Hoag
Overall reaction
“Our overall performance was good. We were able to improve on the areas we were weaker at, such as serving and “out of system” attacking. Our objective was to reach a top 8 position. We did this but we were quite disappointed with not making the 3rd round.”
Analysis of the first phase (Pool C)
“The pool was quite strong with Russia, Bulgaria and China being the lead teams in group C. We had a bad start vs. Russia. We lost our focus early in the game and we were not producing enough in sideout phase to rotate their big servers and in the end it cost us.”
“I was happy how the guys responded with the match vs. Bulgaria. It was a great lesson when everyone thought the match was over and we rallied to come back and win the 4th set and the match. This was a turning point for our tournament. It solidified our belief that we can play and win against these great teams.”
“Each match was a battle and the tournament formula was really good to keep teams focused. We battled hard vs. Egypt, Mexico and finally China to stay well positioned in the pool and gain precious points. This is the kind of learning experience my team needs, living this kind of pressure, this was very good for us. China put pressure with hard serving and good attacking, but we responded well and showed patience.”
Analysis of the second phase (Pool F)
“The second phase was more difficult. The teams that finished in top 4 position in the other pools were all strong. We started with Cuba who is young but has really improved in the past years. We had a shaky start against them and it put us in a situation of a long match. We won 3-2 but our performance was average. We needed to use all our players. Our focus wasn’t very good, luckily the young Cuban team made lots of unforced errors.”
“Our second match was against Finland. We have played Finland a lot in the recent years and we had them in our pool in world league in the last two editions. We always have big battles with them. They are a good team offensively and they defend a lot. We stayed very focused and we played an excellent match in all aspects, keeping errors low and doing a great job with our block-defense.”
“Third match vs. Brazil – we prepared well and expected a difficult match against this great team. They play errorless volleyball and they are very patient. We needed to be patient as well and execute well. Our first set we didn’t show much and we played to anxious instead of playing “our game”, the second and third set were much better with some great rallies. We lost 0-3 but had some good moments.”
“Our final match in pool F was against Germany and was a qualifying match to reach the next round. We started great and we were playing very well we got stuck in one rotation that was costly and broke our rhythm, the set became a battle until the end and we lost because of some technical errors as we did vs. Brazil. This is an area of our game where we still are weak, small things that make the difference. We gave Germany the momentum and they had control of the match after this. They needed two sets to qualify.”
Analysis of Canadian NT
“Overall the tournament was beneficial for us in many ways. It gave us good data on things that we have to work on. We also saw the emergence of young players like Tyler James Sanders and Nicholas Hoag, who had to carry big responsibilities and demonstrated nice qualities. In 2010 our tournament lasted 3 matches so it was difficult to analyze our performance this time we played 9 matches which gives way more information.”
“Our serving-block-defense system has improved a lot and our “out of system” offence has been quite good. We didn’t receive as well as we did in the past and that put pressure on our offence. This is usually one of our strong points so I will have to review the reasons why so we can correct this part of our game.”
“Gavin Schmitt was back to his form after a long rehabilitation from leg surgery. He showed nice leadership. Dustin Schneider, our setter, has also shown a strong level of play and leadership on and off the court.”
“I was happy with our performance although disappointed with not making it to the next round. We have to refine our game to make it to the next level so our focus will be on improving small things both technically and tactically in the near future.”
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