USA def Thailand

[VolleyTX]

USA in three. 29-27, 25-15, 27-25

I've been able to watch the matches against China and Brazil. A few observations:

Heather Bown has been playing like a stud the last two weeks. She is currently ranked #2 in blocks for the Grand Prix, #8 for overall scoring and #3 in Serving.

Haneef, at times, can be unstoppable. She, almost singlehandedly, won the first set against China. Not only is she hitting over the block, but she is putting the ball in an empty area of the court. If only she could keep her level of play consistent.

Metcalf is consistent. The few times she has struggled, Busse has come in and done an excellent job! As she gets more experience, she may just find herself in the starting line up. She is certainly a better blocker and server than Metcalf.

Collymore got some good playing time this past week. I think it was against Brazil. She did better than I expected from her. The biggest thing I noticed was passing.... her accuracy was better than Davis'. Speaking of Davis, her defense is great, but I still think Lee is a better passer.

Overall, I think Lang Ping has done an excellent job of developing the young players.

[Deleted]

Busse continues to be one of the great stories in volleyball. This is a kid who didn't even start for her JO team...

[BeiBei]

volleytx said:

USA in three. 29-27, 25-15, 27-25

I've been able to watch the matches against China and Brazil. A few observations:

Heather Bown has been playing like a stud the last two weeks. She is currently ranked #2 in blocks for the Grand Prix, #8 for overall scoring and #3 in Serving.

She could have ranked #3 for best spikers category with a 55% efficiency (69/126) but she was placed in the N/A section, maybe it was dued to a lack in attempts

[Ye Olde Dawg]

volleytx said:

... Speaking of Davis, her defense is great, but I still think Lee is a better passer.

Interesting: I haven't seen any of the actual play, but I've been following the statistics, and I got the impression that accuracy on serve receive and digs was the reason Davis got the start. In the serve receive category, for example, Davis has a higher percentage of "excellent" passes.

[Deleted]

boxscore, fwiw:

www.usavolleyball.org/media/national/06WGPStats9-1.pdf

[VolleyTX]

Interesting: I haven't seen any of the actual play, but I've been following the statistics, and I got the impression that accuracy on serve receive and digs was the reason Davis got the start. In the serve receive category, for example, Davis has a higher percentage of "excellent" passes.

That is interesting. I guess the stats don't lie. It just seems like most of Davis' passes are landing around the 10 foot line.... not all that precise. I wonder how that categorize "Excellent".

Notice that Bown was the highest scorer for the match with 20 points (K-14, A-2, B-4). For International play, it isn't very often that a middle blocker is the highest scorer. She has been playing unbelievably well.

[sIsam]

volleytx said:

That is interesting. I guess the stats don't lie. It just seems like most of Davis' passes are landing around the 10 foot line.... not all that precise. I wonder how that categorize "Excellent".

To my knowledge, excellent are those receptions within 3m line that give the setter an option to utilize all three of her attackers at any given rotation.

[southfloridafan]

Maybe I missed something in recent weeks, but I could have sworn that Nnamani was originally on the Grand Prix roster. When was she removed from the roster and replaced by Collymore? Did she get to see any action on the court at the Grand Prix?

[cbrown1709]

Nnamani had an abdominal injury, and was replaced by Colleymore.