GP 2016: Group 1 – Pool A teams (PREVIEW)

USA

The teams from Pool B will first enter the court on Friday, but let’s start with the Pool A!

Mini-tournament of Pool A will be played in Chinese city Ningbo. These are the teams that start Grand Prix 2016 campaign in Ningbo: host China, Germany, USA and Thailand.

USA will be chasing their 7^th golden medal in this competition! They are six-time winners of Grand Prix (1995, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015) and two-time bronze medalists (2003, 2004). As you can see, they are the reigning champions as they managed to win the gold last year in Omaha (USA).

The head coach of U.S. national team Karch Kiraly has already named the roster for the Grand Prix challenges. It is interesting that USA will have three setters in their roster:

Setters: Alisha Glass, Carli Lloyd, Courtney Thompson; Opposites: Kelly Murphy, Karsta Lowe; Receivers: Jordan Larson, Kim Hill, Kelsey Robinson. Middle blockers: Rachael Adams, Christa Dietzen, Foluke Akinradewo, Alexis Crimes; Liberos: Kayla Banwarth, Natalie Hagglund.

“We’re pumped at the quality of the work we’ve logged in our five weeks of official 2016 training. And I think our team is really ready to compete with someone different across the net … that’s perfect timing, since we’ll get a wonderful opportunity to see new opponents and new styles starting Week One in Ningbo, China,” says Karch Kiraly.

The host of the weekend 1 China is entering the tournament after a big victory at Montreux Volley Masters. They beat Thailand in the final and during the first weekend they will have to meet the Thai girls once again.

It’s going to be their 24^th edition of the volleyball World Grand Prix. China and Japan are the only two teams that have appeared in all editions of this prestigious competition. Chinese team has won Grand Prix only once (2003) but they have a lot of silver medals (1993, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2013) and bronze medals (1994, 1995 and 2005).

In the last year’s edition of Grand Prix, China finished in the fourth place. See wide roster of China for this season.

Germany are getting ready to play in World Grand Prix tournament for the ninth consecutive time. They have two medals so far in this competition – bronze medals (2002 and 2009). In the last season German side ended seventh in Group 1 last year.

As USA and China are going to play at the Olympic games, we expect much better effort from Germany as they won’t compete at Rio volleyball tournament.

Check out the wide roster of Germany in 2016.

Thai girls are coming to this tournament after failing to qualify for Olympic Games. They were very close to clinch the ticket for Rio, but they lost all the chances in the last round at the Olympic qualifying tournament. We are pretty much sure that they are seeking for revenge against China, as the Lang Ping’s side defeated them in the finals of Montreux Volley Masters.

Thailand made their Grand Prix debut in 2002 and they took part in all but 2007 edition. Their best Grand Prix performance came in 2012 when they managed to take the fourth place. Last year they ended in the 9^th place of Group 1.

See who’s in wide roster of Thailand for 2016.

PRELIMINARY ROUND – 64 / 1ST GROUP – 279 / –

To see standings, results, stats, videos, etc, visit our FIVB World Grand Prix 2016 W page.

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