Volleyball starts slow, but puts Italy away in three sets

by Rachel Benedict on September 7, 2009

The U.S. Women’s Volleyball Team had a slow start in their match against Italy on Monday afternoon at National Taiwan University Sports Center in Taipei, but was able to recover and win in three sets. Italy grabbed the lead going into the first set and drove to a 5-1 lead before the Americans woke up. Tamara Foronda energized the Americans with a kill, and Pia Marie Paulone continued with an ace. Kristina Burke’s subsequent kill fired up the team before Foronda found another kill down the line to grab control of the game. A Valerie Trofimenkoff block continued to grow the U.S. lead at 11-10 before Katelyn Reese served two straight aces to make it 13-10. It was not long before the Americans had a lead of 18-12, but the team began making errors, giving the Italians several unearned points and allowing them to whittle the U.S. lead to three points before Coach Lynn Ray Boren called a timeout at 18-15. The team quickly regrouped and finished a 25-20 win despite an Italian timeout. “We were flat on our feet,” Boren said of the first set. The second set looked nothing like the first as the Americans powered to a 6-0 lead before making their first error. The Italians didn’t seem to know how to give up as they fought their way to a 9-6 deficit before Reese put up two straight blocks to put the Americans at 11-6. The U.S. further responded with blocks and kills from Reese, Burke, Justine Jeter, and Foronda, putting them ahead at 20-7, with Jeter serving a consistent nine serves. “That was what the team needed,” Jeter said. “It was also my role on this team. We needed something to put ourselves away, and I could do that for the team.” Boren received a yellow card when he reacted after the referee denied a substitution because Boren forgot to press the red button for the substitution. Along with the yellow card, Italy received a point and the Americans lost a serve. Despite this setback, Burke finished the set with an ace for a 25-10 win. A long volley started the third set with Ludmila Mounty-Weinstock making a couple impressive digs that were insufficient to prevent Italy from winning rally for a short-lived lead before team captain Paulone served an ace. The Italians continued to frustrate the Americans and forced several long rallies that were often led by saves from Shana Lehmann. The score stood at 6-6 before Jeter made an ace to put the Americans away by one point. With impressive spikes by Burke and Trofimenkoff, the U.S. pulled away to a 15-8 lead. The Italians called another timeout at 19-14. However, the time out did nothing to slow down the U.S. as they cruised to a 25-15 win with Jeter at the serving position for another serving run before Burke finished the match with two consecutive kills. Despite the win, some U.S. players were not completely satisfied with their play. “We could have played better, we played sloppy not clean as we would have liked to,” Burke said. Trofimenkoff agreed, and said the team stood to improve in certain areas. The “Italians gave us a lot of junk balls,” she said. “We could have done a better job of converting that into kills and earning points.” The Americans face Ukraine, the defending gold-medal team, at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Hsinchuang Gymnasium.

Volleyball starts slow, but puts Italy away in three sets

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