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Published on 09/15/1999 All articles from this issue

St. Francis grad plays for U.S. at Jr. World tourney

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Town Crier Staff Report

The United States Women's Junior National volleyball team came into the Junior World Championships with high hopes. The team left disappointed.

The U.S. expected to finish among the top four teams at the tournament, held Aug. 28 to Sept. 5 in Saskatoon, Canada, but instead finished eighth.

The U.S. squad featured St. Francis High grad Niki Hartley, who played in every match. The sophomore at the University of Florida played libero - an international position akin to a defensive specialist.

The U.S. got off to a fast start, winning its pool with a 3-0 record to advance to the quarterfinals. But the trouble began in the seeding round, where China swept the U.S. 25-15, 25-19, 25-19. The U.S. still earned one of the top four seeds, though it didn't end up helping the team.

In the Sept. 3 quarterfinals, Korea eked out a 25-20,25-21,19-25, 28-26 victory over the U.S. to make the medal round.

"Korea did a super job all game," U.S. coach Brian Heffernan said. "It took us a couple of games to get into the flow. Then my kids started playing pretty well and we were one side out short of going to the fifth game and who knows what would have happened."

A day later, the U.S. lost again, dropping a 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17 match to Japan on the B side of the competition.

U.S team captain Logan Tom shouldered some of the blame for the loss, saying the previous day's defeat affected her performance."I didn't have much heart in the game," Tom said.

The U.S. hoped to save some face Sept. 5 in the seventh-place game against the Czech Republic. But Team USA got off to a sluggish start and wound up losing 16-25, 25-21, 25-17, 27-25.

"The Czech team did an outstanding job," Heffernan said. "This was a difficult match to play but they were very focused and determined after game one and the bottom line is that they competed and wanted to win."

-Worldjrvball.com contributed to this report.