USA volleyball sweeps Turkey, remains undefeated

LONG BEACH >> Playing on U.S. soil is something the women’s national volleyball team doesn’t get to do very often.

So, with the chance to play in front of a home crowd, the top-ranked team did not disappoint in Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid on Sunday, sweeping No. 10 Turkey 25-21, 25-20 and 25-16 to go 3-0 in Pool E of the FIVB World Grand Prix.

“This has been pretty emotional, especially (Saturday when) it was sold out,” Rachael Adams said. “We don’t get to play in the USA often in big touaments like these, so I know each and every one of us during different moments took a step to appreciate what was going on.”

U.S. got off to a slow start against Turkey, trading leads until eventually pulling away.

“All three of these teams came out playing their best volleyball,” Kayla Banwarth said. “We had to make some adjustments mid-game. As a team, we’re pretty good at making changes mid-match. That helps us to ramp it up and keeping ramping it up and tuing it on.”

The USA did just that in the third set, jumping out to a 22-12 lead before eventually beating Turkey, 25-16, after Adams finished the game with two dominating points.

Kelsey Robinson and Nicole Fawcett combined for 24 kills and Adams led the team with five blocks.

“Right now I’m trying to take it one day at a time and one step at a time,” Adams said about thinking about the road ahead of the team heading to China and preparing for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Banwarth said that all these matches are all preparation for the competition the team will face in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

“We get to play against the best teams in the world and that’s always good,” Banwarth said.

On Monday, the team will travel to Hong Kong, China as they continue their jouey toward the WGP Finals that will be in Bangkok, China.

The team will continue to take it one day at a time as they prepare physically and mentally for the road ahead.

“We work with our sports doctor post-match about kind of debriefing individually and collectively,” Christa Dietzen said. “We write down three things we did well and three things you’d like to work on and get better, so being able to focus on those six things versus over however many points you got in a match or practice. You can only control of your approach and what you need to work on.”

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