Sports

Walter Pyramid hosted the USA women’s national volleyball team for FIVB world tournament

Story was updated at 8:11 p.m. June 24.

Long Beach State was host to special guests as the USA women’s national volleyball team competed in Pool E of the FIVB World Grand Prix that took place in the Walter Pyramid June 17-19.

Playing on U.S. soil is something the women’s national volleyball team doesn’t get to do very often.

So, with the chance to play in front of a home crowd, the top-ranked team did not disappoint in Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid on Sunday, sweeping No. 10 Turkey 25-21, 25-20 and 25-16 to go 3-0 in Pool E of the FIVB World Grand Prix (WGP).

The USA also dominated against Japan and Germany. The Americans only dropped one set to take a 5-1 record, placing them into third place in group 1 of the WGP.

“This has been pretty emotional, especially (Saturday) it was sold out,” middle blocker Rachael Adams said. “We don’t get to play in the USA often in big tournaments like these, so I know each and every one of us during different moments took a step to appreciate what was going on.”

U.S. got off to a slow start slow start against Turkey, trading leads until eventually pulling away from the 10th-ranked team.

“All three of these teams came out playing their best volleyball,” defensive player Kayla Banwarth said. “We had to make some adjustments mid-game. As a team we’re pretty good at making changes mid-match. That helps us to ramp it up and keeping ramping it up and turning it on.”

The U.S.A did just that in the game, jumping out to a 22-12 lead before eventually beating Turkey 25-16 after Adams finished the game with two dominating points.

Kelsey Robinson and Nicole Fawcett led the team with 24 kills combined, while Adams led the team with five blocks against Turkey.

“Right now I’m trying to take it one day at a time and one step at a time,” Adams said regarding her thoughts  about the road ahead of the team heading to China and preparing for Rio.

Banwarth said that these matches are all preparation for the competition the team will face in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

“We get to play against the best teams in the world, and that’s always good,” Banwarth said.

On Monday, the team will travel to Hong Kong, China as they continue their journey toward the WGP Finals that will be in Bangkok, Thailand.

The team will continue to take it one day at a time as they prepare physically and mentally for the road ahead.

“We work with our sports doctor post-match about kind of debriefing individually and collectively,” Christa Dietzen said. “We write down three things we did well and three things you’d like to work on and get better, so being able to focus on those six things versus over however many points you got in a match or practice. You can only control of your approach and what you need to work on.”

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