Volleyball USA: 2011 IDQ Tournament - Success story of Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik
The 2011 USA Volleyball Women’s International Development Qualifier (IDQ) just completed its run on the Sunday, 20 March, at the U.S. Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California.
The event marked the official opening of 2011 Pro Beach Volleyball Season in United States. The two-day IDQ tournament was kicked off on Saturday and progressed with the country versus country system. The Sunday’s play started off with quarter-finals and final match put an end to the campaign.
The tournament welcomed fourteen elite women’s beach volleyball team of USA, while the pairing Whitney Pavlik and Jenny Kropp settled for the top position in standings. The duo displayed an incredible show of beach volleyball throughout the tournament and seized the gold-ware.
Quarter-final
Kropp/Pavlik were challenged by the duo of Kelly Schumacher and Angela McHenry Bryan on Sunday. The former totally dominated the opponents and posted 21-11 and 21-12 in two straight sets. The pairing of Schumacher and Angela was surely no match for fantastic Kropp and Pavlik. They failed to put up with the nice delivery of shots by Kropp/Pavlik.
The first set ended with wide gap of 10 points, while Kropp/Pavlik were on the winners’ side. The second set also had some sort of symmetry with the first set as Schumacher/Angela could only help 12 points and dropped the set. Kropp and Pavlik easily paved their way to the semi-final.
Semi-final
The duo of Erin Gray and Kathryn Babcock clashed with Kropp and Pavlik in the semi-final match. The long jump-serves and tricky bump-passes of Kropp totally flabbergasted the opponents. After winning the first set at 21-14, the pairing of Kropp and Pavlik entered the second set with an ambition of victory. They contributed consecutive points and secured victory by capturing second set of the match.
Final showdown
Kropp and Pavlik contested their abilities with the duo of Jennifer Snyder and Tracy Jones. Victory once again graced them as they managed to end the final match with the help of 21-11 and 21-15. Kropp and Pavlik settled for the gold-ware, while Snyder and Jones captured silver medal.
Comments and Quotes
The Director of Beach Programs at the USA Volleyball, Ali Wood Lamberson seemed happy about the success of this campaign. He stated: “The level of play this week is higher than we have ever seen in previous IDQ events. While the top seeds all came through to the final four, I was really impressed with some of our young talent.”
He further added that, “The feedback we are getting on the new USA beach volleyball training center at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista has been great. Many of the athletes have requested to train here on a regular basis. Our plan is to keep these courts very busy with training, camps and competitions year round.”
Kropp was overjoyed with the sense of victory and expressed her views after the match. She stated: “We’re just so happy to be able to compete. The opportunity to represent the United States in NORCECA events is icing on the cake.”
Next-up
The International Development Qualifier (IDQ) will feature the men’s competitions in the next run. The men’s IDQ is set to take place from March 26 to 27 at the same venue. The athletes are allowed to get registered not later than March 21st. The Men’s International Development Qualifier will also showcase the extreme action of beach volleyball duos.
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