US Women Sitting Volleyball overcomes injuries to finish second WOVD pool play

U.S. Women's Sitting Team Second in Pool; Moves on to Quarterfinals

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April, 27, 2008) – The U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team finished second in its four-team group over the weekend at the World Organization Volleyball for Disabled (WOVD) Intercontinental Cup in Ismailia, Egypt. On Monday it will play Russia in the quarterfinals.

After beating Lithuania (25-13, 25-16, 25-19) on Friday, the U.S. Sitting Women defeated Iran 3-1 (23-25, 25-11, 25-17, 25-14) on Saturday. But on Sunday, injuries caught up with the team and it fell to Slovenia 0-3 (19-25, 21-25, 21-25).

The United States, Latvia and Slovenia all finished 2-1 in Group B. However, the tie-breakers resulted in Slovenia being first, the U.S. Sitting Women second and Lithuania third. The United States will face Russia (third place in Group A) in the quarterfinals on Monday. The winner will play in the semifinals against the winner of the quarterfinal match between Netherlands (the winner of Group A) and Iran.

Slovenia defeated Latvia (25-14, 25-13, 25-12) in one quarterfinal match on Sunday while Ukraine beat Lithuania (25-22, 25-22, 25-14) in the other.

The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team was dealing with injuries to two starters going into Saturday’s match against Iran. Kari Miller (Edmond, Okla.) had a leg injury and team captain Lora Webster (Cave Creek, Ariz.) had injured her shoulder. In the next-to-last point of the Iran match, veterans Brenda Maymon (Sellersberg, Ind.) and Gina McWilliams (The Colony, Texas) collided head-on and McWilliams had to be taken out of the match.

Katie Holloway (Lake Stevens, Wash.) led Team USA against Iran with 18 points on a team-high 14 kills, two aces and two blocks. Nichole Millage (Champaign, Ill.) added 13 points on nine kills, a team-high three aces and one block.

Maymon and Allison Aldrich (Schuyler, Neb.) each scored nine points and Heather Erickson (Fayetteville, N.C.) added eight, including a team-high four blocks.

The event web site is www.volleyball08.com.

USA Volleyball’s sitting volleyball web site is www.usavolleyball.org/Disabled/sitting.asp.

For complete release, go to www.usavolleyball.org/VolleyballNews/news.asp?id=2148.

Remember the ball is in your court. Are you ">too small to play volleyball?

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyball magazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com

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