2017 FIVB VOLLEYBALL WORLD GRAND PRIX
- Group 1
- July 7th – August 6th
- FIVB World Grand Prix Round 1
- Schedule/Results
- Pool I1
- Ginásio Aecim Tocantins, Cuiaba, Brazil
The Americans, for the third-straight weekend, have kept the same 14-player lineup for the 3rd weekend of play at the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix.
Of the 21 player preliminary roster that the Americans submitted to FIVB, they have to choose 14 players for each weekend of play. Thus far, the Americans haven’t made any changes to that 14-player roster, though.
The good news is that this means the team has remained healthy – and no players have had to be subbed off the roster for injuries.
This has also provided the team the opportunity to gel, which showed up on Thursday when they upset the Netherlands in Pool I1 play.
The team has tightened up their rotation as the tournament’s gone on, however. In their opener against Russia, 12 players saw court action for the Americans. That included Hannah Tapp, who started all 5 sets, but hasn’t seen much action lately.
In their last few matches, however, they’ve tightened up that rotation to 10 players who’ve seen most of the action. That includes middle blocker Tori Dixon, who scored 20 points against the Netherlands and started all four sets – in spite of not playing a single set in the team’s first game. She’s one of the few veterans on this team – she was on the squad that won gold at the 2014 World Championships, and was named the Best Blocker at both the 2015 FIVB World Cup and the 2016 NORCECA Olympic Qualification tournament.
She wound up missing last summer’s Olympic Team with an ACL injury suffered during a Japanese V-League match, but that stability has been a blessing-in-disguise at least for this summer’s team. Without having the same fatigue as the Olympians, most of whom are sitting out this summer’s Grand Prix.
Even missing that first game, Dixon now ranks 5th in scoring among all middle blockers in the tournament
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