By HARRIET PROTHRO PENROD, Journal Sports
When Karch Kiraly was describing outside hitter Ali Frantti’s performance in the U.S. Women’s National Team’s first match of the Volleyball Nations League, the coach took a few seconds to try to find just the right word to describe the rookie’s play.
“Ferocity,” he said with a smile. “She comes down from a kill and she’s got this really strong, confident look on her face. You might not expect that from somebody who was playing on the world stage for her very first appearance. I think she responded well.”
Well, indeed.
Frantti, who admitted to being nervous before Tuesday night’s contest, had 15 kills, six digs, and two blocks in the U.S. Women’s 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-18) victory over Dominican Republic. Frantti had four points in the first set (including the set-ender), five points in the second set, and six points in the third set.
The 2022 FIVB Volleyball Nations League is playing at the Brookshire Arena, marking the American team’s first competition on U.S. soil since it won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. The Bossier City stop, the only preliminary round hosted in the United States, kicks off three weeks of VNL preliminary-round competition. Top teams in the preliminary round advance to the final round on July 13-17. The other preliminary round is currently taking place in Ankara, Turkey.
“It was unbelievable,” Frantti said of her debut on the world stage. “I was happy to be staying in it and resetting right away.”
With seven veteran national team players and seven rookies on the 2022 team, Kiraly will be counting on his rookies for the remaining three games of the tournament.
The World No. 1-ranked U.S. Women will take on Canada tonight at 8, followed by an 8 p.m. matchup against Brazil on Saturday, and a tournament-closing match against Japan at 3 p.m. Sunday.
After the opening victory over Dominican Republic, the U.S. got a competitive break before tonight’s game against No. 18 Canada, which lost to Poland 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20) on Wednesday.
While the U.S. Women’s team is concentrating on tonight’s match, it’s difficult not to think ahead to Saturday night’s marquee matchup against World No. 2 Brazil.
After winning a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. Women made history when they swept longtime rival Brazil to grab their first gold medal at the 2020 (played in 2021 because of Covid-19) Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The only players from the gold medal team on the current U.S. Women’s team are opposites Annie Drews and Jordan Thompson, who led the Americans with 13 kills, six digs, a block, and an ace in Tuesday’s victory over Dominican Republic. Drews did not play in the match.
“It felt amazing,” Thompson said of playing with the national team rookies in the opening match. “We started strong and the energy was good. We knew, based on being a new team, that we would be feeling each other out and trying to get into a rhythm. We didn’t start clean at the beginning, but we made adjustments.”
Kiraly will be counting on Thompson and Frantti to continue their dominant play as the weekend progresses. And when Frantti takes the court tonight against Canada, there may be a few butterflies before the first serve.
“Of course, if I wasn’t nervous it would mean my heart was not in the right place,” said Frantti. “It’s good to have those pregame butterflies.”
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Photo by JOHN PENROD
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