The 2016 Paralympic champion women’s sitting volleyball team opened the new quad with 5 consecutive sweeps of Canada last week in Colorado Springs. The teams played a series of exhibitions as part of the broader Crossroads club tournament in Denver.
“I think our goal for the whole weekend is getting out of the box again and getting some matches under us,” U.S. Head Coach Bill Hamiter said. “Part of that is building a new team atmosphere and culture with some new team members and some new coaches.”
- Game 1 – USA 3 – Canada 0 (25-23, 25-7, 25-13)
- Game 2 – USA 3 – Canada 0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-20)
- Game 3 – USA 3 – Canada 0 (25-15, 15-11, 25-23)
- Game 4 – USA 3 – Canada 0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-14)
- Game 5 – USA 3 – Canada 0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-9)
Team captain Heather Erickson led the team in kills in all 5 games, recording 55 across the weekend – including a high of 15 on Saturday afternoon.
Erickson is a three-time Paralympian and was the tournament MPV at the 2016 Paralympics. The star says she’s not sure, though, if she’ll play on to Tokyo.
“I’ve decided that I’m not going to say I’m not (going to keep playing until 2020), but I’m not going to say I am,” she said. “I want to be able to live a little bit of life and experience stuff and not be so wrapped around just one thing.”
Hamiter said that the team is motivated to try and chase its first-ever World Championship.
“We talked about it a little bit at our last camp, what do you do for motivation?” Hamiter said. “Everyone has to do something a little bit different. But I think the big one is, we’ve never won a world championship. OK, let’s push for that.”
The next WorldParaVolley Sitting World Championships will be held in 2018 in the Netherlands.
Read USA Volleyball feature highlighting the play of Monique Burkland in the series.
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