On their way to finals
Kelly Murphy produced a match-high 12 points for the United States. Jordan Larson-Burbach, playing in her home state of Nebraska, added 10 points with a match-high three aces. Canada was led by Lucille Charuk’s seven points, while Tabitha Love, Jaimie Thibeault and Dana Cranston added six points in the loss.
The United States out-served Canada 6-0 in aces and its offense generated a 37-24 advantage in kills. The Canadians held an 8-6 edge in blocks.
The NORCECA champion earns a spot into the six-team FIVB Grand Champions Cup held Nov. 12-17 in Japan.
U.S. Coach Karch Kiraly: “I thought Canada came out and did a really nice job of attacking us, especially from the service line. We didn’t handle it that well. That’s actually our game plan. We want to be attacking every opponent that we face. In fact, they attacked us more than we attacked them. I feel like we were waiting for them to make some errors and they didn’t. They played some nice, clean volleyball. At some point, we had to make a decision to try to be proactive and not just wait; but start forcing them into some less-comfortable situations.”
Canada Coach Arnd Ludwig: “I think there were two differences (between the first and second sets). I think the U.S. made some adjustments to our game. Also in the first set we were just going for the ball and made a lot of good serves and attacks and in the second set we were a little more scared. We didn’t put the same risk into the attack.”
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