U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball team beats Russia by 3-2 in ECVD Continental Cup
The U.S Women’s Sitting Volleyball team had a match on Monday, Septemebr 5th in Yevpatoriya, Ukraine against Russia in the ECVD Continental Cup. The Americans were up against the Russians in a match that became intensely competitive and went on to five long and gruelling sets. It was the American side that was able to emerge victorious in the end with the Russian team exiting the court with their heads hung low.
The first set of the match started off evenly but the Russians were able to speed on towards a comfortable victory in the end. The Americans woke up in the second set and stepped up their game making the frame competitive but the Russians prevailed once again to bag a win. The loss of the first two sets sent the Americans a much needed wakeup call that enabled them to secure a win. The confidence gained by winning the third set sent the Americans all the way to bag a fourth one. The fifth set of the match started off in an intense manner as the Russians put in their best to turn the tables while the Americans tried to hold their stride and eventually seal the deal. The final set win that brought the U.S. team the match at the following final set scores: 15-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-21 and 19-17.
Cara Lang, the U.S. assistant coach, expressed herself in the following words after her team had won the tough match against the Russians: “It was a good opening match for us. At this tournament, all teams are allowed two able-bodied and two-minimally disabled athletes on the court at a time. We are the smallest squad here with seven, all permanently disabled players; so it was a good win.”
The highest number of points were registered by the U.S. captain Katie Holloway by making 23 of them. Holloway was able to post the score by tallying 16 kills as well as seven blocks, which were the most made during the entire match. Nichole Millage helped Holloway by adding 15 points on the score board while Heather Erickson also made her presence felt on the U.S. squad by tallying a total of 11 points.
Overall, the U.S team was able to make more kills than the Russians at 47, whereas the Russian team posted 24 kills. Apart from that, the American blocking was also more successful as they performed a collective 21 blocks while the Russians just made nine. However, the serving of the Russians were better than their counterparts because Russia made 17 aces while the U.S. were able to pull off only three.
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