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