems set on Megan Courtney. Lake didn't sniff the court in the four final round matches.

 

And for Nebraska fan, of the 8 outside positions slotted for the VNL finals team and the Pan Am team, FOUR (4) are occupied by former Huskers. Not that Coach Cook needs another recruiting pitch to aspiring young girls, but that fact should carry some weight in itself.

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Undertow
for some reason the last name of Mica Hanc$%k is seen as a dirty word

[knapplc]

Team USA (men) beat Brazil in five to make it to the VNL championships.

 

 

[knapplc]

 

[Undertow]

A final tag on the VNL thread from the Women's Volleyball Pan Am Cup. The USA ran away from the competition by beating Columbia 3-0 in the semis, and the Dominican Republic 3-0 in the finals for the gold.

Details from the Columbia match:

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/2019/July/13/Team-USA-Breezes-into-Pan-American-Cup-Gold-Medal-Match

 

Details from the Gold Medal match

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/2019/July/14/Pan-Am-Cup-Gold-US-Women-Win-Third-in-Row

 

The USA dominated the tournament going 6-0 and losing only one set the entire competition. The sweep over the Dominican Republic was particularly impressive since it was reported that they (the Dominican Republic) fielded the same team that went 8-7 in the VNL and just missed the playoffs.

The USA also garnered many of the individual awards for the tournament including a couple of former Huskers (K. Rolfzen - best attacker, Wong-Orantes - best libero, best receiver). Both Kadie and Justine started 5 of 6 matches and hopefully improved their status in the overall scheme of USA Volleyball.

 

Next for the Women's USA team is an Olympic qualifier in Louisiana against Bulgaria, Argentina, and Kazakhstan starting August 2nd. 3 matches in 3 days in a round robin affair.