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

knapplc

knapplc

Well-known member
You know it's official because of the asterisks. ;)

Friends, it's time once again to celebrate America's dominance over the rest of the planet in volleyball.

The 2019 VNL Roster has been announced, and it features three Huskers - Jordan Larson, Kelsey Robinson and Mikaela Foecke. 

Team USA played their first match, a three-game sweep against Belgium. Robinson and Larson didn't play - like most of the roster regulars, they just finished Club Ball (in Europe, where they actually value women's athletics), so head coach Karch Kiraly is giving them some time off to R&R.

This week's travel roster features a LOT of Big Ten players.


 


14-woman USA roster for VNL features youth, 10 former B1G players


Early last week, USA women’s volleyball coach Karch Kiraly announced the 25-team player pool from which he would choose rosters for this year’s FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

The 14-player squad he ultimately chose for the first trip has plenty of new faces on the nation’s top international team, including two Big Ten stars who played in last season’s NCAA national semifinals in Illinois setter Jordyn Poulter and Nebraska outside hitter Mikaela Foecke. For that matter, 10 of the players on the list played in the Big Ten.

Four of the players are former Penn State stars and three will be seniors in college this fall.

The other setter is former Penn State star Micha Hanc$%k. There were two other setters on the 25-player roster, Carli Lloyd and Lauren Carlini.

The outside hitters joining Foecke in Bulgaria are Madi Kingdon Rishel (who played at Arizona), Penn State product Simone Lee, and former Big Ten player of the year for Wisconsin Sarah Wilhite Parsons.

The liberos are former Penn State outside hitter Megan Courtney and Mary Lake, who played with BYU in the NCAA national semifinals and will be a senior in 2019.

Purdue’s Annie Drews is one opposite and the other is Jordan Thompson, who led the NCAA  — by far — in total kills and kills per set last season for Cincinnati. Thompson will be a senior for the Bearcats in 2019.

And the middles are Chiaka Ogbogu, who played at Texas, Dana Rettke, who will be a junior at Wisconsin next season, Minnesota product Hannah Tapp, and Penn State’s Haleigh Washington.
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Expect the Big Guns (Bartschy, Larson, Robinson, et al) to return for other matches once they've rested up, and for Karch to mix in the youths as the season progresses.

 
 


USA off on right foot in defence of VNL title


Ruse, Bulgaria, May 21, 2019 - It took a little bit of concentration to seal the first set, but USA got off to a cracking start in the 2019 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League as they began the defence of last year's title with a solid and convincing 3-0 (25-23, 25-8, 25-22) win over Belgium at Ruse.

USA's early lead in the first set quickly evarporated as Belgium brought the score level - but it still took the Americans only one set ball to bring it home, after a huge diving dig by libero Megan Courtney followed by a spike from the right by opposite Andrea Drews for the last point.

There was none of that in the remainder of match, though, as Belgium's receiving failed to cope with USA's serving. At 25-8, the second set tied the lowest-scoring record in the VNL, set last year in the Netherlands v Argentina match (third set in the 3-1 win of the Dutch).

It was all just a bit more balanced in the third set at Ruse, but the gap between the two sides was still evident, despite the fact that coach Karch Kiraly has brought on some fresh faces to the USA squad, giving several of his more established players the chance to rest after a gruelling club season that wrapped up just three days ago.
 

Belgium came to within a point towards the end, but a serve by Madison Kingdon at match point created havoc on the other side and allowed Sarah Wilhite to stuff a free ball on the net and bring the whole operation to a close.
 
Drews was top scorer of the game with 19 points, including five of USA's six aces and a 61% (14/23) attacking efficiency. Grobelna, with 12 points, was the only Belgian to score in double digits.
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Foecke played in the first & third sets as a serving sub.
 
There was much rejoicing after the win.
 
8RncSPd.jpg

 
Team USA vs. Japan today. Foecke got the start. It's currently 8-7 Japan in the first set.

Your pre-match photo. Not sure why they're all leaning to the right like that. :D

TT3SP9F.jpg


(edit: it's 9-9, first set)

 
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Foecke working hard in the back row.


Team USA wins the third game and leads the match 2-1. This would have been a 3-game sweep but we blew a 20-12 lead in the 2nd game and lost 26-24.

 
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Final. USA beats #6 Japan, 3-1.

Foecke finished with 10 kills on 26 swings and one block. Haleigh Washington (Penn State) led the 'Mericans with 12 kills, 5 blocks & 3 aces.

I'd give you more stats but the site went down (503 error) because of traffic. They are really underestimating interest in these matches. Gotta up that bandwidth.

Site came back up. Here's the most important photos of the match.

ZwQAMz4.jpg


Gh87JAY.jpg


X0gz0Mh.jpg


 
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Back in action again today, this time against Bulgaria. Mikaela Foecke is once again in the starting lineup.

0LrU91V.jpg


The Good Guys won set one 25-20, outblocking the Bulgarians 6-2.

We're up 14-10 in Game 2.

EDIT - we won the 2nd, 25-16.

Quick-moving match so far. Game 1 took 29 minutes, Game 2 only took 26 minutes.

Looking for the sweep here in Game 3.

Team USA holds a 12-3 advantage in blocks, and has five ace serves.


 
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It's over. Swept them in less than 90 minutes.

Foecke finished with 8 kills, 2 blocks and an ace. Hit .500 for the match.

Something for those of you nostalgic for Foecke Bombs.



Pretty cool to see Karch talk up Foecke like this. I can remember back in the day when I was a young knapplc and I actually got Karch's autograph on a pink hat. Could be the last autograph I ever got.

 
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U.S. Women Head into VNL Week 2 in First Place


The U.S. Women’s National Team opened the first week of the FIVB Volleyball Nations League with a 3-0 record and hold a tie for first place with Turkey – the squad Team USA defeated in last year’s VNL gold-medal match.

The Americans defeated Belgium in straight sets, followed by a four-set win over Japan and a sweep over host Bulgaria this past week with eight players on the 14-player roster making their FIVB debuts.

Now Team USA travels to Italy to face a stiffer group of competition that includes Serbia and Italy – which made up the 2018 FIVB World Championship gold-medal match – and NORCECA rival Dominican Republic. Italy is the only other undefeated team in the VNL besides the U.S. and Turkey. Both Serbia and Dominican Republic head into the second preliminary week with 2-1 records.

The U.S. will have a near identical 14-player roster as last week. The only exception is that rookie Mikaela Foecke (West Point, Iowa) is not part of the travel roster as she headed back to the United States to get married this coming weekend.

U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff have chosen the following players for the VNL second weekend in Conegliano Venato, Italy:




U.S. Women's National Team Roster for FIVB Volleyball Nations League Week #2 in Italy
# - Player (Position, Height, College, Hometown)
1 – Micha Hanc$%k (S, 5-11, Penn State, Edmond, Oklahoma)
2 – Jordyn Poulter (S, 6-2, Illinois, Aurora, Colorado)
9 – Madi Kingdon Rishel (OH, 6-1, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona)
11 – Annie Drews (OPP, 6-4, Purdue, Elkhart, Indiana)
12 – Jordan Thompson (OPP, 6-4, Cincinnati, Edina, Minnesota)
13 – Sarah Wilhite Parsons (OH, 6-2, Minnesota, Eden Prairie, Minnesota)
17 – Megan Courtney (L, 6-1, Penn State, Dayton, Ohio)
18 – Mikaela Foecke (OH, 6-3, Nebraska, West Point, Iowa)
19 – Hannah Tapp (M, 6-3, Minnesota, Stewartville, Minnesota)
20 – Dana Rettke (M, 6-8, Wisconsin, Riverside, Illinois)
21 – Simone Lee (OH, 6-1, Penn State, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin)
22 – Haleigh Washington (M, 6-3, Penn State, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
24 – Chiaka Ogbogu (M, 6-2, Texas, Coppell, Texas)
27 – Mary Lake (L, 5-7, BYU, Palm Springs, California)
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And we're underway against World #1 Serbia. This is a rematch of the 2018 VNL Finals, where USA defeated the Serbs.

Karch is going with a 13-woman roster this weekend in Italy as Foecke is home getting married.

All smiles before the match.

mYecpFi.jpg


It's currently 7-7 in the first game.

EDIT - the Serbs take the first game 25-23. USA outblocked the Serbs 3-1, but the Serb attack was dominant, outhitting Team USA 17-11.

 
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The Americans aren't going to go away quietly. It's 15-9 in the 2nd. Team USA holds a 6-1 advantage in blocks, and kills are evening up, 21-23.

The Americans won Set 2 going away, 25-16.

 
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Game 3 is over. Team USA takes a 2-1 match lead, dominating the Serbs 25-15.

We're into Game 4 right now.  13-10 USA on top.

EDIT - 20-16 good guys.

 
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Final. Team USA takes down world #1 Serbia in four, 23-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-21.

The Americans dominated on the block, winning at the net 16-2. That's pretty impressive against a hot-hitting team like the Serbs.

MOvBGbq.jpg


Some highlights from the match.

WARNING. NSFL as several Serbian souls are crushed during this footage.

 


 
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A couple of observations just from the highlights I've seen (reality, i.e. full matches, might be completely different). Annie Drews, an opposite,  jumps out at you during highlights and not just because of her offense and blocking, but largely because of her digging. She just doesn't care about her well being in chasing down balls. And, more often than not, she is effective.

Haleigh Washington has made tremendous improvements to her service game. She was above average, but pretty much run of the mill when serving in college. She looks lethal now.

The women's VNL really is enjoyable to watch. When I contrast it to how clumsy women's basketball is visually, I think it would be a good play for another network to televise these matches straight up against the WNBA. It might take a couple of years for the VNL to take hold, but I see a superior product.

 
It's a battle of the two remaining unbeatens as Team USA takes on Italy today. Match location - ITALY! Tell me that's not rigged.

Heh.

We pick up match action in the third. It's tied 1-1, with Team USA winning the first 25-22, and Italy taking the second, 25-17.

It's 9-7 Good Guys in the third.

Here's a match pic for you.

GET THAT SHOT OUTTA HERE!

1TpGhFS.jpg


 
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