Game Day Cuba

All photos are off Norceca Website. www.norceca.org

One of the biggest things I noticed here is how hard these players hit and serve the ball. We have now players on the A team that are starting to catch up in velocity. I think the testing we do with the radar gun and the team commitment to fitness has definitely helped.  Cuba is team that serves tough spin and attack with pace.

Our day was scheduled basically the same as yesterday. In practice we started with the butterfly to get moving then Adam ran them through warmup. Our serve and pass section we had Joey Martins up on a box hitting tight spins at the passers. Working on defending the serve mostly. In this practice Kelsey French figured out her spin serve which was going to be important.

When we returned we watched video. In the video we went over each player and wha attacking tendencies they have. Of course at this level most players have many shots but we want to block and defend their more powerful  shot.  We also went over each rotation explaining our serving tactics as well as their setters tendencies. Who is the primary responsibility for each blocker. Most of the time it is our normal systems. Against Cuba they have a right side who gets a lot of back row balls so we had to adjust for her.  The fact she is 14 is incredible.

A side note here; this is a great argument for playing players at developmental levels rather than chronological. The. Challenge this athlete is getting is incredible. Do we often hold players back in our club so they can play at their age?

We also showed how other team scored against them. Cuba plays a very traditional slide defence, attack from left side the block cross, player in back right covers tips, back middle goes to line, back left digs off block and front left tries to get to the 3 meter line.  Our main goal was to establish the A ball or middle quick, then run shoots to the outside who then attacked seam. This should score in the middle back hole.  If we had to tip we would tip deeper pot.

We then went over how the Cubans serve. Most tough spin servers have a tendency and we wanted to adjust based on that tendency.  We also track this during the match. We would need to pass well to keep them honest in blocking.

Game time.

At the start of the match we chose serve and the Cubans chose sides. We had to pack up all the clothing and switch. A little gamesmanship off the start. We started with the same line up as Peru. Kelci French setting, Marissa Field and Lucy Charuk in middle, Kyla Richey and Britt Page left side, Lisa Barclay Rightside and the two Liberos.

 We started the match well with two big stuff block in a row. Showing the Cubans we were here to play. Kelci did a good job of establishing the quick middle. Lucy hit some balls before the Cuban blocker even got off the floor.  But it was A true back and forth match. Late in the match we doubled subbed again. Dani Smith and Marie Sophie came in the match. Dani first ball set Lucy for a big score.

Then Dani made a huge dig off Vargas from Cuba, Janie our libs made a great set to Marie Sophie at right side. MSN tip it deep pot and scored. We just took off after that. Marie Sophie scored another big out of system ball and we were in control of the set. We won 26 to 24

The second set the Cubans came out aggressively but we held fast. Kyla Richey and Lisa Barclay were big time players for us in this set. The Cuban served ver aggressive and we were out of system but our outsides found away to score. Lisa hit one cut shot that was about 1 meter off the net cross court. Kyla hit a couple of big shots off hands in tough situations forcing the ball out the sideline or out our end line. We doubled subbed earlier in the set and had the same effect again. It made the Cubans change their serving just a bit. As the match progressed the Cuban team got safer with their serves and we were back in system. Won the second set 25- 23.

The third set was really all Canada. It was Britt Pages turn to take control of the match with some big back row pipes and some large line kills.

Our confidence was growing as the set progressed and the Cubans started to make more errors. Our 3 passers had got in a groove and we were in system constantly. Both Kelci and Dani had lots of options. Our middles seemed to score often. We won the set on a Cuban missed serve. 25-21

The team celebrated the victory and were excited. Then the headed to the weight room to work out. It was scheduled for after the match. They know if they want to maintain their fitness this was important. After the work out Becky Pavan passed the Canada Hat to Dani Smith as impact player of the match.