University of Kentucky head volleyball coach Craig Skinner led the U.S. Women?s Junior National Team as they captured the gold medal at the NORCECA Continental Women?s Junior Championship with a 25-15, 25-23, 20-25, 18-25, 15-9 marathon five-set victory over Dominican Republic on Saturday evening at Monterrey, Mexico.
Team USA and Dominican Republic have qualified for the 2007 FIVB Women?s Junior World Championship (U-20) as the top two teams in this bi-annual NORCECA event. Puerto Rico swept Canada 25-18, 25-20, 25-21 in the third-place match and also qualified for the 2007 FIVB Women?s Junior World Championship as the third-place team.
?I’m very proud of how the team stayed together, stayed with the game plan in the fifth set after losing the third and fourth,? Team USA Head Coach Craig Skinner said. ?It was a great win for this team and a truly fitting end to our three-plus week training and competition schedule.?
Alexandra Klineman (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) tallied a match- and U.S.-tournament-high 28 points in the victory. She contributed 22 kills on a .500 attack percentage to go with five blocks and an ace. Juliann Faucette (San Diego, Calif.) and Jennifer Doris (Houston) tacked on 11 points apiece for the U.S. Faucette recorded her points on 10 kills and a block, while Doris hit 30 percent with four kills, six blocks and an ace. Zoe Garrett (Laguna Beach, Calif.) added six points for the U.S. Geena Urango (Los Alamitos, Calif.) netted four points with just one set start, that being in the deciding fifth set. Rachel Holloway (Franklin, Tenn.), named the tournament?s Best Server, set Team USA to a 22 percent for the match, including a sizzling 55 percent in the first set.
?It was a great team win,? Holloway said. ?We came out on fire, but had a let down in three and four. Fortunately, we fought hard to win the championship.”
The Dominican Republic climbed back into the match by winning sets three and four through consecutive 39 percent team attack percent in the stanzas. However, the U.S. shut down the Dominican Republic attack in the fifth set as it hit a negative 13 percent. The Americans attacked at a 17 percent in the deciding set, but it was enough to claim the victory.
The Dominican Republic used a balanced offense with four players in double-digit points. Altagracia Mambru turned in a team-high 18 points, while Bethania De La Cruz added 17 points. Ana Fabian charted 16 points in the loss.
The U.S. held a 13-9 advantage in blocks, and a 9-6 edge in service aces. The Dominican Republic also committed four additional service errors than the Americans, 17-13.
