USA NT 2020

Quote from werka

No no no she mentioned that verbatim to a question:

Q: If you were not an opposite which position would you play?

Drews: *sips tea* I would say, I would love to be an outside. Most people I hear say like setter. I think being a setter is just, it just takes a different breed of human. It's so much responsibility and strategy and I think that would stress me out a little bit. But I don't know, If you've ever tried to pass - if you're not a passer, stand back there and have your friends serve at you and it is so hard. It looks easy, it's not. So I would say I'd still want to be a hitter, I'd love to be an outside, maybe a lefty outside. That would be pretty fun and then, yeah I would love to learn more on how to pass. I commend passers.

Q: As an athlete what are your main goals?

Drews: I think if you would have asked me the first two years of this quad, it would have been to get on the Olympic roster. And I think now, just seeing what I think I'm capable of, and like what I still think I have in me physically and mentally to achieve, I think it's just the pursuit of finding that peak of my game and getting there. I want to play until I peak and just see what that looks like for me and I don't think I'm there yet. And I think if I make that my pursuit, I think things like making an Olympic roster being the Outside for Team USA is definitely achievable. I just need to focus on me and my work - my body of work. And then from there, I think those things can definitely happen. But I think that's the thing - it's just constantly reaching toward my peak of excellence and doing everything I can to get there in the next one.

--

Ya'll really have me transcribing the whole answer lol.

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Not trying to be rude here, but in American volleyball terms, people use the “opposite” and “outside” words interchangeably... I often hear opposites refereed to as outsides in America. I HIGHLY doubt Annie would change her position to outside just as she’s scratching the surface as an opposite.

Quote from Midwesternvb

Not trying to be rude here, but in American volleyball terms, people use the “opposite” and “outside” words interchangeably... I often hear opposites refereed to as outsides in America. I HIGHLY doubt Annie would change her position to outside just as she’s scratching the surface as an opposite.

Thanks for that info! Learned that just now, highly likely that's what she's meant.

Quote from Midwesternvb

Not trying to be rude here, but in American volleyball terms, people use the “opposite” and “outside” words interchangeably... I often hear opposites refereed to as outsides in America. I HIGHLY doubt Annie would change her position to outside just as she’s scratching the surface as an opposite.

Taken in context of everything werka transcribed it looks to me like she used it interchangeably. Could go either way, though. She's building a goals ladder.

But she says "the outside" ... I'm sticking with "the OP" because it's "definitely achievable".

nobody says OPP when they mean an OH... in some instances, people lump OPP and OH as "wings"... but it's weird to say OPP for someone that hits on 4 and receives serve.

btw, not many lefty OH ... i can only think of gracia (CUB) and tirozzi (ITA)...

Quote from ossubtus

nobody says OPP when they mean an OH... in some instances, people lump OPP and OH as "wings"... but it's weird to say OPP for someone that hits on 4 and receives serve.

btw, not many lefty OH ... i can only think of gracia (CUB) and tirozzi (ITA)...

Balkestein

Strantzali is left-handed OH

Quote from beri

Balkestein

The only ones I think of are her and Li Yingying.

Dani Drews playing for Utah in NCAA and possible future oustide hitter for USA national team is also left handed.

is she related to annie?

what i should have said above was, "the only ones i can think of right now..."

as i asked here in another forum before, most lefty attackers seem to be pushed to train as OPP, not MB or OH...

Quote from ossubtus

is she related to annie?

what i should have said above was, "the only ones i can think of right now..."

as i asked here in another forum before, most lefty attackers seem to be pushed to train as OPP, not MB or OH...

yea it's way more common for them to be pushed towards the Opp spot that's true, the lefty OHs are only a handful, don't even mind the MBs. Just a couple come to mind, like the Kenyan one.

It's so hard to set a lefty MB. Most of the time, they'd only do a back quick.

Quote from ossubtus

is she related to annie?

what i should have said above was, "the only ones i can think of right now..."

as i asked here in another forum before, most lefty attackers seem to be pushed to train as OPP, not MB or OH...

Searched about her and found this:

*Formerly was Dani Barton, but got married over the summer and is now Dani Drews.

She's so small, only 6'0"

6' (183 cm) is not bad for an OH or setter...

She indeed isn't related to Annie.

She is a really nice player to watch. She has decent reception and is a really smart hitter!

Quote from werka

It's so hard to set a lefty MB. Most of the time, they'd only do a back quick.

taiwan men's NT has one. at one point in the recent OG Q, they had 3 lefties on court, with an OH and i think, the setter...

Quote from ossubtus

6' (183 cm) is not bad for an OH or setter...

I guess the only worry for her is how she stands apart from the taller/physical OH's, if she can make up for that with better reception/defense.

but then i realize it's the US NT, where you have to be 6'2 at least to be an OH... larson, hill, bartsch, murphy, etc. are all that tall. only kingdon of the recent ones was not that tall.

Robinson - 6'2"

Larson - 6'2"
Bartsch - 6'3"

Foecke - 6'3"

Hill - 6'4"

Plummer - 6'6"

If she's a high leaper, good passer and a very physical player, she can compensate her lack of height with that. It's just more difficult if she's defending in front against some of the world's big oppos.

This is a nice match to watch her, if someone is interested

She is number 1 in the red jersey. They are playing against Stanford of Plummer and other possible future playerd for USA NT.