Is Nellie the Key?

San Juan Capistrano, CA - The Blue come back from a 0-2 deficit to defeat the Red Team, 19-25, 20-25, 25-11, 25-20, 15-10, in the second and final night of the Red vs. Blue scrimmages.

In front of over 1,000 fans, setter Nellie Spicer (Barrington, IL/UCLA) who originally was listed on the Red Team saw limited action since setter Courtney Thompson (Kent, WA/Washington) led the Red team to an early 2-0 lead in sets over the Blue Team. That's when Coach Hugh McCutcheon switched Spicer up to start for the Blue Team for the third set. The Blue Team's engine had to get going and Spicer was the key to turn it on-- and that they did-- as Spicer ran a solid offense and played defense with a never-say-die attitude resulting in come-from-behind victory for Blue Team as they took the remaining sets.

Early in the evening the hot hands for the Red Team were OH Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, CA/Stanford) and OH Kristen Richards (Orem, UT/Stanford). The left side pin for the Red Team caught fire early and often. Barboza and Richards were drilling through and over blocks and the Blue Team could not answer. MHs Jennifer Tamas (Milpitas, CA/Pacific) and Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, FL/Stanford) were patrolling the net making the Blue attack difficult allowing Red to run transition ball offense-- especially off of digs by L Stacy Sykora (Burleson, TX/Texas A&M). Unfortunately two sets were all the Red Team could claim this evening.

In the third set, Spicer started for the Blue Team and utilized her pin attackers effectively, Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, TX/Texas), Megan Hodge (Durham, NC/Penn St.) and Jordan Larson (Hooper, NE/Nebraska) which ignited the Hooker/Hodge/Larson combos. Spicer ran a quicker and more efficient offense utilizing the height, jumps and power of these women. Add on the effective blocking and attacking by the MHs Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, CA/Hawaii) and Lauren Paolini (Ann Arbor, MI/Texas) and the recipe was set for upset. Paolini added an incredible hybrid serve that came fast and with a lot of movement making it difficult to pass. L Nicole Davis (Stockton, CA/USC) would not let balls drop on her side of the net-- that girl put out some serious effort tonight.

One thing that stuck out this evening beyond the play on the court was Hugh McCutcheon's tutelage of players in-match. He is training these women to maximize their potential. You can see that each of the team members' volleyball IQs increasing drastically. The USA Women's National Team is huge and physical and there is no doubt about that, but add on head knowledge and game-situation self-management and we're going to see a Gold Medal in the upcoming Grand Prix and hopefully in London in 2012. Any coach in McCutcheon's situation would be frothing at the mouth to have the depth of players that are on the US Team.

Tonight was bittersweet in that it was bitter because it is the last time we will see the USA Women's Team play in the United States-- sweet in that the USA is looking GOOD!

I'll post pictures as I get them.

Rob is OFF the mic!

USA RED TEAM
1 - Ogonna Nnamani
4 - Angie Pressey-Forsett
5 - Stacy Sykora (L)
8 - Cynthia Barboza
9 - Jennifer Tamas
10 - Courtney Thompson
10 - Kristen Richards
12 - Nancy Metcalf
16 - Foluke Akinradewo
17 - Nellie Spicer (sets 1 & 2 only)

USA BLUE TEAM
2 - Alsha Glass
6 - Nicole Davis
7 - Heather Bown
11 - Jordan Larson
13 - Lauren Paolini
13 - Alexis Crimes
17 - Nellie Spicer (sets 3-5)
18 - Megan Hodge
19 - Destinee Hooker

Red vs. Blue Women's National Team Scrimmage

2-time Olympian, Logan Tom

USA fans only get to see the Women's National Volleyball team twice this year on
American soil. The first appearance last night at Irvine Valley College was the first-- and it did not disappoint! Great defensive rallies while a few hammers
were being dropped!


USA Assistant Coach and UCI Head Coach, Paula Weishoff

It was my first-ever USAV Women's match I had the privilege to announce but it was exciting. The toughest thing I had to do was figure out how to say, "Foluke Akinradewo." Which even to this moment I am not sure how to say it. I went to a coach (who shall not be named) and spelled it out phonetically, but every time I said the name, the women's team laughed. I guess next week at St. Margaret's I'm going to have to just walk up to her and ask her myself!


Women's National Team Assistant, and All-Time Volleyball Great, Karch Kiraly

It's amazing to work alongside names like Hugh McCutcheon, Karch Kiraly, Paula Weishoff and Logan Tom. Also in attendance were Angela Rock, Elaina Oden, Clay Stanley and Alfie Reft (rumored-- someone told me he was in the crowd. Alfie, what's up not saying, "Hi" if you were there, mate?).

One thing you can recognize is Coach Hugh McCutcheon's coaching philosophy. They have the competitive countenance of the USA Men's Volleyball team that won the gold medal in Beijing in 2008. These are some of the biggest and strongest women's volleyball players in the world highlighted by players like Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, UT/Stanford), Nellie Spicer (Barrington, IL/UCLA) and others.

Since it was an intersquad scrimmage these women battled hard all night-- since they were all vying to make the 12-person roster for the next big international tournament, Grand Prix.

Other players that drew great attention were 6'4" MB Lauren Paolini (Ann Arbor, MI/Texas) who lit up the court in the middle, 5'8" S Courtney Thompson (Kent, WA/Washington) who had hands of butter and was a huge competitor, 5'8" L Nicole Davis (Stockton, CA/USC) who had incredible, rally-extending digs and 6'0" OH Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, CA/Stanford) who was the hot hand for the Blue squad.

I highly encourage you to stop by and see the final USA WVB Team appearance in the United States next week at St. Margaret's School in San Juan Capistrano. It will be on Saturday, July 24th, at 7:00 pm!

Rob is off...til next time!

Not In Our House

Paul Lotman, Rich Lambourne and David Lee in the autograph session after defeating Russia 3-0 in World League action.


Sitting in USA's practice this morning I could not help but hear what their parting saying was as the team concluded serve and pass. "Not in our house!"

The US Men's National Team kept to their word blanking Russian on the first of two World League matches in Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, as they defeat the visitors, 3-0, 25-21, 27-25, 25-23, to keep the US's hopes alive for a World League Finals appearance.

Having stellar matches for USA were Middle Blocker, Russell Holmes (Fountain Valley, CA/BYU), Libero, Rich Lambourne (Tustin, CA/BYU) and Setter, Kevin Hansen (Costa Mesa, CA/Stanford). In the first set, the 6'8" Russell Holmes got matched up in his rotation against Russia's largest player, 7'4" Middle Blocker, Dmitriy Muserskiy, in a one-on-one situation in the middle. What happen set the tone for probably the most dominant performance for the USA team this year. Musersky was fed the quick set in the middle and Holmes penetrated the net and rejected the attack straight down on the Russian side. The 5,025 fans in attendance ROARED knowing the height advantage by the Russian attacker. Holmes finished the evening with 12 points.

Contributing equally to the effort was the invaluable defense and passing by Libero Rich Lambourne. Russia is easily the hugest most physical team in World League this year and without a doubt they continued that reputation tonight. Unfortunately for them, Rich Lambourne refused to let any of the ballistic attacks drop at his feet without making an incredible effort to dig and step in to run transition offense.

Kevin Hansen spread the offense well for the USA where almost 3 players were in double-digit kills. In addition he picked up 6 digs for the USA. It's not to say that familiar names did not contribute to the much-needed US victory tonight, but familiar standouts for the US team came up big as well-- Reid Priddy (11 points) and Clay Stanley (10 points).

All in all it was an incredible performance by the USA tonight-- more World League action coming up tomorrow night in Wichita! If the USA can sweep Russia tomorrow as well the glimmer of hope will brighten up even more...

Twas the Eve Before the 1st Russia Match

David Lee snapping one in the middle
22-year old Alexey Kazakov standing at the far post-- at 7'4".

The Mic is Live!

So here I am sitting at the Hyatt Regency in Wichita, Kansas, updating my Facebook, downloading pictures and wondering how a basketball player can be so stuck on himself. It's less than 24 hours before the World League matchup between Russia and the USA. Any hopes of the USA reaching the Final Round of World League competition hinge upon getting 2 victories (3-0, 3-1) and some help from teams in other pools. It seems like a long shot but I do remain hopeful. The USA has some incredible young talent like Matt Anderson, Max Holt, Evan Patak, Paul Lotman to name a few. You can never count out Reid Priddy, David Lee and Clay Stanley either. So what I've got tonight is my experience at both Russia's and USA's practices.

RUSSIA
Russia weight-lifted before their court practice today and it may have taken it's toll on the team. THIS IS THE BIGGEST TEAM I HAVE EVER SEEN. They have 4 7'0"+ players-- one stands at 7'4" (217 cm) and is only 22 years old (Alexey Kazakov). Coach Daniele Bagnoli structured his practice in a way that will adapt his players to hitting balls out-of-system. He had his middles practicing their bailout sets to the pins-- by handsets and bumpsets-- all while having the rest of the team serve bombs at 2 passers. It's pretty apparent that Russia is expecting the USA to serve toughly enough to keep them out of system.

USA
Coach Knipe had the guys scrimmaging hard tonight. The US knows they have to take care of business this weekend and the urgency is manifesting itself as high-competition in practice. Clay Stanley was blasting away and HUGE triple blocks were forming at the pins. Both Liberos, Rich Lambourne and Alfie Reft were getting huge digs for both squads. It's going to be hard to pick the starting lineup tomorrow night since everyone played extremely well in different rotations.

These Russian guys are so big that USA MH David Lee upon coming across some of the Russian players in the hotel before dinner, had to look up to talk to them! Keep in mind that Lee is 6'8". How often does he have to do that!

Stay tuned. Rob-on-the-Mic is OUT (until tomorrow night at least).

Why Another Blog?

Hey family, friends and fans of the sports community. As some of you may know I've been blogging at two places: Eater Volleyball (blogger.com) and Volleyball (wordpress.com). Well it has gotten to a point where it's a bit much for me so I thought I'd throw it all here at Rob-on-the-Mic Announcing! Here I can keep all of my Sports Announcing posts-- particularly anything volley right here in one place. On top of that, I can direct all of my Facebook fans/friends here for more detailed multimedia!

2010 sports here I come! As the Joker says in the movie, "The Dark Knight," "And here we...go!"

Rob