USA coach Karch Kiraly talks with VolleyballMag.com: “I think we have a nice blend”

Karch Kiraly announced his USA women’s Olympic team on Monday and Wednesday took a break from the Volleyball Nations League in Rimini, Italy, to join us and talk all about his decisions and the squad ahead of the Tokyo Games next month.

Among the topics we covered — and we covered a lot — was the decision to keep Jordyn Poulter and Micha Hancock as the setters and leave Lauren Carlini off the roster. Kiraly addressed it head on.

“We made the best decision we could but I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who are upset with us or angry with us or frustrated with us,” Kiraly said. “You could make good arguments about any of those three and it’s just difficult that we only get to choose two.”

And about being undefeated through nine matches in the VNL, “Just take it with a grain of salt. 9-0 is nothing to be crazy about.”

Kiraly also talked about the implications of COVID before the Olympics, and had high praise for libero Justine Wong-Orantes.

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