Kiraly hopes USA women can follow men’s Olympics-opening volleyball lead

PARIS — The USA men got off to a rousing volleyball start here, “coming out on fire and dropping the hammer on Argentina.”

And, no, that was not someone from the USA men’s team saying that about Saturday’s outcome, but USA women’s coach Karch Kiraly. 

“Great start for them and something we’re hoping for against China,” Kiraly said. 

Indeed, his team opens play at 5 p.m. local time Monday against China in a match that is so important for both teams that it can’t be overstated. 

With the format changed for these Olympics, from two pools of six teams to three pools of four teams each, the margin for error is slim.

The Americans later in the Olympics play Serbia and then France and it’s pretty safe to predict that the USA, China and Serbia are going to beat France, a team that got in only because it’s the host country. In this new format, the top two teams in the three pools plus the highest-ranked third-place teams get through to the quarterfinals.

So the matches against China and Serbia are paramount.

The USA won gold in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and much of that team comprises this roster, including veteran outside Jordan Larson.

“It’s obviously important to get off to a good start against China,” Larson said. “We’re excited to get started and gearing up to start off strong.”

When last seen, the USA was coming off a 5-7, disappointing finish in Volleyball Nations League.

“We certainly would have liked to have played better but unfortunately never got to play the same lineup one time or in two matches consecutively,” Kiraly said. “We finally got to do that during the Netherlands series, so we are getting there.”

The Americans played three exhibition matches with the Dutch earlier this month in Long Beach and dominated (The Netherlands are in a pool with Türkiye (that match opens play Monday at Arena Paris Sud 1), Italy and the Dominican Republic).

The biggest concern for the Americans has been health. So many of them have dealt with injuries this summer.

“People are getting to a much better spot health-wise, but it’s been a lot of work, certainly a lot of work for our primary medical care provider, Kara Kessans, who is our doctor of physical therapy and who is also a certified athletic trainer and she does amazing work, as she did in the last Olympics and leading up to it.”

For the first week of VNL, the team was without both Olympics opposites, Jordan Thompson and Annie Drews. Drews was still not available for the second week and nor was outside Kelsey Robinson Cook. Setter Jordyn Poulter dealt with injuries, too, but all appear at full strength now.

The team has been here since last Sunday and Larson said minus a few travel snafus, “So far so good.”

She noted that Olympics first-timers outside Kathryn Plummer, setter Lauren Carlini, outside Avery Skinner and middle Dana Rettke have been counseled, so to speak, about how to deal with the excitement, and Larson said they’re “handling it quite well.”

Starting so late probably has added to the anticipation.

“We’re excited for the test and ready to get going,” Kiraly said. “It’s very strange to not play until Monday in an Olympics. I don’t think in terms of indoor that I’ve experienced as a player or a coach needed to wait until Monday. We are antsy to get going.” 

Breaking it down against China

China finished fifth in VNL, going 9-4 after losing in the quarterfinals to Japan.

Kiraly’s scouting report, with the names in parentheses where he gave their uniform nunbers:

“China played a pretty consistent group throughout VNL,” Kiraly said, “with setter (Linyu Diao), opposite (Gong Xiangyu), who passes quite a bit for them. She’s a nice ball-control player for them and a nice right-side. Their middles are very capable and a big handful and we have to take them out of system, their M1 (Yuan Xinyue) and (Wang Yuanyuan). They have these short, compact approaches that start inside the 3-meter line, very close to the net. They just take one step but they get on it very fast. So we’ll do what we can, No. 1, with our serving, to slow that quick attack down. 

“And the lefty (Li Yingying) is a very capable outside hitter who hits go, she hits rip, she hits BIC. They’re all effective and she also has a pretty lethal jump float and can paint either sideline. So lots to contend with there.”

China beat the USA in four sets on May 16 in Rio de Janeiro in VNL. Danielle Cuttino, not on the Olympic roster, led with 16 kills, two blocks and an ace. Larson had 16 kills, a block and an ace, and Skinner had 12 kills, a block and an ace in the 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19 outcome. Yingying led China with 20 kills.

The Big Ten ties that bind

Of the 13 players on the USA roster, just four are not from the B1G.

That includes setters Lauren Carlini (Wisconsin), Jordyn Poulter (Illinois) and official alternate Micha Hancock (Penn State). 

The libero, Justine Wong-Orantes, went to Nebraska, as did Larson and Robinson Cook.
Rettke went to Wisconsin, Drews played at Purdue and middle Haleigh Washington played at Penn State. Skinner started at Kentucky and finished at Baylor. Middle Chiaka Ogbogu played at Texas, Plummer played at Stanford (and is the only Pac-12 player on the roster), and Thompson played at Cincinnati, making her the only one on the team who did not play in the former Power 5. Cincinnati has since moved to the Big 12.

Assistant Erin Virtue is now the head coach at Michigan of the Big Ten, and her director of operations, Coley Palokowski, is the USA women’s team leader.

USA assistant Alfee Reft is the head coach at UCLA, which has moved to the Big Ten, and even the aforementioned Kessans worked at Purdue for five years before joining USA Volleyball. For that matter, the other assistant, Tama Miyashiro, played at Washington, which has also moved to the B1G.

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