U.S. Women Announce Roster For Volleyball Nations League In Toyota, Japan
U.S. Women Announce Roster For Volleyball Nations League In Toyota, Japan
Team USA has announced its active roster for the second round of Volleyball Nations League, May 22-24 in Toyota, Japan.
The U.S. Women’s National Team enters the second week of the newly christened 16-team FIVB Volleyball Nations League in third place with a 2-1 record, but will face three vastly different opponents this week in Toyota, Japan.
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The U.S. Women's National Team is fresh off of a 3-0 victory over Italy in the finale of the team's pseudo homestand in Lincoln, Neb., during the first week of the FIVB Volleyball Nations League season last weekend—but it's what happened in a loss to Turkey that has produced ramifications that will effect the lineup that head coach Karch Kiraly will field in Toyota, Japan, this week.
It was in that match—a five-set thriller—that Kiraly elected to shift Kelsey Robinson from outside hitter to libero.
“We had been having some trouble in our service reception and we wanted to stabilize in that department,” Kiraly said afterward. “I think we did pretty well at that. The Italians were doing a really nice job of bringing some smoke at us – hitting some really hard jump spin serves and we don’t see that a lot in our gym because we are so much jump floats. It took our passers a little while to adjust and eventually they controlled those hard serves in the way we needed to.”
Less than a week later, Robinson's move to libero is no longer an experiment. She joins Justine Wong-Orantes at that spot on the team's 14-player roster for its trip to Japan.
Here's the U.S. roster in full:
Setters (2)
Micha Hancock and Carli Lloyd.
Opposites (2)
Annie Drews and Kelly Murphy.
Outside Hitters (4)
Michelle Bartsch-Hackley, Kim Hill, Jordan Larson and Sarah Wilhite.
Middles (4)
Rachael Adams, Foluke Akinradewo, Tori Dixon and Lauren Gibbemeyer.
Liberos (2)
Kelsey Robinson and Justine Wong-Orantes.
Any player named on the original 21-player roster is eligible to be moved onto the weekly active roster.
U.S. Women’s National Team Roster for FIVB Volleyball Nations League May 22-24
1 – Micha Hancock (S, 5-11, Penn State, Edmond, Okla.)
3 – Carli Lloyd (S, 5-11, California, Bonsall, Calif.)
4 – Justine Wong-Orantes (L, 5-6, Nebraska, Cypress, Calif.)
5 – Rachael Adams (M, 6-2, Texas, Cincinnati, Ohio)
6 – Tori Dixon (M, 6-3, Minnesota, Burnsville, Minn.)
8 – Lauren Gibbemeyer (M, 6-2, Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn.)
10 – Jordan Larson (OH, 6-2, Nebraska, Hooper, Neb.)
11 – Annie Drews (OPP, 6-4, Purdue, Elkhart, Ind.)
12 – Kelly Murphy (OPP, 6-2, Florida, Wilmington, Ill.)
13 - Sarah Wilhite (OH, 6-1, Minnesota, Eden Prairie, Minn.)
14 – Michelle Bartsch-Hackley (OH, 6-3, Illinois, Champaign, Ill.)
15 – Kim Hill (OH, 6-4, Pepperdine, Portland, Ore.)
16 – Foluke Akinradewo (M, 6-3, Stanford, Plantation, Fla.)
23 – Kelsey Robinson (L, 6-2, Nebraska, Manhattan Beach, Calif.)