Stalls Turns in Strong Performance at Pan Am Cup

Lincoln ? Former Husker volleyball standout Tracy Stalls helped the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team to a fifth-place finish at the Pan American Cup held in Mexicali and Tijuana, Mexico last weekend.

Stalls, who has been with the national team full-time since January, finished second to teammate Alexis Crimes in the Best Spiker category as she converted on 50.39 percent of her 127 kill attempts. She also concluded the tournament ranked third in blocking with a 0.93 average and 10th overall in scoring, as team USA finished the tournament with a 6-2 record.  With the performance, the U.S. National team qualified for the 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix as one of the top three finishing NORCECA teams in the tournament.

Stalls tallied a team-high 18 points in Team USA’s final match against Venezuela, as she collected 10 kills on 20 swings, a match-high seven blocks and an ace.

Team USA won six of its eight matches played over the nine-day Pan American Cup. After a disappointing five-set loss to eventual champion Dominican Republic in the opening round of pool play on May 30, the United States won its last four pool matches in straight sets over the next four days. However, it ended in a three-way tie for first place in Pool A with the Dominican Republic and Argentina. Although the Americans had the best sets won ratio among the trio, the first tiebreaker is points ratio. Dominican Republic, despite finishing third among the tied teams in sets won ratio, finished atop the points ratio with 1.301 (428-329). The United State held a 1.287 point ratio (408-317) to finish second ahead of Argentina’s 1.232 ratio (377-306). Essentially, Dominican Republic earned the top spot by a total of four points scored.

The United States, ranked fourth in the world by FIVB, hosts top-ranked Brazil three times in Colorado Springs next week as part of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Exhibition for Volleyball series. Team USA hosts Brazil on June 11 and June 13 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center Sports Center I at 8:30 p.m. (central). The U.S. Women and Brazil conclude the three-match series with a June 14 contest at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Clune Arena at 8 p.m. (central).  MSNBC will show the match on a tape-delayed basis on June 29 at 11 a.m. (Central). For ticket information, click here.