World Championships Recap

Because I didn't blog about our last two games in World Championships I thought I would give a little recap.  Unfortunately we did not finish as high as we would of hoped.  The two losses in the 2nd round led to a difficult match up in the semi-finals against Russia.  Their team had an average height of about 6'4"...I felt very short out there on the court.  After lossing the first set we came back strong in the 2nd to tie up the match.  But the Russian's proved to be a stronger team that day winning the next 2 sets and advancing to the finals.

Russia def. USA 25-16, 13-25, 25-19, 25-21

The tournament wasn't over after that match.  We still had a chance to go home with a medal.  This game proved to be a tough one as well playing against the home team Japan.  It was an up and down match, one set to us, the next to Japan and so on.  In the 5th Japan proved to be the digging machines that they are and upset our team to win the Bronze.  It was a very hard fought match and unfortunately we came up short.  But in the process learned a lot about ourselves and our team and hopefully will return next summer as a better team.

Japan def. USA 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 15-8

Overall 4th place was not exactly where we wanted to end up, but it was a successful tournament.  There were many highlights, a couple low lights, but most importantly a lot of learning that will help us get to our ultimate goal of winning the Gold in 2012.  I want to thank Japan for being a great host country and making the month as comfortable as possible.  Incredible crowds...  Can't wait to be back for World Cup.

Sayonara...