With several international points earned at this summer’s Grand Prix and recent world championships, the national women’s volleyball team has moved up five spots to 16th overall.
“The fact that we moved up five places shows how important it is to play at the big tournaments like Grand Prix and the world championship,” said national team coach Arnd Ludwig. “We hadn’t played in Grand Prix for 11 years, and a world championship is only every four years. It also shows how important it is to win the games that you have to win in these tournaments; our win over Cameroon was crucial at the world championship.”
Canada won its opener at the worlds in Italy, but then struggled in a strong pool and did not advance to the second round. Canada ended up 17th.
“It is great for the program that we moved up that much in the world ranking,” said Ludwig. “I was actually surprised by the jump in our ranking, since I was not a hundred per cent satisfied with our performances and results throughout the year. We had a couple of really good games, but we did not show any consistency throughout the summer.”
For Roberts Creek’s Kyla Richey it was her second time at a world championship and she said it was a wonderful experience.
“Our goal was to beat Cameroon and Bulgaria, our first and last matches of pool play, and then qualify for the second round,” she said. “Unfortunately, due to an upset earlier in the week, going into the Bulgaria match we didn’t have a chance at qualifying to the second round. A major disappointment as I was 100 per cent counting on playing the following week.
“We had the squad to do it so it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to make that happen.”
Richey said injuries forced some different line-ups from coach Ludwig.
“Lupo changed up the line-up a little and put me in as a passing right side. I worked really hard in those weeks leading up to world’s to get used to this new position, especially learning how to play defence in position one and hit C balls,” said Richey. “The last two games, however, I was back in left side and we had a little bit different lineup on the floor.”
Richey said despite not achieving all their goals at the world’s, she is still confident in the group for future success.
“We work really hard and have set some big future goals for ourselves,” she said. “This summer was great, to have the opportunity to play in Grand Prix and world championships, as these matches against these experienced European teams are exactly what we need to continue improving.”
Richey heads to Italy this weekend to begin preparations for her pro season.
You can follow her on her blog at www.kylarichey.com.
